Literature Review
I was seeking to find a leadership style that defined who I am as an individual in my organization. John C, Maxwell has been the biggest influence in my ongoing development as a leader. I have done several of his online leadership seminars based on other books he has written on leadership. I chose to place more emphasis on his updated 2007 book The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership because it critically analyzes numerous aspects of leadership that are important to becoming and sustaining being a great leader.
Here are Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership:
• The Law Of The Lid – Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness
• The Law Of Influence – The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence – Nothing
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These are concepts that require total commitment on the part of both the leader and the subordinates. This can be difficult to achieve in a public sector workplace where employees may feel like they can perform at less than their best and still advance through the State’s organizational structure through testing.
A synopsis of a dissertation titled Assessing the Servant Organization: Development of the Organizational Leadership Assessment (OLA) Instrument by James Alan Laub, Ed. D. clearly defined a style of leadership called Servant Leadership that fits well with the values I seek to implement as a leader (Laub, 2009)
Laub’s Servant Leadership Model defines what servant leadership is and what a servant organization looks like (Laub, 2009). He defines servant leadership as an understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader. Servant leadership promotes the valuing and development of people, the building of community, the practice of authenticity, the providing of leadership for the good of those led and the sharing of power and status for the common good of each individual, the total organization and those served by the organization (Laub,
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Spears’ asserts that a particular strength of servant-leadership is that it encourages everyone to actively seek opportunities to both serve and lead others, thereby setting up the potential for raising the quality of life throughout society (Spears, 2004). He believes this will offer hope and guidance for a new era in human development, and for the creation of better, more caring institutions (Spears, 2004).
A journal article titled Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations published in March 2008 compared various contemporary leadership models (transformational, authentic, spiritual and servant) and concluded that the servant leadership model extends the works of the other leadership approaches (Sendijaya, Sarros, Santora, 2008). This article also touches on the concept of spiritual leadership which is of interest to me because of my Christian
Servant leadership, as defined by Kretiner and Kinkicki (2015, p.486), is putting the needs of others, including employees, customers, and community ahead of one’s own needs. This management style requires selflessness and humility from management so the organization can focus on serving key stakeholders. There are ten characteristics of a servant-leader as identified in the text
The Servant Leader discusses the importance of leaders who adopt a service oriented attitude in which they care for the needs of others before their own. A servant leader need not be an actual servant or have ever been a servant to become a servant leader. Rather, a servant leader is born with or adopts an “others first” disposition. Climbing through the ranks may help to create a servant leader, though it is not necessary. When leaders choose to see that the needs of their followers or their organizations are the highest priority they become servants.
Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that augments the lives of individuals, builds better organizations, and creates a more just and caring world, they put the team first, and themselves second (MindTools, 2015). Servant leaders are able to demonstrate their traits through interaction with followers and other leaders within the organization. The characteristics of servant leaders include their commitment to the growth of people, stewardship, and building community, and provide leaders with the opportunity to experience change and to invite followers to change (Savage-Austin & Honeycutt 2011). Servant leadership encourages leaders and followers to ‘raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality’, and set their leadership focus: follower’s first, organizations second, their own needs last (Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008). The servant leader focuses on the needs of others to include team members.
purpose for this book is dual. First goal is clearly defining servant leadership and second one is
Servant leadership is a perplexing theory. It takes on radical ideas like a lifetime employment policy, or employee-wide furlough, to illustrate how putting the leader at the service of their employees can result in efficient leadership. “When individuals engage in servant leadership, it is likely to improve outcomes at the individual, organizational, and societal levels (PSU, 2014)". The servant leadership actions of Charlie Kim and Bob Chapman depict how the proper use of servant leadership creates trust, and inspires productivity; benefiting their organization, their employees, and
Servant leadership is becoming a more “sought-after” concept in today’s society, but what exactly is servant leadership? Does it mean different things to different people? Although the three books, The Servant as Leader, The Servant, and Lead Like Jesus, all center around servant leadership, each author takes a different perspective on the meaning of being a servant leader. Robert Greenleaf addresses leadership from a straight-forward stance; saying that a good leader must be a servant-first by finding the will within themselves to put the needs of their group before their own. James Hunter discusses servant leadership through a story involving everyday people that the reader can relate to. He uses Jesus as a guide to explain how to initiate character development that will, in turn, fashion servant leadership. Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges offer a new perspective on servant leadership by bringing Jesus into the picture on an even deeper level than Hunter. They explain that by knowing Jesus Christ and developing an intimate personal
The two most intriguing leadership styles presented in the readings were transformational leadership and servant leadership. Both leadership styles are relationship-oriented, that is, in order for these leadership styles to be effective, positive relationships must exist between leaders and followers. Also, both leadership styles reject the role of leader as being reserved for those individuals in designated positions of power, but rather a quality that may be exhibited by any individual (Kelly, 2012, pp. 10-11). However, the differing goals of each leadership style is the seemingly critical factor that separates transformational leadership from servant leadership.
Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy that one carry outs to supplement the lives of others and shape organizations to become better. In order to become a servant leader, you have to first become a servant. One must be want to serve first. There’s a difference between servant leadership and an authentic leadership style. The impression of servant leadership can be traced back to have started two thousand years
Introduction Through identification and ongoing assessment of her leadership style and ability, this leader is able to develop and understand her own strengths and limitations in order to grow and develop into a more effective leader. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of servant leadership, contingency, and path-goal styles of leadership to gain an understanding of current leadership models, identify this author’s style of leadership, and explore why leadership is important to organizations, society, and this author. A Personal Model of Leadership Servant leadership was a term that was first used by Keifner Greenleaf (1970) in his first essay, The Servant as Leader (as cited by Crippen, C., 2005). Greenleaf based his essay on his belief that a servant leader is a servant first, and explained that it would begin with the natural urge to serve and then the leader would make a conscious choice to become a leader, in doing so he makes the choice to ensure that others needs are met first (2005 ). As a servant leader develops he should always keep aware of those who he serves and strive to ensure that they are becoming healthier, wiser, freer, have an increase in autonomy, and become more like servants themselves (2005).
When people think of leadership so many things rush through their heads. For example am I a leader, am I apart of a group that has a leader, and what does being a leader mean? A common definition of being a leader is a person who leads or guides a group of people. So now knowing the definition of a leader who pops into your head; Phil Jackson, Mike Krzyzewski, Martin Luther King Jr.? All of these people are great leaders, but the real question is why are they so great? One very important thing that all these men have in common is they have a philosophy of leadership. This philosophy is going to help guide these men during turbulent times, or when they need guidance themselves. Nobody is perfect and everyone needs direction no matter how wise or gifted you are. I am no different, which is why writing this philosophy of leadership is going to be a fruitful experience for years to come.
This book has been very helpful and eyeopening to several things I have never thought of. Being in a servant leadership position I am very thankful for the opportunity to read this book and learn to apply this to my life. I will put this book on my read once a year shelf. Each area mentioned spoke to me and it was clearly understood the process, the story’s, the application. I was very pleased that Maxwell revised his book. He added more detailed explanations and almost all the different ways to apply it. He tells us about each law in a simple and understandable detail but doesn’t overwhelm me. During my observations each law stood out to me. They are all equally important as one can
It is undeniable, in an honest examination of the world, to deny that leadership will determine the success, or lack of success in almost every endeavor. This holds true for small group projects through the largest possible business venture, and beyond. John Maxwell discusses principles followed by great leaders and utilized by others to increase their own talents. His book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, is a valuable resource to those who seek to improve individual leadership abilities.
After an in-depth reading and analyzation of How Successful People Lead by John C. Maxwell, I found myself uplifted, motivated and desiring more as a member of Jersey Mike’s. Maxwell gives a structured guide to how leadership works and what it takes to advance through the levels of leadership. Despite many thinking that leadership is represented through one’s own position and title, it is simply only the first step of five to actually being a SUCCESSFUL leader in an operation. Maxwell explains deeply in the reading that true leadership is earned through position, permission, production, people development and the pinnacle. He delves deep into each level with the upsides and downsides of each as well as the best behaviors and beliefs one should
John Maxwell is a distinguished author, speaker and pastor who specializes on leadership and leadership development. This paper is outlines my reflections from watching his YouTube video presentation of his five levels of leadership. It was insightful that Maxwell, (2013) explained that all leaders start at level one, then continue to develop in their capabilities through level five. He outlines each of the five stages, identifying the attributes and tendencies of each of the levels. He describes that followers view leaders through different lenses, each the lenses is a reflection of one of the five stages.
Servant Leadership means to serve others and to lead. It puts everyone else first teaching to put others before yourself, with this leading qualities emerge. Just being or having leadership qualities doesn’t always work. Most leadership models show possessive towards the better for themselves, some work out while others don’t, mostly I think because the unwillingness to see others before yourself is a hard concept for some to understand and use. You can be a great leader but if you don’t understand servant qualities or serve for the benefit of others your probley not much liked. Most I don’t think know what Servant Leadership is or means, I didn’t until this course opened it up to me.