Month: May 2018

Greenleaf (1970) defines that “servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (p. 15). Additionally, Spears (2002) identifies 10 characteristics of a servant leader which contain listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. In order to better understand the complexities and the phenomenon of servant leadership, a servant leadership model is established by Liden, Wayne, Zhao, and Henderson (2008) and refined by Liden, Panaccio, Hu, and Meuser (2014). The model comprises three parts: antecedent conditions, servant leader behaviours, and outcomes. To be more specific, servant leader behaviours, the core of the servant leadership process, includes conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating value for the community. When comparing with other types of leadership, servant leadership is unique for being the only leadership approach that frames the leadership process around the caring for others. Also, servant leadership does not incorporate influence, or power, in a traditional way (Northouse, 2016).

Awareness in servant leadership includes understanding oneself and the impact one has on others (Northouse, 2016). Clearly, awareness is presented as one of the 10 characteristics of a servant leader rather than servant leadership behaviours, which means awareness is a quality of servant leaders. In another word, the individual has to initially possess or to be cultivated to form the trait of awareness. All servant leaders share a common ability to be aware of the needs of other people. For example, Colleen Barrett, president of Southwest Airlines, mentions that she thinks herself more of a follower, also addresses that servant leaders care about other people’s needs and help them achieve their dreams (KnowledgeAtWharton, 2008). I think the awareness in servant leadership equals to sensing and respecting the needs of other people. In turn,  the leaders could make a change in the greater context of the situation for other people. Ian Fuhr in TEDx Talks (2016) makes it clearer that the difference between servant leadership and other types of leadership is servant leaders give people dignity, and respect; they sense the needs of staff not only in organization but also in life; they put the needs of the staff the top priority and try their best to help the employees.

On the other hand, emotional intelligence, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill, is addressed and applied more in the context within a team or an organization (Goleman, 2017). For example, emotional intelligence could effectively help leaders solve conflict within the group during the decision-making process. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can timely be aware of the uncomfortable interpersonal disagreements in the team and help the team members realize the open discussion and disagreements can sharpen decision making (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002). The awareness in emotional intelligence is more like a tool for leaders to solve problems in the working context and to gain the ideal outcomes. Whereas the awareness adopted by servant leaders is to perceive the needs of the followers and to help them and satisfy them. Basically, servant leaders do not mind the outcomes such as money, power, and influence, they value more making a difference in people’s lives (TEDx Talks, 2016).

One of my colleagues, also my best friend, is a typical servant leader in teaching. Unlike other teachers who value the scores of the students the most, she cares about the real concerns of the students. She invests plenty of time in reading the blogs full of the students’ feelings and trivial stuff of life. She cares about what makes them unhappy and why. The students love her so much. Although she has not put too much effort in demanding the students to achieve the highest score, the results always appear to be the best. She explains that once the caring and warming environment is formed, the students would actively motivate themselves to learn. It perfectly echoes the words said by Ian Fuhr that servant leaders do not motivate people, they inspire people and create a working environment which is conducive to people motivating themselves (TEDx Talks, 2016).

References

Liden, R. C., Panaccio, A., Hu, J., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership: Antecedents, consequences, and contextual moderators. In D. V. Day (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J, Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. Leadership Quarterly, 19, 161-177.

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). The emotional reality of teams. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 21(2), 55-65.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

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

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 & M. Lawrence (Eds.), Focus on leadership: Servant-leadership for the 21st century (pp. 1-16). New York: Wiley.

TEDx Talks. (2016, February  22). The subversive power of servant leadership | Ian Fuhr | TEDxJohannesburg [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKrTEEHID50

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-4/unit-4-learning-activities/

Precis:

Transformational leadership, coined by Downton (1973) and rooted in the writings of Burns (1978) and Bass (1985), is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower. Transformational leadership, always mixed with charismatic leadership by most people, contains two elements: charismatic and affective elements of leadership; emphasizes on intrinsic motivation and follower development; is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals; includes assessing followers’ motivation, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings (Northouse, 2016).

There are seven factors illustrated on the Full Range of Leadership model that can be divided into three parts: transformational factors, transactional factors, and the nonleadership factor. These seven factors can also help understand and distinguish transformational leadership from transactional leadership and other leadership styles. The four factors included in transformational leadership are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Transactional leadership comprising contingent reward and management-by-exception focuses on expected outcomes, while transformational leadership results in performance that goes well beyond what is expected (Northouse, 2016).

