{"id":194,"date":"2018-10-23T07:46:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T11:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/?p=194"},"modified":"2018-10-23T07:46:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T11:46:34","slug":"servant-leadership-characteristics-in-team-leadership-unit-5-learning-activity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/2018\/10\/23\/servant-leadership-characteristics-in-team-leadership-unit-5-learning-activity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Servant Leadership Characteristics in Team Leadership – Unit 5, Learning Activity 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Servant leaders who are given the responsibility to lead a team need to consider how to most effectively serve and lead when working together on projects in a group.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spears\u2019 ten characteristics (2010) can be seen as over-arching character descriptions of an effective servant leader and can also be taken as instructive directions and strategies for a particular situation. The habit of character, as described by Hillman (1996, as cited in Spears, 2010), points to these characteristics being both situational and longer term.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to a specific group project being led by a team leader in an organization, some of these characteristics can be used effectively to help the team succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listening
\n<\/i>Leaders must be able to clearly identify the goals and results which are being requested in a project. The ability to ask questions, seek clarity and listen to the \u201csaid and unsaid\u201d (Spears, 2010, p. 27) communication of what will make a project successful is key for the leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

This equips the leader to then communicate clearly to those they are leading. In the same way that a leader must listen well to what is being asked of them, the leader must also listen well to what is being offered by the followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The specific talents, abilities, experience and resources which different members of the team are able to offer the leader need to be heard, recognized and encouraged for the group to be successful together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Awareness
\n<\/i>The power dynamic of a leadership position requires self-awareness so that a leader doesn\u2019t obstruct or interfere in the work a team is doing together. Understanding how requests are heard by followers when asked by a leader, for example,\u00a0 <\/span>will impact how the leader makes the request.<\/span><\/p>\n

Awareness also helps to facilitate leadership decisions from the Hill Model for Team Leadership, as explained by Northouse (2018). Whether a leader needs to monitor or take action, whether intervention is needed by task or relationship, and whether internal or external intervention is needed are all challenges which can be navigated by a leader with a high level of awareness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Persuasion
\n<\/i>By listening to followers on the team, the leader is then able to persuade the team as they work together to achieve the common goal. A servant leader is not in a position to simply do the will of the rest of the team but to serve each person on the team by helping them come to the most effective solution to the problem they are facing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Persuasion can easily become dictatorial and driven by power so the leader needs to understand their role clearly and develop skills which allow them to be persuasive rather than manipulative. As Spears says, persuasion \u201coffers one of the clearest distinctions between the traditional authoritarian model and that of servant leadership\u201d (Spears, 2010, p. 28).<\/span><\/p>\n

Question<\/strong>
\nHave you experienced being a follower on a team where a leader clearly struggled with one of the ten characteristics of servant leadership from Spears? How did that impact you and the team you were a part of?<\/p>\n

Reference
\n<\/span><\/strong>Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spears, Larry C. (2010)\u00a0C<\/span>haracter and <\/span>Servant<\/span> Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders<\/span>. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, Vol. 1 Iss. 1<\/i>, 2010, 25-30. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.regent.edu\/acad\/global\/publications\/jvl\/vol1_iss1\/Spears_Final.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Servant leaders who are given the responsibility to lead a team need to consider how to most effectively serve and lead when working together on projects in a group. Spears\u2019 ten characteristics (2010) can be seen as over-arching character descriptions of an effective servant leader and can also be taken as instructive directions and strategies … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Servant Leadership Characteristics in Team Leadership – Unit 5, Learning Activity 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,45,37,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-leadership-character","category-team-leadership","category-unit-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chrisvacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}