Unit 1 Learning Activity 5: Blog Post 3 – Servant Leadership

Servant leaders place the good of followers over their own self-interests and emphasize follower development (Northouse, 2019, pg. 228). I, personally, found the Servant Leadership survey very insightful because it caused me to look at certain principles of servant leadership that I wouldn’t necessary look at. These three are: building community, foresight, and persuasion.

Community allows followers to identify with something greater than themselves that they value (Northouse, 2019, pg. 230). Examples of building community could be performance review, the giving and receiving of feedback, coaching; really growing together and creating a culture of unity while still being allowed to express their own individuality (Northouse, 2019, pg. 230).

Foresight would involve looking at the past of a company, the present, and the future and being very intuitive about where it’s heading (Northouse, 2019, pg. 230). An example would be that there needs to change in the way a business does sales. How have we done it before? How are we doing it now? What feedback are we getting on how we should be doing it? Having foresight also means understanding the current trends of the world in regards to the business and using all of this to make wise decisions.

Persuasion is the one that I believe will be most challenging for me to consistently realize in my career. Persuasion is a clear and persistent communication that convinces others to change (Northouse, 2019, pg. 230). I realize that positional authority has its place but, again, there needs to be relationships built in order to fully recognize the potential of a company, or the workforce you’re a part of. An example of this would be when you need a group consensus on an issue. The traditional authoritarian model would say, “This is what we’re doing and I will hear nothing otherwise.” That’s not the case anymore. A servant leader must be persuasive in order to make the right decision and have the consensus of a group.

Question: I am wondering what you think in regards to traditional vs. servant leadership models when it comes to these three principles?

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice (Eighth ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.