Transformational leadership is stressed by many scholars that it is more of a bunch of behaviours can be learned and developed than a set of traits the leaders possess naturally (Kouzes & Posner, 1987). Transformational leaders usually empower followers and nurture them in change; become strong role models with high moral values for the followers (Avolio & Gibbons, 1988); create a meaningful vision; become social architects; are effective at working with people. Also, The most widely used measure of transformational leadership, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1990b), can help leaders pinpoint the weak areas and leadership attributes they could improve.

Discussion:

I would like to present my teacher of Leadership 490 in the last semester, professor Carol C. Molcar, as the transformational leader for this blog. There were other choices. But considering the four typical factors of transformational leadership, I thought my professor Molcar was the perfect one.

Professor Molcar has very high standards of moral and ethical conduct on teaching. She devotes a lot to teaching and is the favourite teacher among us. She is my role model, and the teaching method presented by her is what I would like to incorporate in my teaching career. She always assigned the students into teams with novel themes and let us work something out within the team. The sense of teamwork, collaborating with team members, and breaking the limitations of our imagination were the most useful thing we had learned from her class. Also, She likes to talk with her students. I always found her chatting with the students on the campus happily and warmly. I had talked with her several times after the class. She patiently listened to my situation, my dreams, and my worries, and provided with very useful and inspirational thoughts to help solve my issues. She not only offered generous help to me but also taught me to take wider perspectives into account during decision-making process. Even till now, we are regularly writing Email to each other, and she is willing to reading my concerns and help me to make the best decision for myself. The most impressed thing for me is that she mentions many times she has also learned a lot of things from me and other students. This is an important reason that motivates her to be a teacher, learning from the students and carrying these beautiful traits of the previous groups with her to the next group of graduates.

References

Avolio, B. J., & Gibbons, T. C. (1988). Developing transformational leaders: A life span approach. In J. A. Conger, R. N. Kanungo, & Asssociates (Eds.), Charismatic leadership: The elusive factors in organizational effectiveness (pp. 276-308). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press.

Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1990b). Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

Downton, J. V. (1973). Rebel leadership: Commitment and charisma in a revolutionary process. New York: Free Press.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1987). The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinary things done in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-4/unit-4-learning-activities/

This is a response to Achsahs-Springs’ post https://create.twu.ca/achsahs-springs/2018/05/18/rank-talk-write/

I would like to respond to the questions mentioned by Achsahs-Springs. Actually, I am in the same situation with Achsahs that my practice in professional work has been unchallenged these years. Since I have been working for nearly ten years, and the routine tasks remain basically the same. I would like to interpret this phenomenon as I have been institutionalized and my creative thoughts and critical-thinking habit are taken away unconsciously during these years. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was raised by mother who had an extremely high standard of my performance. Therefore, keep learning and reading have been inscribed in my body as muscle memory. Although I had lost the critical thinking in professional work, I kept updating other habits and reading the books I was interested in. For example, I played the piano since six years old. My interest towards music made me pursue playing another kind of string instrument Gu Qin, the most ancient musical instrument in human history. I learnt to play Gu Qin 4 years ago and have gained not only knowledge but also gratification during this learning process.Also I could gain the feeling of gratification from reading books related to Psychology. I am sure that it is the gratification I continually gained from the learning process motives me to keep renewing myself and expanding the knowledge reservoir, like this Master journey we are involved in right now. I think critical thinking cannot emerge naturally, the most useful way to regain critical thinking is to keep learning and reading. The more you have learnt, the more you would understand that there is still a far way to go. It is the learning process where critical thinking can take root and sprout.

At last, I would like to recommend the article of Cahalan and Foley (2017 ): Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom. I am sure the content on page 17 would increase Achsahs’ confidence that faith and reason can co-exist.

Reference

Cahalan, K.,Foley, E. and G. S. Mikoski eds. (2017). Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom in Minding the Gaps: Integrating Work in Theological Education. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

This is a response to Wafa Siyam’s post https://create.twu.ca/twuwafasiyam/ldrs-500-unit-3-la-2-rank-talk-write/

