Servant Leadership Influence on Student Mentoring

Originating in the seminal work of Greenleaf, servant leadership is a paradoxical approach to leadership that challengers our traditional beliefs about leadership and influence. Servant leadership emphasizes that leaders should be attentive to the needs of the followers, empower them, and help them develop their full human capacities. They build strong relationships, with others, are empathic, and ethical, and lead in ways that serve the greater good of followers, organizations, and the community.

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

If one wanted to look at a prime example of the practice of Servant Leadership, a person doesn’t have to look very far. It is found in every school in the form of teachers and educators. But recently implemented reforms like the Common Core have stymied teachers in their role of servant leaders.

Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.

3. Servant leadership is when a leader works not out of his own self-interest, but that of his followers. This is, as claimed by many, the best form of leadership that all should follow. It has been present in the military, specifically the Marine Corps, but

This article poses a very vital question to the perspective leader. It simply asks, “Do you have what it takes to be a servant leader?” The authors of the article introduce servant leadership by asking a series of questions, which causes the reader to determine if they may be a perspective servant leader. Next, the article focuses on 11 characteristics that identify a servant leader. Some of

As an ethical theory servant leadership looks at the duties of leaders and the consequences of leadership actions. The approaches to examine the decisions and consequences of ethical leadership include ethical egoism, making decisions that act for the good of the leader; utilitarianism, making decisions that provide benefit to the greatest number; and altruism, actions are only deemed moral if they show primary concern for others. Looking at this set of approaches, it can be seen that servant leadership can be assessed in these terms. The leadership model is described as primarily focused on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong (What is servant leadership n.d.). The servant-leader believes in power sharing, putting the needs of others before himself and helping team members develop and perform as highly as possible. The servant leadership model is made up of the following key

Organizational consultant S. Chris Edmonds defines servant leadership as “a person's dedication to helping others be their best selves at home, work, and in their community." I totally agree with this philosophy, as I believe an employee will benefit his team and company the most if he can perform the best he can.

Burch, M. J., Swails, P., & Mills, R. (2015). PERCEPTIONS OF ADMINISTRATORS' SERVANT LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AT A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY. Education, 135(4), 399-404. doi:10.1057/9781137492456.0005

Servant leadership is a type of leadership that focuses on the behaviors of the leader. Northouse states, “a servant leader must be attentive to the concerns of their followers, empathize with them, and nurture them” (2013). Servant leadership demands that the leader empower his followers and help to build them up in order to reach their full potential. Servant leadership helps enrich the lives of the individuals working for the company and ultimately builds more caring organizations. Robert K. Greenleaf wrote an essay entitled The Servant As Leader in 1970 where he said:

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).

The shared themes discussed in these articles aligned with my thesis – caring for the least able, service before leading. Liden, Wayne, Chenwei, and Meuser (2014) suggest a servant leader must guide followers to emulate the leader’s behaviors by prioritizing the needs of others above the leaders'needs. Liden et al. (2014) further attest that servant leaders cultivate servant leadership attributes among those they lead, creating a serving culture which influences performance and enhances followers’ traits and skills through mediating influence of personal identification. For leaders to operate under ethical leadership framework, the leader must possess character, competence, and commitment. The leader must also lead by example, thrive on the

Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. echoes the teachings of Jesus throughout his life by promoting the adoption of servant leadership. In one of his sermons in 1968, he tells his followers that all of them can be leaders because they can all serve others (Get Involved, 2018). Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus simplify and summarize the whole concept of servant leadership by merely stating that one can only be a leader if one serves others. Similar sentiments are shared in Archie B. Carroll’s article, “Servant Leadership: An ideal for nonprofit organizations,” which profoundly expounds on servant leadership. Below is a discussion of the critical concepts of servant leadership as explained by the article and their relevance to my life and work.

According to the Oxford dictionary, leadership can be defined as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization”. The oxford dictionary then defines a leader as “leading or commanding a group of people, an organization, or a country”. These definitions are very broad and undescriptive compared to the definition, true meaning, and characteristics of servant leadership. Many texts have been published about the servant leadership qualities and their application to practice. In one book, The Servant: A simple story about the true essence of leadership by James C. Hunter, Hunter dives deep into the essence of true servant leadership in his book by defining leadership and the characteristics it takes to be a servant leader through novel form. However, the idea of servant leadership was developed by Robert K. Greenleaf in the 70’s, whom describes that to be a true leader, one must become a servant first to those he or she leads (Marquis & Huston, 2012). 35 years later, servant leadership qualities “continue to greatly influence leadership thinking in the 21st century” (Marquis & Huston, 2012). The Servant gives a good definition of leadership as “the skill of influencing people to do work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good”. Though every characteristic and model discussed in the texts are important to becoming a servant leader, only three will be discussed in this

The authors of the review state that they focused on providing an informed answer to how servant leadership works and how it could be applied in organisations. A systematic literature review was conducted with a final tally of 39 studies deemed appropriate for the exercise.