The Power of Servant Leadership Many individuals placed in positions of authority become less mindful of others feelings and needs; meanwhile, their subordinates devote tremendous energy to watching and interpreting the actions of their leaders and the end result is a toxic tandem where employees feel underappreciated and over controlled (Marquis & Houston, 2015). This statement presents a problem in the work force today that needs to be combated by a different type of leadership than most are used to, servant leadership. This type of leadership looks to make others a priority over one’s self, and through this, create employee loyalty. Three key aspects of this type of leadership that author James Hunter illuminated upon, that will be …show more content…
Honesty helps servant leaders to deal with ambiguity and complex issues that can create problems in the work force. This characteristic functions by allowing employees to understand exactly what the concerns are present in their leader’s eyes. Being honest in problematic situations allows servant leaders to build mutual respect and trust with others. A way to translate honesty into the healthcare field is being objective. As a staff nurse, it is our job to document on what we see objectively. This is the same for a nurse leader; we must be objective with our followers so that they are able to grow and gain understanding of the profession. As healthcare professionals, our primary responsibility is not to confirm the beliefs of others or even our own beliefs; rather, we are charged with the ethical responsibility of being objective (Boone, 2003).
Listening
Listening is a key characteristic that a servant leader must have; this entails not only listening to others, but listening to personal instincts as well. Leaders with intellectual excellence listen in order to consider input from others, invite opposing viewpoints, and to better understand the limitations of their own intelligence and knowledge (Spears, 2010). As a nursing leader, there is no way to be successful without this characteristic, as there are so many pieces that must fit together to make the team succeed. One
Servant leaders puts their followers first versus the goals and objectives of the organization, which limits organizational strategy and processes and lacks continuous improvement of core competencies; therefore, there is no research to date that proves this leadership style increases organizational performance (de Waal & Sivro, 2012). In contrast, as a positive, communication strategies of servant leaders are rewarded with employee loyalty and decreased staff turnover which increase patient outcomes and satisfaction due to staff feelings of appreciation and compassion from the servant leader (Marquis & Huston,
I have recently completed a service project at the animal shelter in Bulloch County, Georgia. For four days I rode with my group to the animal shelter to play with the animals. Playing with the animals shows them compassion. We played with many dogs over the course of four days. Doing this service have made myself and my group servant leaders. What is a servant leader you ask, well a servant leader wants to help others better themselves. They want to help even if they do not look like, think like, or talk like us.
Michelle’s life embodies the idea of a person who has the x-factor, she shows that leadership is something that is developed over time and learned through experiences. The x-factor is when individuals in a society spark creativity, it is a multi-discipline that borrows and synthesis existing intellectual resources to generate new ones and approach causation. (Burns, 2003). Michelle is a prime example of the ideals of the x-factor that crates a leader.
K: The commitment to treat the people with compassion and kindness is the basis of servant leadership in the global perspective.
Servant leadership isn’t applied or adequate to only one type of culture or even one type of culture. Servant leadership can actually be applied to all walks of life and all parts of the world. For example, the culture of the Japanese and the religion of the Hindu people both embrace a sense of what we call servant leadership. All religions and cultures have their own unique way in which they apply servant leadership, either based on their beliefs, history, or lifestyles. The significance of servant leadership is demonstrated in different ways within each culture and religion even when some cultures are not aware that what they are implying is servant leadership. As religions and cultures change and expand through time the concept of servant leadership is adapted and applied in different ways.
The foundation of my personal leadership philosophy can be found in the principles of servant leadership as spelled out by Greenleaf (1970, 1977). Leadership is granted to individuals who are by nature servants. An individual emerges as a leader by first becoming a servant. Servant leaders attend to the needs of those they serve and help them become more informed, free, self-sufficient, and like servants themselves. Leaders and those they serve improve, enhance, and develop each other through their connection. A leader must also be conscious of inequalities and social injustices in the organizations they serve and work actively to resolve those issues. Servant leaders rely less on the use of official power and control, but focus on empowering those they
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,
What do you think the goals are for the program as a whole? How do you see yourself fitting with these goals? As the Lone Star Band continues to grow in size, I visualize the number of servant leaders growing as well. I believe that it is the duty of current student leaders to build up the future leaders of the band, and I would like to take part in this responsibility. I think that the goals for the band as a whole are to continue seeking excellence in all that we do. We are not trophy-chasers, but I believe it is the band’s goal to be the best version ourselves in and out of the field. I will always remember Mr. Golden telling us that his goal for us was to experience greatness, and I see myself fitting with this goal through motivating my peers by modeling persistence and hard
Throughout this past week I have had several misconceptions resolve regarding servant leadership that have resolved. The main misconception or preconception that I had was that servant leaders were pushovers and that they would have difficulty in leading others to reach a common goal. Through the readings that were assigned, specificially in chapter 6, I now understand that a servant leader values relationships with their follwers and by doing so that they can use the gained trust to influence them to reach a common goal (DelHousaye & Brewer, 2004). I had never really thought about how much influence played a part in the success of a leader until this class and yet I completely agree. I think back to the mangers that I have had
The best type of leader is one who will put the group’s need before their own, help everyone out, and embody the ideal member of the group. This is servant leadership. Servant leadership means dedicating yourself to the needs of the group, in this case, the section or crew. A section leader must listen to what the section feels needs to be done, listening to opinions, rather than ignoring them. They must be willing to help their peers with issues relating and not relating to band, investing themselves in their success.
Servant leadership is distinctive within the body of leadership theories by having evolved from a philosophical framework, which challenges generally held conceptions of power and production (Dugan, 2017). Servant leadership and transformational leadership place a similar emphasis on envisioning the future and transforming followers into leaders, however, the uniqueness of servant leadership still surfaces. For instance, servant leadership calls for more sacrifice on the part of the leader, and followers are more likely to have greater freedom under a servant leader than under a transformational leader. Furthermore, servant leadership depends on the leader’s trust in his followers rather than on the directive abilities of the leader. The principal difference between transformational and servant leadership is the leader’s focus. The servant leader’s ultimate focus is the follower, while the transformational leader’s greatest concern is to encourage followers to serve the organization diligently. The essence of transformational leadership lies on developing
Servant leadership has the ability to enhance individual lives, create better organizations and provide a world where everyone’s cares according to Robert Greenleaf (Greenleaf). The purpose of this paper is to introduce servant leader operational philosophy to the organization to maximize the capacity of the company’s performance with the ability to strengthen personnel growth from the lower to the upper level employees. By implementing this philosophy, the outcome is extremely positive and may create a win-win environment, as the focus is to grow the people to grow the organization. Servant leadership does not necessary require a title, in addition, most servant leadership in the organization does not have a title assigned to them. Servant leadership may be very contagious, a trend may be created when one service another, in-turn, the one that was served may become a servant leader. This development generates are great working atmosphere, where retention level increase, but most importantly, the knowledge of the people to grow the organization.
Lori, I found your TDA posting this week to be very interesting on the servant leader theory. There are two points that you made that I found that stood out. The first point that you made was “the servant leader sets goals and keeps processes in place, but does it with the most respect for people kind of way. In turn the employee shall treat the customer the same way because after all the customer can take their business elsewhere.” (Lori TDA #10).
Empathy. “The servant-leader strives to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits. One assumes the good intentions of coworkers and does not reject them as people, even if one finds it necessary to refuse to accept their behavior or performance” (Spears, 2004).
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.