I am impressed by the quotation made by Wafa about the traits of critical thinker. Please allow me to restate them here: “a) self-awareness of one’s own and others unsupported able prejudice, b) Willingness to discard or modify cherished assumptions or ideologies on the basis of evidence,  c) Non-conformity- the acceptance that an evidence-based or logical belief must be championed despite the fact that annoys others and may threaten relationships or status, d) Judgment and decision-making free of unrecognized self-interest” (Riddell, 2007, p.34). These traits can serve as the standard of cultivating critical thinking for myself. I think the most difficult one is the willingness to discard or modify cherished assumptions or ideologies on the basis of evidence. Our ideologies are formed in our mind unconsciously. It is already hard to realize our genuine ideologies since they invisibly “manipulate” our thoughts and conducts, it would be harder to discard or modify them. However, there are still ways to achieve this goal. Firstly, we have to be self-aware all the time. It would be constructive to find out our true feelings and explore the ideologies. Secondly, argue with yourself. It is the most useful way to gain as many perspectives as possible during the process of problem-solving, and the hardest way to challenge yourself to gain critical thinking. I summarized three steps in the process of arguing with yourself. Step one, you need to find out your preference toward a choice or an idea and other preferences, especially the one you are extremely reluctant to agree with. Step two, you have to actively figure out several logical pieces of evidence that support the other preferences. I think this step is the most important because the analyzation can help you review different thoughts critically and understand the motivations behind other preferences and perspectives. As long as the ability of understanding is gained, it would be much easier for you to being logical, critical, and authentic in any situation. Step three, rethink your original preference and make some adjustments to optimize the results. As far as I am concerned, this three-step method echoes the last paragraph of Wafa’s post that the traits of critical thinking provides the confidence and knowledge and understanding, and probing different points of view and evidence helps in conveying and answering the inquiry.

Reference

Riddell, T. (2007). Critical assumptions: Thinking critically about critical thinking. Journal of Nursing Education, 46(3).DOI:1040187978-1-4666-8411-9.ch002.

 

I picked the article Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom (Cahalan & Foley, 2017) for being extremely interested in the eight ways of cultivating wise practice. I have read it for several times and found the article containing many profound thoughts and ideas that can be constructive and applicable to both our life and professional work.

1. Practical wisdom, the least understood, the hardest to learn, and often the most devalued kind of knowledge, is integrative knowledge that encompasses the full dimensions of human being, knowing, and acting (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

2. Eight ways of knowing essential to wise practice:

• Situated awareness is noticing and describing contextual factors
• Embodied realizing is developing skilled competence in bodily action
• Critical thinking is analyzing and evaluating concepts and actions
• Emotional attunement is identifying and using awareness of feelings and affective states
• Creative insight is developing imaginative and creative responses
• Spiritual discernment perceiving what is of God and not of God
• Practical reasoning is problem-solving, forming judgments, gaining a sense of salience, and acting wisely

3. Step 1: Understanding the general thoughts and conducts of a novice can help release the pressure of being a novice and build confidence through practice.

“Novices generally rely on theoretical models, preferring to follow a set of rules or steps; mimic the practice of exemplars; are physically and emotionally self-conscious; and have limited ability to read the dynamics of the context beyond their own actions” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 10).

Novices need to practice a skill repeatedly, reflective practice over time, pattern themselves after the actions of exemplars, reflect on the performance rather than judging the performance, get used to vacillating between feelings of failure and moments of exhilaration (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

4. Step 2: Practice plays a significant role in helping students achieve advancement.

(1) “Students grow in their ability to assess situations and make nascent decisions about how to proceed” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 14).

(2) Students need to practice alongside a mentor who can both observe and be observed by them in practice (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

(3) Achieving “acknowledgement”. In acknowledgement, which means individuals’ skills and knowledge are acknowledged by others in a professional setting, intuitive awareness becomes self-declaration about one’s future (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

(4) Docility, the capacity to learn from others; humor, the ability to not take oneself too seriously; humility, knowing that one’s life and practice is entirely dependent upon God; and deep background knowledge, the heart of practical reason and decision making, are all important for the students to get advanced in practice (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

5. Step 3: Being competent in practice involves practical thinking, integration of self and calling that leads to an identity as a called profession, making predictions and coping with the stress in the process of decision-making, practical reasoning, and precisely sensing the needs and responses of people (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

“Becoming competent in professional practice is a way of being faithful to one’s vocation, gifts, and capacities” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 17). Further, becoming competent in practice can help develop spiritual growth and development which occurs “when a person’s sense of self is strong enough that they can surrender their own desires in service to another” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 17).

6. Step 4: “Unknowing is kenotic knowledge; it is the experience of living by way of the imitation of Christ” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 18).

Being an expert, an individual must possess several insights: First, Expertise not only requires hours of practice to hone one’s skill but also requires taking the time to focus on discrete aspects of one’s practice and become more accomplished in these; second, experts still need theory; third, experts learn from people who are better than they are and accept coaching (Cahalan & Foley, 2017).

