In this article, Paul Wong and Don Page attempt to resolve the paradox of servant leadership. Servant leadership is of great interest because “SL is part of the larger movement away from command-and-control leadership towards participatory and process oriented leadership in the IT-based economy, and SL holds the promise of an ethical and socially responsible management and leadership as an antidote to corporate scandals” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 1). In addition, Wong and Page note that Christian leaders favor servant leadership not only because “it is biblically based and modeled after Jesus Christ [, but also because…their main thrust is to discover, recruit and train potential servant leaders in each congregation, so that in the future they …show more content…
Leaders instead share their power will their followers, which empowers everyone and leads to success. According to Wong and Page, there are four components of measuring servant leadership, which include; “character- orientation, people-orientation, task-orientation, and process-orientation” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “Character-orientation is concerned with cultivating a servant’s attitude, focusing on the leader’s values, credibility and motive” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “People-orientation is concerned with developing human resources, focusing on the leader’s relationship with people and his/her commitment to develop others” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “Task-orientation is concerned with achieving productivity and success, focusing on the leader’s tasks and skills necessary for success” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). “Process-orientation is concerned with increasing the efficiency of the organization, focusing the leader’s ability to model and develop a flexible, efficient and open system” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 3). Moreover, “basically SL covers two areas: Servanthood and …show more content…
With respect to the leadership part, the leader builds the organization by effectively using people as resources; the emphasis here is on leadership skills, such as vision-casting and team-building” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 5). Wong and Page explain how a hierarchical system cannot follow a servant leadership, however, they note that in order “to overcome the barrier of needing an authoritarian hierarchy to lead an organization, leaders need to take the risk of intentional vulnerability – willing to lose their job and even lose their life in serving others as Jesus did. They overcome a sense of insecurity by embracing it in serving a higher purpose” (Wong & Page, 2003, pp. 7-8). Wong and Page reveal that servant leadership consists of a leader; “developing and empowering others, power and pride, visionary and leadership, servanthood, responsible leadership, integrity (honesty), integrity (authenticity), and courageous leadership” (Wong & Page, 2003, p. 10). Wong and Page quote Lao Tzu’s statement “‘a leader is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him. If you fail to honour people they fail to honour
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
Most cultures I find relate in many ways. They all display characteristics of servant leadership. I discovered that the Indian culture holds one to moral and ethics within the culture and religion. In a mirror image of Christians, Indians believe that your destiny is base off the seeds one sows while here on earth. The Indian culture does not recognize their beliefs and morals as servant leadership and have a different way of presenting the concept. One of the ways that one will find that servant leadership is presented different is in their religious practice of Hindu. Over all the Indian culture diverse context and religion
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 consists of leaders helping their followers become leaders themselves. The use personal skills such as empathy, compassion and listening to help their followers succeed. It is not necessarily the most popular form of leadership but, it has been proven successful b those leaders who implement it in their work practices. Servant leaders typically have a strong bond with their team. They are the base and the foundation of their teams.
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
After reading various essays and commentaries on servant leadership I thought about a criticism of the theory that wasn't addressed in the readings. Are servant leaders taken advantage of and in certain instances seen as pushovers rather than true leaders? If we review the basic concept of servant leadership, my definition would be a leader who does what’s necessary to ensure his followers are successful. Is this what you really want from a leader? In my opinion that answer is no, you want a leader to exhibit these “I will help you by all means” characteristics in certain situations, but not all of the time. If this is done all of the time I see this “leader” as a targeted pushover. The lesson commentary referenced the role of parenthood as an example of servant leadership. “Parents serve their children’s needs so that the children can develop into healthy adults…so that they can help their own children develop” (Lesson 11 Commentary, p. 2 Houston). For us parents out there, we know that this can be a slippery slope. If you always come to the rescue of the child, they will not learn ...
Many leadership styles exist. The determining factor if a leadership style is effective or not is often how it is carried out and if it is appeasing to those, the leader is attempting to lead. One of the leadership styles that has become popular is Servant leadership. Although Greenleaf developed servant leadership more than thirty-five years ago and he identified ten characteristics that pertain to servant leadership. (book p. 56) Servant leadership has been successful in various industries and its popularity continues to increase.
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).
Chung, Y. (2011). Why servant leadership? Its uniqueness and principles in the life of Jesus. Journal Of Asia Adventist Seminary, 14(2), 159-170.
Wilkes, C. G. Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership. Carol Stream, Illnois: Tyndale House, 1998.
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
“He therefore turned to mankind only with regret. His cathedral was enough for him. It was peopled with marble figures of kings, saints and bishops who at least did not laugh in his face and looked at him with only tranquillity and benevolence. The other statues, those of monsters and demons, had no hatred for him – he resembled them too closely for that. It was rather the rest of mankind that they jeered at.
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.