Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. The phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay,

Greenleaf said: “The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

According to Spears (2002), there are 10 major characteristics of servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.

Servant leadership works best when leaders are altruistic and have a strong motivation and deep-seated interest in helping others. In addition, for successful servant leadership to occur, it is important that followers are open and receptive to servant leaders who want to empower them and help them grow.

Criticism.

The servant leadership approach also has limitations. First, the paradoxical nature of the title “servant leadership” creates semantic noise that diminishes the potential value of the approach. Second, no consensus exists on a common theoretical framework for servant leadership. Third, servant leadership has a utopian ring that conflicts with traditional approaches to leadership. Last, it is not clear why “conceptualizing” is a defining characteristic of servant leadership. Despite the limitations, servant leadership continues to be an engaging approach to leadership that holds much promise.

Southwest Airlines president Colleen Barrett attributes the success of their airline business to their business model of giving the utmost priority to the employees followed by the passengers and then by the shareholders. They preferred and practiced treating the team equally. Colleen B. believed in motivating people. Their principle has been to treat people the way you want to be treated and everything will fall into place. But the foundation for all that, she said, has been making the satisfaction of employees and customers the highest priority. (Video)

Martin Luther King, Jr.  did not always want to be the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the US, but he just knew that there was a need for equality. By putting other people’s needs first, he was able to leave a legacy, which proves that anyone can make a difference through a humble and serving perspective. Until today, some of King’s speeches are still listened to regularly, as people see them as having a ring of truth (https://futureofworking.com/5-famous-servant-leaders/).

References

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. (2016). What is servant leadership? Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication

Barrett, C. (2008, July 9). Southwest Airlines’ Colleen Barrett on ‘Servant Leadership’. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TgR95vnM0c

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

Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. https://www.langston.edu/sites/default/files/basic-content files/TransformationalLeadership.pdf)

For Burns (1978), leadership is quite different from power because it is inseparable from followers’ needs. Transformational leadership moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. They become motivated to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the group or organization (Bass & Avolio, 1990).

Bass (1985, pg.no. 20) argued that transformational leadership motivates followers to do more than expected by (a) raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and value of specified and idealized goals, (b) getting followers to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the team or organization, and (c) moving followers to address higher-level needs.

People who exhibit transformational leadership often have a strong set of internal values and ideals, and they are effective at motivating followers to act in ways that support the greater good rather than their own self-interests (Kuhnert, 1994).

Transformational leaders set out to empower followers and nurture them in change. They attempt to raise the consciousness in individuals and to get them to transcend their own self-interests for the sake of others. They listen to followers and are not intolerant of opposing viewpoints. A spirit of cooperation often develops between these leaders and their followers. Followers want to emulate transformational leaders because they learn to trust them and believe in the ideas for which they stand.

Transformational leadership has several weaknesses. One criticism is that it lacks conceptual clarity. It is difficult to define exactly the parameters of transformational leadership. Some studies have challenged the validity of the MLQ, which is the most widely used measure of transformational leadership is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Transformational leadership treats leadership as a personality trait or personal predisposition rather than a behaviour that people can learn (Bryman, 1992, pg.no 100–102). Researchers have not established that transformational leaders are able to transform individuals and organizations (Antonakis, 2012). Transformational leadership is elitist and antidemocratic according to some (Avolio, 1999; Bass & Avolio, 1993). A final criticism of transformational leadership is that it has the potential to be abused.

Despite the weaknesses, transformational leadership appears to be a valuable and widely used approach. A leader that comes to my mind with transformational leadership qualities is Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill portrayed several characteristics, traits, and behaviours of a charismatic and transformational leader which enabled him to adopt a vision and concentrate on the bigger picture, which helped him to claim victory for his nation. When much of Britain was in despair, he excelled and through his inspirational speeches, encouraged people to have faith in him and it enabled him to achieve the goals of the country and lead a democratic nation to victory over Nazi Germany. He was and still is a true inspiration to others. (Eduardo Li).

Referance

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

https://www.supplychain247.com/article/six_leadership_traits_of_sir_winston_churchill)

https://www.langston.edu/sites/default/files/basic-content files/TransformationalLeadership.pdf)

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

Transformational innovations always depend on the interest of people involved in the work. Interest on work is directly coupled with the satisfaction attained from work. Do what we like and like what we do; if someone does his/her job without any interest then it is like a machine switched on. It is noticeable and many of us know that; all findings and innovations are from the people driven by their passion. They could get the satisfaction from their work. However, majority of the people run normal life and their first preference is to have basic salary to run daily life. But, when life grows, they realize that happiness is more important so, they run from east to west to find happiness. People who have no interest in their job often are depressive and I believe that the percentage of depression increases every year. Here comes the importance of having happiness at work.

In the story by Thomas Carlyle from Light from Many Lamps, “A man must get his happiness out of his work” (pg.no 134) is true in my concept too. This writing unfolds the mentality of majority of the people, as they spend notable hours at their work on daily basis. If the job is not interesting, they carry their unhappiness or tension at work towards home and it will reflect as a negative impact at home atmosphere. End of the day, everyone must come back home and should have peace of mind. Therefore, the tensions at work should not be carried forward. Infact, someone cannot be a good leader without any interest towards his job. Interest towards job creates passion, and skilful leaders are driven by this passion. Thomas Carlyle, himself is a good example for his statement “Blessed is he who has found his work’’ (pg.no 135) as he had to give up many opportunities until he found a work which suits and satisfies him- writing. In our daily life we find many people searching for new opportunities until they get a work which gives ultimate job satisfaction.

