Servant Leadership and Love in Healthcare

Servant leadership is a fundamental skill that is of great importance in today’s health care system. Health care workers who follow effective leadership that promotes teamwork are provided with the opportunity to effectively conquer challenges during stressful situations. In order for an individual to posses the skills needed to carry out servant leadership, they must first have authority over the people they are leading. It is a complex task to gain authority; I believe that an important way to obtain authority is to show love to others. The book, The Servant by James C. Hunter describes love not as a feeling, but rather as a behavior or action towards people. As a leader, one might have good intentions, but without following through with the intended action, the leader loses their authority. The act of love requires having good intentions followed by acting out those intentions. I believe the three most important aspects of love and servant leadership, which are

Hunter shed light on the topic of servant leadership, which is one I was unfamiliar with until reading this book. This book opened my eyes to the importance of servant leadership and demonstrated ways it will serve me in my career as a nurse. Although servant leadership embodies many characteristics, I believe that the qualities of greatest importance are discussed within this paper. One point the book touched on that resonated with me was the meaning of love as a verb. I had never thought of love in that way, but I think it is an important concept that should be applied to leadership. My goal for my future is to learn to love others through my actions. I hope to accomplish this by establishing trust and demonstrating commitment, and remaining respectful and appreciative of each member of my team by maintaining a sense of humility. I expect that doing this will aid me in forming meaningful relationships throughout my life and help me become an effective servant