Category: Unit 4

Unlike the Roman-era power/leader-member exchange style of leadership as expressed through the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees of His time, Jesus Christ flawlessly demonstrated how to capture and appeal to, hearts and minds when one looks for “what is right with people rather than emphasizing what is wrong with them” (Searle & Barbuto Jr., 2011, p. 107). By no means did this type of leadership begin with Jesus, but in the context of the most typical leadership approaches of His day, He might as well have started it. In his book Leadership, Peter G. Northouse (2016) states that servant leadership is a paradoxical approach that runs counter to common sense (p. 225); however, when Jesus creates clarity from the complex through parables, heals emotionally, behaves ethically, empowers, puts followers first and creates value for the community (and the world) at large, servant leadership is less paradoxical than one would think.

As One who clearly exemplifies this component of servant leadership, Jesus had an advantage in terms of being fully aware; however, other leaders He was training may not have had a reservoir of experience to draw upon with understanding human behaviour. Similar to emotional intelligence’s (EI) component of self-awareness as “having a deep understanding on one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and drives” (Goleman, 1998, p. 84), a servant-leaders awareness is a characteristic which develops from knowing oneself and how they impact the world around them. In slight contrast to this very ethereal-like emotional connection to oneself as a means to serve others, a psychodynamic approach aligns with clinical mechanisms to understand behaviour of both leader and follower striving to “create reflective practitioners” (Northouse, 2016, p. 307). Although the psychodynamic approach digs deep into “underlying irrational processes and dynamics governing human behaviour” (Northouse, 2016, p. 324), in my opinion, the awareness of a servant leader is generally less rigid, more holistic, and like Jesus, extends a consistency in model to all followers, not just a select group.

Matt

Goleman, D. (1998, November). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 76(6), 82-90.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Searle, T. P., & Barbuto Jr., 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.

As we navigate the turns, barriers and junctions along the road of leadership, the more distant the old guideposts of traditional leadership appear in the rear-view mirror. Even more so beyond contemporary thought and theory, modern-day businesses and organizations are beginning to recognize the value in performance, and to the bottom-line, when working with leaders that employ greater transformative versus traditional leadership approaches. By no means does this new paradigm make the task of motivating other towards a common goal any easier, but in a “dynamic external environment where employees are empowered with greater responsibility and are encouraged to take initiative and risk” (Smith, Montagno, & Kuzmenko, 2004, p. 89), re-humanizing the measure and approach when influencing others is creating many positive exceptions to the old rules.

To paraphrase Peter G. Northouse (2015) in his book titled Leadership, transformational leadership offers some very broad appeal emphasizing the importance of morals and values in a process which influences followers to not only accomplish more than what is usually expected of them, but demonstrates success in what can be achieved as a group when minimizing the role of individual self-interest (p.161). Apart from drifting uncomfortably close to what some would consider trait-like qualities, transformational leadership is personally appealing to me because its approach is, in a sense, mission-like, tethered to a perspective which places value on nurturing change and inspiring positive growth in others over one-self.

As an approach used by many, transformational leadership is woven throughout public, private, for-profit, not-for-profit and institutional sectors the world over. Once lawyer, turned airline pioneer and co-founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher developed a vision to challenge the status quo, rooted in orientating attention towards the needs of others from a purpose-driven perspective, while swimming in the mire of a highly risky industry fueled mainly by hardened profit-driven perspective. With a strong charismatic style, Herb believed and developed “a process of influence of reciprocity in relationships that benefit both parties” (Cote, 2017, p. 5); and apart from his clarity of vision, Herb created all hierarchal points in the company to behave as “transforming contexts” (Northouse, 2016, p. 180). Not only did he implement a process of job-exchanging, so that each employee could benefit from experiencing each other’s roles and tasks, but Herb expressed a desire that all Southwest employees would get treated as their first, and only best customer; which ultimately, as a subsequent mechanism of this investment, generated a sense of ownership producing service levels for their flying customers beyond anything ever encountered in commercial air travel before.

Matt

Cote, R. (2017, September 13). Vision of effective leadership. International Journal of Business Administration, 8(6), 1-10.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: theory and practice (Seventh ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Smith, B. N., Montagno, R. V., & Kuzmenko, T. N. (2004). Tranformational and servant leadership: Content and contextual comparisons. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 10(4), 80-91.