Spears (2002) identified awareness as one of the 10 characteristics in Robert. K. Greenleaf’s writings about servant leadership. Awareness is a “quality within servant leadership that makes leaders acutely attuned and receptive to their […] environments. It includes understanding one self and the impact one has on others” (p. 229). A leader that demonstrates a sense of self awareness will gain personal insight that will empower better decision making and foster growth in their ability to serve their followers. An example of awareness in servant leadership is the ability of a leader to “step aside and view themselves and their own perceptions in the greater context of the situation” (Northouse, 2018, p. 229). It can be challenging to just be aware of your true feelings in a situation, but to step back view them in a larger setting takes more experience and effort.

In comparison, emotional intelligence can be defined as the “ability to perceive and express emotion, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand and reason with emotion, and to effectively manage emotion within one’s self and in relationship with others” (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2000, as cited in Northouse, 2018, p.28). Our ability to reason and make decisions are not determined by our emotions or logic alone but consists of a marriage of the two. Emotional intelligence is more of a process of understanding and facilitating emotions into rational thinking that improves decision making. To be able to recognize and understand your emotions and how they are conveyed in your presence with others in any given situation is an example of emotional intelligence. A servant leader, therefore, should practice emotional intelligence in order to best serve followers and help them succeed. In healthcare, effectively managing your emotions helps build coping and resiliency skills which are vital in a long career.

In summary, unlike self-awareness, emotional intelligence implies the ability to reason with the emotion and think logically about the behaviors that result from these emotions. Self-awareness is about recognizing and understanding emotion in one’s self and what impact emotions have on the relationships with others. As a servant leader you can possess self-awareness but not have developed emotional intelligence, but you can not practice emotional intelligence without self awareness.

A person who best exemplifies a servant leadership approach is the Palliative Physician I work with. I continue to learn the power of empathy and the impact it makes in lives of others when I hear him talk to those who are dying and their loved ones impacted by the loss. His passion to help others and ability to be a healing presence in his interactions is amazing. He treats everyone as equals, values every contribution and is focused on “building community” (Northouse, 2018, p. 230) within our immediate team and entire program. He empowers and develops people everyday, is authentic and always working for the good of the whole (Van Dierendonck, 2011, p. 1232). John Maxwell said it best in his video, “people don’t care how much you know, they want to know how much you care” (Maxwell, 2015, 53:18). Despite his title as a physician, he is part of the team and people choose to follow him because they respect who he is and what he represents (Maxwell, 2015, 53:18). He is a true example of a servant leader.

Daneen

References

[Leadership]. (2015, August 30). John Maxwell 5 Levels of Leadership Full Video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe6XacmIZms

Northouse, P.G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management 37(4), 1228-1261. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0149206310380462