“Unknowing relates to perceptions we have of the self, the world, and God. We can never know all there is to know, never completely know ourselves, nor ever completely comprehend God” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 18). Kenotic is interpreted as “self-emptying” of one’s own will and becoming entirely receptive to God’s divine will (Stevenson, 2010). All experts will eventually realize that they cannot be the experts of all domains and there is still a lot to learn and explore. The more you learn, the deeper you reflect that you are still a long way from knowing. Therefore, Cahalan and Foley (2017) state that long engagement in spiritual practice leads to unknowing.

Among all the eight ways of knowing, situated awareness, critical thinking, and practical reasoning are the top-three important aspects to me. Actually, I believe these eight ways encompass each other and are interrelated. For example, critical thinking is greatly functioning in problem-solving, forming judgments, and acting wisely, which represent practical reasoning. At the same time, embodied realizing, conceptual understanding, and situated awareness serve as the basis of cultivating critical thinking. I deem this is natural because it is impossible to clearly separate the abilities and capacities into independent ones. These abilities and capacities formed in our body are connected like complicated nets. The bigger and more complex the nets are, the wiser and more mature we would be.

Additionally, I would like to mention the idea brought explicitly by Cahalan that “To learn a practice means to experience the practice, practice it, tell about it, ask questions about it, read about it, write about it, practice it, do it, empower others to do it” (Cahalan & Foley, 2017, p. 12). These are exactly what we are doing right now in this course. We are assigned to read, write, reflect on our thoughts, ask questions to invite further discussion, and response to others’ blogs. That is why I love getting involved in education because I could help myself and other people become a wiser person.

References

Cahalan, K., & Foley, E. (2017). Integrative Knowing and Practical Wisdom in Minding the Gaps: Integrating Work in Theological Education. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Stevenson, A. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English. New York: Oxford University Press.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-3/unit-3-learning-activities/

This is a response to Wafa’s post https://create.twu.ca/twuwafasiyam/ldrs-500-unit-1-la3/

Question: Do you think leaders are vulnerable in the leadership process? How they react to it?

I do not think leaders are willing to being vulnerable in the leadership process, but they are allowed. Everyone has his or her own vulnerable moments which are unavoidable. Although leader is an unique identity, a leader is a human being as well. Leaders, who are taking the responsibilities of establishing direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring the whole team or organization, have to master the skill of managing personal stress. This is why emotional intelligence is counted as one of the most important trait for a leader. Therefore, I believe the leaders could deal with their own vulnerable time. Also, Wafa mentioned that leadership was a bidirectional connection, where the exchange and interaction took place instead of one step deal. I like this interpretation very much. Because of the bidirectional connection, not only the messages of tasks but also feelings could exchange and interact the team members simultaneously. This perfectly explains why leaders are very good at concealing feelings. When being vulnerable or depressed, they might not want to affect other people’s emotional status or to send the wrong message to make the team less confident about the outcomes. But I would like to add that leaders are allowed to being vulnerable. Showing the vulnerable side can significantly close the relationship. It is helpful for leaders to manage inter-team relationship and be trusted and supported by other team members. In another word, when to show or not show the vulnerable side is also an essential part of emotional intelligence.

This is a response to Lewa Ahmed’s post https://create.twu.ca/lewaahmed/2018/05/07/ldrs-500-unit-one-learning-activity-four-blog-post-two/

Question: How can a healthy balance be achieved between leading and managing in an organization?

In order to achieve the balance, I think the real leader or leaders in the organization have to identify leaders that should possess leadership skills, leaders that should wield management skills, and leaders who should engage both types of skills during work. As long as they confirm the list according to the managerial hierarchy in the organization, the specialized assessment and consequent training courses could be provided to them. Leaders and managers are in charge of different tasks every day, therefore, the requirements of their skills vary. Fortunately, scholars have listed the functions of management and leadership. It should be easy to distinguish between managers and leaders, and their typical activities could serve as the basis of the training content. “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p. 221). I might add that the right people have to be in the right position for the best of the organization.

Reference

Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row.

This is a response to Maddison Olsen’s post https://create.twu.ca/maddisonolson/2018/05/06/unit-1-learning-activity-5/

Question: How can I ensure I’m listening to my team members and effectively communicating with them when our paths do not cross on a regular basis?