Being a nurse, I enjoy the job satisfaction because it was completely my discretion to opt this field since I wanted to do what I love. However, the above statement by Thomas Carlyle has more significance as I personally know many people who have selected this field by looking other aspects, their job becomes a headache and are not able to handle the pressure created by this dissatisfaction. Therefore, it’s our own decision to dream for a fruitful life for that we should know our likes and dislikes and choose the right actions and implement so that it leads the destiny to a happiest one. But I wonder, is this possible for everyone to go for it in this highly competitive life?

Reference
Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from Many Lamps. New York: Simon and Schuster, pg.no 134- 136.

Hi,

I appreciate your effort in writing this blog with such important points you have collected on creative criticality as per Cooper, 2018.  After going through your blog and understanding the ideas of Cooper regarding creative criticality, I remember an article of March fifteen. At March Fifteen they strongly believe that critical thinking is paramount to a leader’s success, especially in and always changing and increasingly complex business environment. And according to Robert Ennis, critical thinking is “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do”.

Critical Thinking is synonymous with skills necessary to become a Master of Leadership. With the affluence of information that is easily accessible and the gigs of information that are available to us that has never been available before, being thorough in validating the information has become exponentially vital to one’s success.

The ability to think critically is our ability to verify assumptions with some tangible and verifiable facts and therefore not taking our or someone else’s assumptions at face value.

Leaders are constantly seeking to exchange their knowledge, because that’s how we increase our leadership skills. So, I thank you for writing this blog and I thank our university in giving us this opportunity to share our thoughts and findings with each other. It can make us more exposed and aware of all the ideas easily.

In this article, the importance of critical thinking as an essential component of leadership is laid down along with the focus on integrity as the most important virtue to be existing in a leader. According to Cahalan (2017) Critical thinking is one of the 8 ways of knowing essentials to wise practice. Critical thinking is a method of analysing any given situation in such a way that one is able to judge the situation with it’s pros and cons and act accordingly. Northouse lays down certain traits to cultivate in order to be a leader: Intelligence, Self-confidence, Determination, Integrity and Sociability.

This study lays down following important points as to leadership essentials.

1. Critical thinking is an essential component of leadership as it helps the individual to make intellectual choices by discernment. It helps make reasonably smart choices and not blindly follow the crowd.
2. Integrity is the most important and sought after virtue by employers as it is a more public form of action wherein the individual consciously makes other’s aware of their personal values. Integrity is the key component of leadership. Standing up for what you feel is right, irrespective  of the consequences is what makes an individual stand apart from the rest and makes one a leader.
3. Excellence  is a habit that we develop through practice. It is by doing again and again or acting repetitively that one’s habit excels.
4. Wisdom is important characteristics of a good leader and only by giving every individual the space to speak freely can wisdom be increased.
5. A leader is expected to think critically and analyze the assertions of others and propose  own ideas based on reasoned evidence and judgment.

Critical thinking involves coherent judgement that are rationally thought. When one thinks critically, they don’t accept the arguments or conclusions as it is, but questions them and find answer to it. Critical thinking is essential in my field nursing as the nurses use this skill everyday to provide safe competent care to clients and at any point in the career I can encounter a disaster or a new disease which needs critical thinking to manage and solve the problem. Critical thinking is an ability to recognize and define a problem, identify assumptions, evaluate arguments, and apply inductive and deductive reasoning to draw conclusions from the existing information, which helps nurses like me to make effective clinical decisions.

To be innovators at workplace, be wise, as wisdom plays a major role and it is the key to distinguish between right and wrong and one should be determined, think differently and try to be creative. Secondly, should be open to and accept new ideas or methods that are safe to the clients. Thirdly, should think critically and become life long learners which in turn brings forth excellence. Lastly, should test the new ideas and reflect on them without compromising the safety.

Love to quote the view on learning by the legend Aristotle, “Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age” and what makes a person learn more is from his own understanding of what’s lacking in him. This self assessment  has helped me to judge my abilities, actions, qualities, and realized my strengths and weaknesses by myself being the critique with the help of my colleagues and roommates.

In the leadership trait questionnaire, I found others have judged me the way I judged myself except in areas of self confidence, and outgoing where I gave low score for my confidence but my assessors thought I was doing better with my confidence. However, by personality trait, I am rather shy and restrained when it comes to expressing my views on controversy topics. But my colleagues think I am doing what I am supposed to do. I have to absorb to cultivate in these areas and take risks in social settings, to speak up and act immediately.

The Skills Inventory indicated that I have strengths in both human and conceptual abilities and a bit lower in my technical leadership. I do need to have the technical understanding to be able to be a nurse manager or supervisor in future and I have to work on this skill to be a successful leader. Moreover, I have acknowledged that leading with vision and being goal oriented is my strong point and need to focus on being more organised to achieve my goal. Being too sensitive to situations and as I identified a high score in human and conceptual skills, I need to focus on the situation as a whole rather than carried away by emotions which intern affects my goal.

Finally, the Leadership behavior Questionnaire specified my strengths in both task completion and relationship. Though not in any leadership roles at present in my health care profession, I wish I could be a great leader by being what I am, friendly and accommodating, creating a team environment, acknowledging others’ opinions and encouraging one another, providing a safe place for growth, while also finishing tasks and objectives professionally.

To wrap up,  I have faith that, with incessant learning, sustained growth and focus in developing my technical qualities, not being too sensitive, I will be more effective in team environment in my life’s journey. Learning is never ending, so is evaluation and rationalization. It goes hand in hand. So I learnt from this activity to practice self assessing now and then to keep a track on ourselves!!!