{"id":195,"date":"2018-05-27T19:58:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T19:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/?p=195"},"modified":"2018-05-27T19:58:56","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T19:58:56","slug":"servant-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/servant-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Servant Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
Servant Leadership: The Ultimate Leadership Goal<\/strong><\/h5>\n

“Do you as a leader serve others? Do those you serve grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer,\u00a0more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”\u00a0<\/strong>(Greenleaf, 1970, p. 15 as quoted by Northouse, 2019, p.228)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dirk van Dierendonck in his article “Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis” (2011), states that servant leadership is exactly what the name implies, an act of \u00a0both<\/em><\/strong> serving and leading . Travis Serle and John Barbuto Jr, in their article “Servant Leadership, Hope, and Organizational Virtuousness: A Framework Exploring Positive Micro and Macro Behaviours and Performance Impact” (2011), state that servant leadership is \u00a0one of the most positive styles of leadership because it emphasizes service towards others over self-interest and focuses on optimizing individuals strengths in order to build follower development. Smith, Montagno and \u00a0Kuzmenko \u00a0reiterate this as well in their article “Transformational and Servant Leadership: Content and Contextual Comparisons” (2004), sharing that, “servant leadership views a leader as a servant of his\/her followers. It places the interest of followers before the self-interest of a leader, emphasizes personal development and empowerment of followers. The servant leaders is a facilitator for followers to achieve a shared vision”. \u00a0They also state that “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”. D. van Dierendonck (2011) quotes Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term servant leadership in 1977, revealing that first and foremost, a “servant leader is genuinely concerned with serving followers.” \u00a0John Maxwell in his YouTube video “The 5 Levels of Leadership” (2013), shares that leadership is a verb and not a noun meaning it requires action<\/em><\/strong> on the part of the leader. \u00a0This is a good reminder, that \u00a0 intentional action on the part of a leader is required in order to serve others.<\/p>\n

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slideshare.net<\/p><\/div>\n

Colleen Barrett from Southwest Airlines, confirmed all of the above points while being interviewed on the topic of Servant Leadership in a 2008 Youtube video. \u00a0She shared that she thinks that one of the reasons why she was most successful as a servant leader, was because she is as good a follower as she is a leader. Van Dierendonck (2011) shares that, “Serving and leading become almost exchangeable. Being a servant allows a person to lead; being a leader implies a person serves” (p. 1231). Colleen’s primary goal was the satisfaction of her employees because she believed that if they were happy and fulfilled, they would go the extra mile to ensure that Southwest Airline passengers also felt happy and fulfilled. She addressed the need to bring people together, to try to turn perceived problems into optimistic solutions and the need to treat everyone equally without rank or tiers on a ladder. \u00a0She provided hope to not just her employees but also to Southwest customers. Searle and Barbuto (2011) address the power of hope as a mediator of servant leadership and performance stating that, “hope embraces success rather than failure, adaptation rather than becoming obsolete and optimism rather than pessimism. It shifts obstacles to challenges and even when faced with seemingly insurmountable barriers, alternate routes are embraced” (p.113). \u00a0Southwest Airlines focused on creating an atmosphere that enabled employees to become the very best that they can. \u00a0Colleen throughout her tenure at Southwest Airlines, displayed the ten characteristics of a servant leader as outlined by Northouse in his book \u00a0Leadership:Theory and Practice<\/em>\u00a0(2019) in that she intentionally listened, displayed empathy, helped heal others, was aware, persuaded others, conceptualized, displayed foresight, showed stewardship, was committed to the growth of people and building Southwest’s community (pp. 229 – 230).<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/mother-teresa-9504160<\/p><\/div>\n

The ultimate example of servant leadership (besides Jesus) that I can think of, is Mother Teresa. She encompassed all of Northouse’s 10 characteristics listed above and was a true role model of what putting others ahead of self looks like. She dedicated her entire life to serving others, especially those who were less fortunate and through her example inspired others to also make a difference.<\/p>\n

