As a servant leader, people come first and giving back to the community is an integral part of it’s philosophy. Servant Leadership is the practice of serving others with your time and energy, which builds an improved and more considerate world. It is all about leading by example and supporting people, which generally creates a much better work environment and world. Servant leadership requires selflessness, which is the biggest component of the philosophy. A genuine servant leader requires many characteristics such as: passion, dedication, sympathetic, generosity, and a desire to learn from others while also teaching them. With the aid of class discussions and my personal experience from volunteering, these characteristics are imperative for a leader to be considered a servant leader. However, leadership can be considered good or bad. Servant leadership is needed more in the business sector, rather than the traditional view of leadership. An old fashioned leader focuses solely on themselves and their company. They aspire to the growth of themselves and their company. A non-servant leader puts all the work on other employees, rather than doing the work themselves. A self-centered boss brings collateral damage and makes employees feel incompetent. In the movie The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly is the boss of a famous fashion magazine. Her employee, Andy, is contently stomped on and belittled by her. This is an ineffective from of leadership. The traditional from of
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
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
Servant leadership is an effectual way to motivate the employees. Its unique emphasis on concern for
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.
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.
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.
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,
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).
Movies often depict a glimpse into the inner workings of organizations which are complex and fascinating entities that consist of a group of people, who work together. Analyzing how the characters, as individuals and groups, interact with one another allows for an understanding of “how people think, feel and act” within an organization, also referred to as the study of organizational behaviour. The movie The Devil Wears Prada, set at Runway fashion magazine in New York City, is the story of Andrea "Andy" Sachs, an aspiring journalist who gets the job that “a million girls would kill for”. She is hired as the second assistant to Miranda Priestly, the powerful and ruthless executive of the magazine. The job is her stepping stone into the
Servant leadership is a type of leadership whereby the leader serves the needs of the people, empathizes with them, and involves them in solving their needs. Servant leadership is all about involving the people you are leading in your decision making, being ethical and caring for the people to enhance their personal growth at the same time improve their life. A servant leader does not simply delegate roles; he starts the work and energizes the others to join him and get the work done. According to Spears (2004), the servant leader as defined by Greenleaf is one who gets the natural feeling of wanting to serve first and then a conscious choice brings him/her to lead. This leader makes sure that other people’s highest-priority needs are take
Miranda’s leadership style in The Devil Wears Prada is pitiless as she wants her employees to do everything she wants without questioning. She keeps them on toes and for sure this helps the organization to expand in the fashion world. Miranda is a leader quick witted and ruthless and she never accepted anything less than perfect from her employees (Ryan, N. 2007.pp 20)
By being a servant leader, I will put the needs of my employees first to ensure that my company is socially responsible through quality customer service rendered by me and employees. Since leadership is considered a critical force in producing positive outcomes in organizations through the performance of employees, it is very important to take servant leadership seriously (Grisaffe, VanMeter, Chonko 2016). My main and foremost priority as a servant leader is to serve others with real selflessness before aiming for profit. For instance, as a non-medical owner of a care
Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to actively listening to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being and said (and not said) among others. By listening with intent, followers feel understood and valued, even under pressure, the servant leader demonstrates a sense of empathy and compassion by taking the time to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.
For instance, Miranda became a Consultative leader by asking co-worker and Art director of the firm, Nigel, whether the dress wasn’t too similar to another designers and to choose which jacket would go with the outfit picked for the fashion run through. However we see Miranda being softer on Nigel throughout the film. This could be something to do with the position Nigel is in. He is already a man of knowledge and experience, and therefore should be treated differently to others. His experience means Miranda trusts him with more responsibilities.