Introduction It’s safe to say nearly everyone has a different definition of servant leadership. Some focus on specific characteristics required of leaders, others are more interested in the interactions with others. Nevertheless, there is more recently a large emphasis on servant leadership in ministry. Servant leadership is an incredibly integral part of being a healthy leader in ministry. Servant leadership requires you to be attentive, be a model of specific characteristics outlined by Robert Greenleaf and Dirk van Dierendonck, and the importance of having the desire to lead by serving.
Greenleaf’s Definitions Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase ‘servant leadership’ in a paper he wrote in 1970, so it makes sense that of all the different websites, books, and articles found, Greenleaf was the most referenced person. Whether the entire article was written by him, it quoted him, or was based on what he had written before; he showed up nearly every time. Greenleaf defines leadership as, “Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.” There is a lot of truth to his definition of servant leadership. His concluding phrase ‘ultimately creates a more just and caring world’ is incredibly important in our world today. Everyday in the news we see articles and accounts of injustice, hate, and prejudice; and as a Christian leader, a servant leader, we
Servant leadership can be defined as a, “philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world” (What is Servant Leadership). Robert Greenleaf first introduced the idea of servant leadership in 1977 as a way to transform leadership to focus on serving others including employees, customers and the community (Marquis and Huston, 2015). Due to the primary focus of serving others, it comes to no surprise that servant leadership and its supporting characteristics are gaining popularity in the nursing field. Although most sources identify ten characteristics of servant leadership, this paper will focus on listening, empathy and building community (Kumar, 2010).
A servant leader must listen to a person fully without interrupting or judging them. While doing my service at the animal shelter there were two other people doing service. They were prisoners wearing the orange jumpsuit. Although most people would assume they are bad and not to talk to them, me and my group had a conversation with them about the dogs. They showed a lot of compassion about what they were doing. Although it was work they were forced to do they gave it their all. I listened and communicated with them the entire time without judging whatever they might have done. This was showing servant leadership in one of the hardest
Greenleaf firmly states that a servant leader has the desire and passion to serve through acceptance, empathy, foresight, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, and self-healing all for the purpose of rebuilding a community. These leaders’ qualities and characteristics all have the purpose to serving others. However, Keith compares and contrasts the power model of leadership and the service model of leadership.
Simply, servant leaders hold a view as a servant first and leader second (Owens & Hekman, 2012). Moreover, servant leaders emphasize personal responsibility for the organization and all internal and external stakeholders (Peterson, Galvin, & Lange, 2012). As stated, expressing a genuine concern and care for people are a basis of servant leadership. In addition, servant leadership also focuses on the growth of
In fact, a true servant leader should also be a spiritual leader” (Lynch & Friedman, 2013, p. 87). A servant leader is one who possesses the power and knowledge to lead a group of people. A servant leader is often also a spiritual leader, with Moses standing out as a notable example. Like Moses, spiritual leaders focus on fulfilling the needs of his or her society. Moses had personal motivation for leadership that enabled him to become a power full leader for his people.
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.
Servant leadership from a Christian perspective is a replica of what Jesus Christ symbolizes. Jesus was a servant because he showed truth, vision, humility, commitment, teacher to his followers, and brought about change; he was a suffering servant, yet was merciful, he was a teacher, yet willing to be taught by the Holy Spirit. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Robert Greenleaf’s idea of servant leadership is a new concept to this era and for many people, it is a difficult theory to grasp. Although Greenleaf faces criticism and disagreement from people about his perception of servant leadership, his philosophies are unwavering because he holds true to what he believes. Throughout his writings, Greenleaf believes that in order to be a good leader, one must be a servant first. He supports his servant-first idea by using examples of extraordinary leaders of our time.
At its core, servant leadership is about service to others and originates from within. Servant leaders possess individual qualities within themselves that facilitate their leading through acts of service. Ten traits characterize servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building communities. Servant leaders, according to Parolini (2004), are characterized by their ability to “bring integrity, humility, and servant hood into caring for, empowering and developing others in carrying out tasks and processes of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, team building, and shared-decision making” (Parolini, 2004, p. 9). A historic
From the group Biblical Integration Paper, it was understood that servant-leadership is not only a gift of purpose that God places in the hearts of His people, but it is also a calling in one’s life to truly touch the lives of others in need. Living a successful life, as a servant-leader is not one that focuses on self-fulfillment, rather it is in seeking a fulfillment that comes from Christ when one pours him/herself out for the sake of others. It is through servant-leadership that one is able to bring hope into hopeless situations (Group Integration Paper,
Servant leadership is desire of someone to serve one another through certain principles. Greenleaf, Senge, Covey, and Spears (2002) identifies servant leaders as those work are doing the utmost best for their community. A civil rights activist and leader, Martin Luther King Jr. embodied the aspects of servant leadership. Martin Luther King Jr. is committed to the growth of the community, a dedicated servant leader who inspires followership and has many qualities to emulate. Principles of Servant Leadership
Dr. Kent M. Keith was a presenter on behalf of the Greenleaf Seminar on Servant Leadership at the 53rd annual conference for the Arizona School Boards Association in December, 2010. He correctly pointed out that servant leadership is about serving others, about becoming distinguished through the altruistic desire to serve, and about the "…universal recognition of the importance of serving others" (Keith, 2010).
Robert Greenleaf argues that a leader is a servant. For one to be a leader, he must be willing to serve the others. Service to man is a natural feeling that is self-driven. It is the human consciousness that aspires people to become leaders. (Greenleaf, & Spears, 2002).
Robert Greenleaf is the father of modern servant-leadership movement and founder of the Greenleaf servant for Leadership. His desire to change a power centered authoritarian leadership style that was prominent in the US institution motivated him to create a leadership style that is focused on leaders being servant. He was inspired by Larry Spears’ work and promoted that a servant leader should have the characteristics or principles of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth of people, and building community. In this paper, servant leadership will be better understood. A Venn diagram will also be shown to illustrate the similarities and differences between Greenleaf's principles of servant leadership and several biblical passages; a summary of how both Greenleaf and Christianity call people to serve; and will discuss how one feels when called to serve as a leader.
Since this article was a systematic literature review, the authors did not provide their own definition of servant leadership and thus the theory remains under-defined. Parris and Peachey note that most researchers quote Greenleaf’s definition of servant leadership verbatim.