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Defining servant leadership
Servant leadership compares and contrasts to other forms of leadership
Servant leadership compares and contrasts to other forms of leadership
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Becoming a leader requires the ability to offer oneself as a clear, trustworthy and supportive individual that inspires others by servicing those in the surrounding environment. A servant leader works to empower others through encouragement rather than power. Although the name servant leadership may seem like a paradox, those that work to serve others ultimately blossom into leaders that others are more willing to follow and trust. Servant leadership is composed of several different qualities that are melted together in order to become a successful leader. Robert K. Greenleaf constructed the term “servant leadership” in order to describe a leader that puts others before themselves while empowering and inspiring others to act as their best selves …show more content…
(Mahon, 5). Leaders that choose to encompass the qualities of servant leadership are able to better inspire their staff and push them to limits that they, themselves, were unaware could be reached. While it is difficult to narrow down the most important qualities of servant leadership: will, love and sacrifice are what I believe to be the backbone of servant leadership and what truly defines whether or not a person has exhibited strong leadership. These qualities are what allow for great leaders to form a bond with those that follow while still being able to assert some authority when and where it is needed. Will as a Leadership Quality Actions are powerful but meaningless without words of intention, just as intentions are insignificant without communication to reinforce them. Will is one of the most important qualities as a leader because in order to have will, both intentions and actions need to match up and be appropriate to the circumstances. Will is the basis of leadership because so many other qualities are built from it. The uniqueness of will is that it a choice. People choose how they prefer to act and behave and if this behavior is not congruent with our intentions then it remains difficult to be seen as a leader (Hunter, 88). Will is used to lead in a way that cements a nurse’s place as a leader because by internally holding oneself accountable for our actions and words, nurses can externally inspire others to do the same in a workplace setting. Will is a small but mighty quality due to the simple fact that people are only as good as their actions. Thus, by saying one thing and doing another, one’s credibility is damaged and makes for a poor leader. In order to properly master being willful it must go hand in hand with communication and a vision to improve the workplace as a whole. Without a vision, a leader is unaware of the changes that may need to be made within a workforce or community. From personal experience I have experienced leaders that do what they said they were going to do and others that do not. It was clear for me to see early on that a workforce moves so much more fluidly if people follow through with the tasks they said they would. A clear vision allows for leaders to communicate effectively with their staff and ultimately say and do things for the greater good of the workplace. A vision promotes creativity within the individual as well as clearly defining a goal and purpose for the workplace to strive towards (Waterman, 95). Therefore, being able to communicate between others and make changes, the leader has to be able to have the will to look outside the box and use creativity to encourage others to follow and participate in the change. Love and Leadership Traditionally when I first look at the word love, I usually do not associate the term with leading others.
However, like the novel The Servant describes, love is not considered a feeling when leadership is involved, but rather as a verb. As Vince Lombardi so clearly articulates, “love is loyalty, love is teamwork, love respects the dignity of the individual and this is the strength of any organization” (Hunter, 91). Love, when referring it to being a leadership quality, becomes a behavior that one exhibits to those that follow and feel influenced by them. By loving others within the workplace one exhibits patience, kindness, respect and commitment towards others that prompts others to hopefully do the same. This vital component of leadership has changed my viewpoint by opening my eyes to see that by loving others through leadership, I am less likely to be judgmental or quick to reject their ideas. By understanding and appreciating others one can serve as a leader more efficiently because others will be more willing to open up and become more creative in the openness of others. By being in an environment where love is an action towards others, one can work to heal relationship and avoid conflict, which can often arise in such a diverse working profession such as nursing (Swearingen, 103). While loving others and working in an environment where judgment and power are non-existing, great leaders can possess another strong quality of leadership, …show more content…
sacrifice. Sacrifice as the Ultimate Leadership Quality Nurses sacrifice several amenities for their patients because being a nurse means being selfless and serving others. When it comes to patients, nurses cut their bathroom breaks, lunchtime, or taking a minute to rest to best serve their patients. Nurses encompass the ultimate servant leadership model because they so willingly sacrifice their needs in order to meet the needs of others. In my experience nurses are continuously making sacrifices for their health in order to improve the health of others. In order to serve as a leader, needs of others are to be met and sometimes that means sacrificing personal needs for the needs of others. Sacrifice as a leadership quality is so important because a servant leader who makes sacrifices recognizes that in the workforce, personal needs take a back seat in order for the personal and professional growth to occur (Swearingen, 105). In my personal experience, I have come across leaders that take short cuts for their own personal gain and others that sacrifice their time, energy and focus for the greater good of the patient. The nurse leaders that are more willing to sacrifice and put in the effort to put their patients first are the leaders that had more respect from colleges and a greater quality of patient outcomes. Sacrificing is no small task and can be difficult to master, however, if the time and effort is made in order to sacrifice for others, being a leader who serves can be achievable. Conclusion Becoming a servant leader takes several different qualities, some of which take time to master and appreciate.