Servant leadership differs from emotional intelligence or self awareness in that the focus of servant leadership is on the growth of others<\/em><\/strong>, whereas, emotional intelligence and self-awareness focus on the growth of\u00a0oneself<\/em><\/strong>. Servant leadership recognizes the strengths of others and just like John Maxwell (2013) shares, servant leaders know that people are the most appreciable asset of any organization. \u00a0Maxwell states that by recognizing people’s strengths and placing them in positions that enable their strengths to be best utilized, servant leaders equip<\/strong> their followers to be better leaders themselves.<\/p>\n

Dan Cable (2018) in his article “How Humble Leadership Really Works” published in \u00a0Harvard Business Review, states that the best way to help people feel “purposeful, motivated and energized so that they can bring their best selves to work” is to become a servant leader. He states that, “servant leaders view their key role as serving employees as they explore and grow, providing tangible and emotional support as they do so” and that by actively seeking input from others, servant leaders can create a “culture of learning, and an atmosphere that encourages followers to become the very best they can”.<\/p>\n

Van Dierendonck (2011) refers to six characteristics of servant leaders:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They empower and develop people<\/li>\n
  2. They demonstrate humility<\/li>\n
  3. They are authentic and are true to themselves<\/li>\n
  4. They understand where people are coming from through interpersonal acceptance<\/li>\n
  5. They provide direction \u00a0based on “work that is dynamic and tailor made” [similar to Maxwell’s (2013) point about recognizing strengths and acknowledging that “no matter how talented you are, if you are out of position, you ‘ll never reach your true potential”]<\/li>\n
  6. They demonstrate stewardship by acting as caretakers and role models for others [Maxwell (2013) also refers to this when he shares that who you are as a leader is who you will attract on your team. It \u00a0is important to model what you want because we “attract who we are, not what we want.”]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I especially loved Maxwell’s (2013) question of “What step are you at in your leadership journey?” and where would the people you work with perceive you to be?<\/p>\n

    Is it…<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Level 1 – Positional – Key Word: Rights<\/li>\n
    2. Level 2 – Permission – Key Word: Relationships<\/li>\n
    3. Level 3 – Production – Key Word: Results<\/li>\n
    4. Level 4 – People Development – Key Word: Strengths<\/li>\n
    5. Level 5 – Pinnacle – Key Word: Respect<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What did you discover about yourself<\/strong> and your<\/strong> servant leadership journey?<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Barbuto, J.E. and Gottfredson, R.K., (2016, October). Human Capital, The Millennial\u2019s Reign and the Need for Servant Leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies<\/em>, 59-64.<\/p>\n

      Barrett, C. (2008). Southwest Airlines’ Colleen Barrett on Servant Leadership. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6TgR95vnM0c<\/p>\n

      Cable, D. (2018) How Humble Leadership Really Works. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from \u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/hbr.org\/2018\/04\/how-humble-leadership-really-works<\/p>\n

      Maxwell, J. (2013). The 5 Levels of Leadership. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aPwXeg8ThWI<\/p>\n

      Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.<\/p>\n

      Searle, T.P. and Barbuto, J.E. (2011). Servant Leadership, Hope, and Organizational Virtuousness: A Framework Exploring Positive Micro and Macro Behaviors and Performance Impact. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 18(1), 107-117.<\/p>\n

      Smith, B.N., Montagno, R.V. and Kuzmenko, T.N. (2004). Transformational and servant leadership: Content and contextual comparisons. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 10(4), 80-92.<\/p>\n

      Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management 37(4), 1228-1261<\/p>\n

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      Servant Leadership: The Ultimate Leadership Goal “Do you as a leader serve others? Do those you serve grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer,\u00a0more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”\u00a0(Greenleaf, 1970, p. 15 as quoted by Northouse, 2019, p.228) Dirk van Dierendonck in his article “Servant Leadership: A Review […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-4","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}