Blog VII: Servant Leadership – A Mindset which can change the world

I know what you’re thinking. No, it’s not an oxymoron.

Servant leadership is a relatively new approach to leadership theory which primarily emphasizes that a leader’s role is to elevate their followers. Instances of servant leadership have been seen throughout human history but was only coined recently by Greenleaf in 1970 who wrote:

Servant Leadership starts with the natural feeling of wanting to serve. This conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead… The best test: do those served grow as persons; do they, by being served, become wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit? Or at the very least, not be further deprived? (Greenleaf, 1970, pp. 83-84)

Some key points to this approach are that leaders develop followers to their full capacity and achieve self-actualization. Servant leaders measure their success on followers’ achievement, not only within the organizational or group setting but in their personal lives as well (Northouse, 2016, pp. 236-237). Servant leadership is also an approach to life where a leader’s concern isn’t just limited to their respective group also towards the social injustices in society (Northouse, 2016, pp. 237-238). Lastly, the servant leader’s ultimate goal is to inspire others to adopt this philosophy. Leaders are aware of their limitations and knows they can’t significantly impact their world without the help of those they’ve inspired. When followers can be open to influence, internalize the philosophy, and become servant leaders themselves then the seeds of change spread throughout the community. Through this, society can ultimately evolve when all its people have adopted altruistic and egalitarian ideals.

References

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Indianapolis, IN.

Calvo, N. (2017, June 14). Meditation on Centenary Tree [Digital image]. Retrieved October 21, 2018, from https://fineartamerica.com/featured/meditation-on-centenary-tree-nano-calvo.html

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409