With will, one can align their intentions with actions in order to make intentions understood while inspiring others to do the same. By choosing to love and respect others, servant leaders are able to put the needs of others into actions and take into account how they can better serve. Finally, servant leadership would not be possible without making sacrifices in order to better compensate the needs of others. Previously, I had the notion that leaders are those in a powerful position that barked orders in order to get tasks done. However, taking a closer look I have realized that there are several other qualities that go into becoming a powerful leader. Those leaders with the will, love and sacrifice to serve others make better leaders throughout the community, inspiring others to follow and creating other servant leaders in their
path.
Servant leadership is a designation coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in an essay entitled The Servant as Leader. In this essay, he describes the servant leader and a servant first contrary to one who is a leader first. The difference is the servant chooses to put others needs before his own while the leader first may later become a servant from the promptings of a sense of right and wrong or simply because they are coerced in that direction (Greenleaf, 1991).
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.
After reading over the book entitled, “The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle—How to Become a Servant Leader”, by James C. Hunter, I have learned that in order to lead one must serve. This book has provided me with the necessary principles needed to assist me as a Senior Executive Director at the UCF Community Care Center (UCCC). I like how the author specifically states that his book is not a way to teach one how to lead, rather it provides one with the path to take to be an effective leader. The book has assisted me the last few months in making a positive difference in the organization, especially being newly employed here at UCCC. My new employment here at UCCC has allowed me to have the character that one can know to respect, and has allowed me to slowly build authority, not through only
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
Primary service is the key. Many view this as a contradiction because the leader is leading and serving. How can a person do both? Good servant leaders are good listeners. The communication between the leader and the follower being served allows the leader to listen to the follower first, in order to understand what the other person has to say and to understand their needs. These leaders practice empathy as well. Understanding what the follower is facing or feeling is comforting to the follower because it validates their importance to another person. The ability to heal a person through care and the concern for a person’s well being is another quality of a servant leader. These are only a few of the characteristics that generate a strong servant leader. Mother Teresa said, “The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.” Her words describe exactly what servant leaders do. Servant leaders serve others willingly because they find joy and pleasure in doing so. The outcome of serving others in this manner is growth and social impacts for a greater good. When there is an improvement in self-actualization, followers improve in their goal reaching or task completion by understanding their full potential to do
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
Robert Greenleaf adopted the idea of servant leadership from the novel, Journey to the East, written by Herman Hesse (Wren, T. J., 1995, p. 18). The story is about a servant named Leo who does menial chores but also has high spirits and provides songs for a band of men on a mythical journey. One day, Leo disappears and the group falls into disarray causing the journey is abandoned. The group cannot make it without Leo (Wren, T. J., 1995, p. 18). Leo connects the group, by leading in a way that makes the group cohesive so that when he left, the group could not function without him. This same situation is represented by Mulan as she is essential to the troop’s success. Originally, Mulan joins the army as a servant to her
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
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 autonomous, and are become more like servants themselves (2005). Leaders and organizations can use the principles of servant leadership to frame decisions, and service that include focus on the community, care of others and quality services (Waterman, R., 2011). Watermen states that working to higher purpose increases standards, integrity and should lead the followers through supports, shared visions and bring followers together in toward a common purpose to provide service to others.
The author called out for servant leadership for long-term success for all stakeholders. Similar to other professions leader needs to hone their abilities to be effective in their leadership role. To find a purpose in what you achieve besides money, power, and fame resonates with the True North. A leader should act in the best interests of the organization that would lead to a greater good. To have a balance between IQ and EQ will lead to leadership with the True North. Passion, compassion, empathy, and courage matters the heart decisions are important components of the True North. To develop as a worthy human being, a leader must become self aware, integrated human being, and comfortable being his/herself. In addition a leader with the True North moves from I to we, is humble, serve customers, empower people, and align personal values with organization’s mission. A leader with True North demonstrates a high degree of integrity and walks his/her talk. A leader with a True North is an integrated leader with fine balance between personal, family, work, and community life. On a similar note, a leader with True North aligns and nourishes their mind, body, and soul.
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.