This question sounds more like asking for suggestions. If I understand the question incorrect, please forgive me. As far as I am concerned, when your paths do not cross on the regular basis, it would be hard for you to have effectively straight communication. The communication might be interrupted anytime and you have to restart the conversation and to reorganize the thoughts. It would be better if you change the form of “listening” to “reading”. You can leave notes, messages, and Emails to each other. It is important to make sure the content written in the notes or messages can effectively pass the thoughts and feelings to each other. It is more important for everyone to check the Email in time and respond to each other when available. At last, when you feel that you cannot exactly grasp the explicit or implicit meaning written in the note, just find the comfortable time for both of you and listen to him or her face to face. All kinds of communication can build trust, and they should all be used to facilitate the communication as much as possible and to build the bridges among the team.

I got 53.9 on Leadership Trait Questionnaire; as for Leadership Theory, I got 22 on Technical skill, 26 on Human skill, and 28 on Conceptual skill; then the Style Questionnaire, 45.6 on task score and 38 on relationship score.

I think the results could typically represent my self-concept from my perspective. I know my weaknesses, and clearly, they are revealed in the results. But I was surprised when I saw my scores on Leadership Trait Questionnaire from the other two colleagues. Accidentally, They both rated me nearly 60. The scores they rated me on Trustworthy, Dependable, Outgoing, and Empathic were much higher than the ones rated by myself. I asked them and they insisted that those were exactly their perceptions of me.

I recalled something I learnt from Social Psychology that the perception of what you are from other people can be different from what you are to yourself (Myers & Smith, 2012). Reflecting the self-concept pictured by myself, I know I always feel inferior about getting along with other people. Therefore, I usually try hard to connect with them and cannot assess my performance correctly. At the same time, it is hard for me to ask them their feelings about me. Consequently, the perceptions were not congruent. It is brilliant that the textbook recommends the leader have another five people (e.g., roommates, coworkers, friends) complete the questionnaires as well (Northouse, 2016). Leaders can obtain different perspectives to add colour to the picture of their self-concepts. Also, it is constructive for leaders to realize their potential deficiencies from the discrepancies of the results and to correct them in turn. Moreover, I would like to add that it does not have to be five other people to complete the Questionnaires. I would like to suggest the more the better.

Reference

Myers, D. G., & Smith, S. M. (2012). Exploring social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-2-themes-theories-and-concepts/unit-2-learning-activities/

1. Emotional Healing

Example: I think my husband is playing the servant leader role in my entire family, which includes my parents, his parents, and other relatives. When my parents got divorced two years ago, I was completely depressed and my parents were frustrated as well. I could not offer my help and understand to them, and they were unable to comfort me as well. Even my husband’s parents were confused about the whole thing. He briefly explained to his parents to seek support and understanding, and then he spent as much time as he could to stay with me. He tried everything to make me talk to him,  he even learnt the related knowledge of psychology to solve my emotional issues. In the meantime, he had to cope with my unstable parents separately. He comforted my mother and made my father calm. I appreciated that he never blamed me for being with depressive disorder, and he told me that he had become a better person after undergoing all these things.

2. Putting Followers First

Example: One of my teachers in high school, Mrs Chen, is an example of how a leader puts followers first. The students in China are under great pressure of endless examinations. After being assigned as our reading teacher, she required all of us to write daily note about our concerns and feelings. There were 64 students in the class. In addition to correcting our papers and tests, she kept reading our notes day by day. She wanted to find out what her students were worried about and spent a lot of time to chat with the students individually. We all knew that Mrs Chen always missed her lunch and supper, but she never allowed us to miss any meal. She placed what we needed and concerned higher than her needs.

3. Empowering

Example: I am a lecturer in an organization and my job is providing skills and passing the technical knowledge to the employees. Last year, I found the content of my course outdated and the timetable overlapped with another teacher. We reported the situation to our new manager. Instead of arranging the courses and assigning the timetable to us like the previous manager did, the new leader told us we could decide the content by ourselves and negotiate the time with each other. He just needed us to hand in the whole timetable and teaching plan after our decisions. We were thrilled when we heard him, and the new teaching plan satisfied all the lecturers. We became more involved during teaching, and the responses of the staff were positive and delightful.

Among all three principles, the most challenging one for me is emotional healing. I chose this one for concerning that my depression disorder might be the barrier in the process of emotional healing. Although I am not depressed now, I perceive that I am still reluctant to open my heart and share my feelings with the other people at times. I am a good listener, and all my friends enjoying staying with me. But the emotional healing is a two-way event (Northouse, 2016), I am afraid that I cannot make the best of the healing for the team when I could only use it as a one-way approach. I am working on this mental issue and I believe that I could be a competent servant leader in the very near future.

My question: Which characteristics of a servant leader do you possess?

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

Unit 1 Learning Activities