Servant Leadership Behavior Essay

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower This quote from Eisenhower rings true on many levels. During my career in the military and the private sector, I have been subjected to many different styles of leadership, good or bad. In my leadership roles I have attained, I tried to model leadership abilities by taking bits and pieces of previous leader’s styles and forming them into my own model. This has proven to work well as dealing with people from all different walks of life there is no one size fits all approach. In writing this paper, I will detail my own leadership platform drawing from the course material and various other sources. The goal of this paper is to show a solid understanding of the course teachings and perhaps give the reader a new found perspective on leadership.

Servant leadership is defined by a willingness of a leader to put the needs, desires, recognition and success of their employees and organization above their own interests. They often inspire followership through their example resulting in deeply loyal subordinates that are motivated to emulate the leader’s behavior not out of fear or a desire to please and impress but because of its intrinsic value. Reading through the results of my Seven Habits Profile I noticed that I was comparatively deficient on a few of the foundational and organizational habits such as putting first things first and beginning with the end in mind. Conversely, I had a much higher level of empathetic traits with synergy, seeking first to understand, and thinking win-win taking the top three spots. These traits are highly consistent with servant leadership.

Over the course of my career, I have tried to model various leadership behaviors based upon successful leaders that I have worked with or for. This has led me to incorporate different styles into my own. Considering my current leadership strengths and how I view successful leaders I will use a servant leadership theory to analyze my own competencies. Servant leaders have 9 different aspects comprised of: emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, relationships, and servanthood (Boone & Makhani, 2005, pg. 86). The aspects of a servant leader are those that I personally value and identify with. In addition to this, it is my belief that servant leaders, because they are people oriented, are more effective in a variety of environments and situations.

The servant-leader will communicate diplomatically and carefully (Marquis & Huston, 2015). The servant-leader has moral maturity and thinks, acts, and judges ethically with a strong sense of self (Liden, et al, 2014). The list can be enhanced depending on the situation, but as a nursing student, there are characteristics I value as the most important servant-leader qualities.

Many have developed elements that they believe are the foundation of servant leadership. In summary, included in the fundamentals are healing, creating value for community, empowering, empathy, listening, awareness, behaving ethically, and helping others grow and succeed. Healing refers to leaders trying to help solve problems and relationships. Creating value for community refers to leaders serving as an example and encouraging others to also serve the community. Empowering refers to leaders providing followers with autonomy. Empathy refers to leaders understanding others. Listening is a trait all leaders should possess. In order to understand, one should first listen. Awareness refers to leaders attentive to the things happening around them. Behaving ethically refers to the demonstrating of integrity to gain the trust of followers. Helping others grow and succeed refers to leaders providing support to followers to help them develop and accomplish professional and personal goals.

Many people want to attain and hold influential positions in society whether it would be in the field of science, politics, education, or in public service. However, many people tend to forget how servitude is one of the main life highways to travel in order to arrive at that successful destination called “Leadership.” Nevertheless, there was one man who knew how powerful the concept of servitude was in order to grasp the reigns of successful leadership. Socrates was a phenomenal philosopher, scholar, teacher, and servant. Socrates leadership style was unique in regards to letting students communicate among one another in an articulate theological reasoning process by questioning and probing at one’s belief system in order to

Leaders believe people have an intrinsic value beyond tangible contributions as workers. As a result, genuine interest in the spiritual, professional and personal growth of all employees is demonstrated.

Assuming the role of a servant leader, means to have a dedication to helping others reach a goal. Looking at this defining meaning, I can see the definition fitting pastors, nurses and teachers because they have a dedication that ask for nothing in return. My father is a retired pastor and when I was younger I never understood why he would be hours on the phone counseling, leaving during the day to assist others in finding jobs, or helping them fill out applications for jobs and school. It wasn't until I was older and after reading information on servant leadership that I am able to fully put into perspective the depth of serving others for the purpose of uplifting others towards their betterment; the leader as a learner and a teacher. According to Crippen (2010) “ once a person assumes the mantle of teacher , one

In attempting to develop a theory of servant leadership, researchers have accumulated a great many characteristics attributed to a servant leader, some of which overlap (Northouse, 2016). While other leadership theories may focus on what a leader does (i.e. behavior), servant leadership theory is primarily defined by a leader’s character and dedication to serving others (Parris & Peachey, 2013). Although both authentic leadership and servant leadership include elements of morality and ethics, servant leadership concentrates on the selfless aspect (Northouse, 2016). Servant leadership is capable of encouraging high amounts of trust and loyalty in followers (Parris & Peachey). A servant leader’s dedication to the group ensures that they will be well received and thought of well by followers. This may be seen as a strength, but also possibly a weakness, since this may lead to close minded types of groupthink if followers never questioned their leader. Another possible limitations of servant leadership theory is that there is little agreement on exactly what it is or what it should entail (Northouse, 2016). Although it is possible this will change as more research is done in this

Lee displays the following characteristics of servant leadership: Listening, empathy, awareness, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment of the growth of people, and building community.

The concept I found most interesting from the Servant Leadership lecture was when he said that it was possible that we would not learn anything new in this class. He said that student leadership hasn’t changed, there’s nothing new and exciting about it. This was interesting to me because I did come into this with the mindset that I was going to be given new tools with which to approach the world, whereas it sounds like it may just be a place to develop knowledge we may already have.

My high school career has been marked by my leadership skills; I am student body co-president, on an advisory committee for the superintendent, and member of sports medicine. Starting my freshman year, I knew that I wanted more out of high school than a diploma. I wanted to be able to make a difference in the world and I feel that to do so, it is instrumental to possess the qualities of a strong leader. I wanted to learn how to effectively compromise, understand people who view the world though a different lens than I do, and bring out the best in my peers. I have always been driven, persistent, and task-oriented, and subsequently, the administrative aspects of the leadership positions came very naturally to me. However, the relational aspect did not and I learned to harmonize the value of relationships and responsibilities. Through these 4 years, I have developed strong communication skills, learned to be compassionate towards people that I don’t agree with, and the gravity of acting

Leadership is a very broad topic; I never knew just how many different traits and skills that it takes to become an effective leader. Some of which I was familiar with, and others that I was not aware of, but now from taking this course, they all seem to be necessary for the role of leadership. The attached paper, will explain of some of the important theories and concepts that I thought were most important to be able to become and effective leader.

Servant leadership underscores service. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first (Greenleaf 2002, p.4). Servant leaders are not only team builders, motivators, but they are ready and willing to take matters in their hands. Besides, they act on their visions and their actions inspire people to become involve. A leader can ascend from anywhere in this world. Moreover, as our leaders rise we are able to examine their attributes, actions, and identify the servant leaders. The ten characteristics that are associated, with servant leadership are; listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. This paper will explore and analyze the actions, qualities of a young female head, as it relates to the ten characteristics of a servant leader.

What is servant leadership? When this question is asked, the first response that comes to mind is a leadership role in some sort of spiritual capacity. In actuality, this concept can be applied to both professional and spiritual roles of leadership. Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant leadership includes qualities such as listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community (Greenleaf, 2002). Considering this description, when asked if the following statement, "although servant leadership is often associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ, it is totally compatible with most religions and theories of philosophy" can be viewed as true,