Awareness in Situational Leadership according to Spears (2002), identified Awareness as one of ten characteristics of a servant leader. He describes awareness as “a quality within servant leaders that makes them acutely attuned and receptive to their physical, social and political environments. It includes understanding oneself and the impact one has on others. In comparison, Northouse (2016) describes emotional intelligence as our interplay between our emotions and thinking. It is our ability to understand emotions and apply this understanding to life’s tasks. Goleman (1995, 1998) takes a broader approach and describes emotional intelligence as self-awareness, confidence, self-regulation, conscientiousness, and motivation. Put simply, the difference between Awareness and Emotional intelligence is that awareness is the ability to adapt to what is happening in the outside world such as a community or organization (external influences) while emotional intelligence is how one might respond and evaluate a situation internally within one’s own self (internal influences).
The first person that comes to mind as a servant leader is my current boss leading my company. Tumia is the President of Seyem’ Qwantlen Business Group and has held her position as Councilor for the Kwantlen First Nation since the 1990’s. Tumia graduated from UBC with a law degree and leads the community in lands, business and community services. As Spears (2002) identified 10 characteristics in Greenleaf’s writings, each one speaks to the style of leadership Tumia has with the organization. I’ll describe an example as to how she displays characteristics as a servant leader:
Listening – Tumia has exceptional listening skills. She always allows others to speak, evaluates the information before speaking. Both internally with employees and community members she is a person that people feel comfortable with in trusting her with their concerns.
Empathy – Tumia always shows empathy by sometimes paraphrasing what the other person is telling. She takes the time to acknowledge the persons concerns before jumping in to address the issue or solve the problem. She is also astute enough to know that sometimes people come to see her and just want to be heard. Not everyone is looking for her to solve a problem.
Healing – Tumia is a highly intelligent and competent individual. She has a great deal of knowledge in terms of how to address complex situation and in how to help people overcome personal problems.
Awareness – As a Councilor to the Kwantlen First Nation, Tumia is very culturally aware and is able to stand in two worlds. She understands cultural traditions and respects values that have been taught through generations and at the same time understands that the community’s survival is dependent on change.
Persuasion – Tumia is never know to manipulate others to follow. I am continually amazed at how she handles negotiations or community consultations. She is highly educated and comes across without an agenda. She is able to present the facts so that others can make up their minds for themselves.
Conceptualization – Tumia’s vision for the Seyem’ Qwantlen Business Group and the Kwantlen Nation I consider to be revolutionary. She understands the need for governance, culture, community services and economic development, all serving an equal purpose in order to create a healthy community. In the business group we are taught threw her leadership to take into account how our decisions might impact all facets of a healthy community. This vision is clearly communicated and known to the employees.
Foresight – Tumia is much attuned to the current climate in intergovernmental relationships. She is able to gauge community, government and public interest in any given situation and as a result will adapt accordingly.
Stewardship – Tumia never takes advantage of her leadership position. She is truly there to serve the people of Kwantlen. She has the opportunity to be employed elsewhere for a much higher wage however stays to help her community prosper.
Commitment to growth of the people – Tumia has helped to build amazing capacity with the Kwantlen community and for indigenous people. She supports employee growth, often promoting from within. She also supports employees with the educational goals by ensuring there is support.
Building community – Tumia is changing the face of Kwantlen and setting up future generations to be independent and self-sustaining. She is creating employment and increasing the skills and capacity of its members.
As I’ve observed in watching Tumia, being a servant leader requires a strong commitment toward the betterment of others and putting employees and customer’s needs first. It requires immense discipline. As a team member, and as a person second in command, I would describe myself as more of a transformational leader. Our combination works well with different employees and different situations. As a new and emerging organization and with indigenous employees whom are building capacity, a servant leader is not always the best approach however conversely for the more senior and independent employees, working under a servant leader has been exactly what is needed. I wonder though is it possible to practice being both a servant leader and a transformation leader when the situation requires it? Is there an example of a leader that is able to do both interchangeably effectively?
References
Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.
Goleman, D. (1998) Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Spears, L.C. (2002). Tracing the past, present and future of servant-leadership. In L.C. Spears & K. Patterson (Eds), Servant leadership: Developments in theory and research (pp. 11-24). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.