Category: unit 5

The concept of servant leadership is well described by Spears, Larry C. (2010) in Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders . In this concept the leader is a servant first and it is totally different from the traditional leadership. It starts with someone’s interest to serve others and the involvement of others are invited in decision making in servant leadership. Ten characteristics of servant leadership are Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of people, Building Community Spears (2010). Actions to be taken by a leader while coordinating a group project in an organisation based on some of the above-mentioned characteristics are described below.

Traditionally followed concept in speaking- listening ratio is 70-30. That is 70% speak and 30% listen but it has been changed over a period and it’s now become 70% listen and 30% speak. The listening quality to be enhanced by leader while serving his team in a project. Leaders must have many qualities and decision making plays a major role to be successive leader. Timely decisions in difficult situations are necessary to bring the best solutions. As per the concept of servant leadership the leader shall have to listen to his team members so that the choice of the team can become the decision and it empowers the team members to work hard for it. This can be accomplished by implementing periodical evaluation sessions and feedback sessions and thereby can bring better results efficiently.

Another characteristic a leader must have while doing a project is foresight. This is apparently linked with experience. A well experienced person can anticipate the future problems while taking decisions. Even though a servant leader seeks the choice of his team members, a clarity can be given to them about the future consequences of their opinion up to an extent by his experience and the quality of foresight.  Foresight remains a largely unexplored area in leadership studies, but one most deserving of careful attention Spears (2010). Experience is really important to a leader so that he can foresee the problems while taking decisions and the systems can be modified accordingly or necessary alterations can be made in the planning, otherwise entire project can be distorted sometimes. If the leader feels that he is inexperienced at any corner of the project execution, he can look for the advice of well experienced person in the organization.

Commitment to growth of people is a characteristic of servant leadership and this is important to a project leader so that the confidence and perfection can be developed in team members which helps in building the team credibility. The growth of the team members can be in any means like personal betterment and knowledge or technology enhancement. For that leader shall pressurise the management and assuredly this would have positive impact at working atmosphere. And of course, contribution from experienced and knowledgeable team members can boost up the total outcome of the team and thereby the leader can be successful. The actions required to achieve this characteristic shall have interactive motivational training sessions, knowledge enhancement programs, and periodical appraisal.

We are experiencing a rapid shift in many businesses and not-for-profit organizations away from the more traditional autocratic and hierarchical models of leadership and toward servant leadership as a way of being in relationship with other Spears (2010). Is this change visible in your organization? If not, then what is the way to make the organization to think about the change from typical hierarchical model of leadership to servant leadership?

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Spears, Larry C. (2010). Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol1_iss1/Spears_Final.pdf

Several people work for a common goal in team leadership. Their activities and responsibilities may be different however the outcome shall be common desired goal. As per the flow chart Figure 14.1 (page 367), the last stage in ‘The Hill Model for Team Leadership’ contains two components that are, Performance and Development. These are considered as he two critical functions of team effectiveness. Performance is the measurement of task accomplishment whereas Development is for team maintenance considering the quality improvement of the team and its actions.

Six enabling conditions that results in effective team functioning suggested by Hackman, 2012 (page 369) are;

1. Compelling purpose
2. Right people
3. Real team
4. Clear norms of conduct
5. Supportive organizational context
6. Team-focused coaching

As per the studies done on successful teams by Larsen and LaFasto, 1989; their finding is, irrespective the type of the teams eight characteristics was consistently associated with team excellence (Page 368). That are given below;

1. Clear elevating goal
2. Results-driven structure
3. Competent team members
4. Unified commitment
5. Collaborative climate
6. Standards of excellence
7. External support and recognition
8. Principled leadership

Collectively they can be described as;

‘A compelling purpose energizes team members, orients them toward their collective objective ad fully engages their talents’ (Hackman, 2012, p. 7). Goals set to the team must be clear and elevating so that no other objectives can interfere. Each team has a structure to achieve their goals based on their activities i.e. Results-driven structure. Right people or Competent team members mean that every team must have enough well trained and qualified members. A real team is not just happening its well designed and developed to have a unified commitment. And in such team, each player knows their role and they act timely in a collaborative climate. Clear norms of conduct or standards of excellence is all about the behavior of team members. It is really important and to be regulated. Recognition and consideration are required for the hard work by teams and that is Supportive organizational context or External support and recognition. And finally Team-focused coaching or Principle leadership is about the leadership of the team and the coaching given to team to travel towards the destiny through stressful situations.

Being a young Nurse, I could work with very few teams in my professional career. However, I have been part of many teams in extracurricular activities in social community. And that are not well-organized team with professionalism. Even though many of the above points are visible in such teams also. In those teams, people are driven by their passion and interest towards the activity they are involved, and they love to work for their desired target. And we can co-relate the terms, Compelling purpose, Right people, Real team in them. In my professional career I could work with the teams which have got the components or characteristics like Clear elevating goal, Results-driven structure, Competent team members, Unified commitment, Collaborative climate, Standards of excellence, External support and recognition, Principled leadership because it’s a Causality/Emergency team in the hospital.

Principe leadership is related to team effectiveness. Leadership has been described as the central driver of team effectiveness, influencing the team through four sets of processes: cognitive, motivational, effective and coordination (Zaccaro et al., 2001). It’s about the leader who helps his team member to do his/her job more efficiently and perfectly by means of tools alike cognition, motivation, affection and coordination. Out of these four processes, motivation has affected more in my short experience of life. It was really required for a youngster like me to be more confident and learn new things and must be more perfectionist. A nurse must be pro-active because it’s all about life and any demotivational incidents can have bad impact on the career and on peoples’ life as well. In that way I am happy that I have got good support from my leader and team and now I am much experienced in my profession to handle emergency situations. Everyone undergoes all the above said components/characteristics in their professional career but it’s all about people how they are adaptive to the circumstances and it is directly related to team’s success and professional growth.

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.