{"id":200,"date":"2018-10-21T13:39:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T13:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/?p=200"},"modified":"2018-10-21T13:39:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T13:39:48","slug":"servant-leadership-precis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/2018\/10\/21\/servant-leadership-precis\/","title":{"rendered":"Servant Leadership Precis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Servant Leadership Precis<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Servant leadership is an altruistic approach to leadership which emphasizes follower development. A servant leader puts the needs of others before his\/her own self interest and the priority is to serve others, ensuring all their needs are met. Long term relationships with followers are important so that a leader can understand their abilities and needs in order to help them reach their full potential. It promotes egalitarianism with the goal of organizational\/societal change. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Northouse (2019) identified ten common characteristics of a servant leader. They include 1) listening to others, 2) being empathic, 3) focusing on \u00a0healing, 4) having an awareness of the environment, 5) being non-judgmentally persuasive, 6) having an ability to conceptualize the big picture, 7) having foresight, 8) taking stewardship and responsibility for others, 9) demonstrating a commitment to the growth of others personally and professionally, and 10) an ability to build community (pg. 229, 230).<\/span><\/p>\n

All models presented in the readings and videos described a progression of influence when servant leadership is applied over time. Northouse (2019) presents one that begins with antecedents (favourable required conditions), which, when servant leadership behaviours are applied, produce increased follower growth, organizational performance and societal impact. Searle and Barbuto (2011) also have a progression of influence which they label micro and macro positive behaviours. These increase in influence from the individual, to the group, and to the organization. Colleen Barrett (2008) has a triangle of customer service that grows in breadth of influence from the employee, to the passenger, and to the stakeholders. John Maxwell\u2019s (2015) \u00a0model focuses more on the increased development of the servant leader, but also moves from the impact on the individual to the impact on the organization. All of these models are strategic and aim to develop what Quinn (1997) would call \u201cempowered employees (pg. 37). Empowered employees work within team towards a clear vision, and have freedom to implement their own unique problem solving. Overall, it can be said, then, that servant leadership begins with a personal focus on the individual with intent to develop them, so that they can then influence others similarly, thus achieving greater organizational impact. <\/span><\/p>\n

How is awareness in the servant leadership approach different from emotional intelligence, or self-awareness in the psychodynamic approach? Can you identify a person who exemplifies this component of the model?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Within the context of servant leadership, awareness has been described as \u201cbeing acutely attuned and receptive to their physical, social, and political environments\u2026 understanding oneself and the impact one has on others\u2026 seeing themselves and their perspectives in the greater context of the situation\u201d \u00a0(Northouse, 2019, pg. 229). Emotional intelligence, though it shares some elements of awareness, only focuses on the emotions. One with strong emotional intelligence can \u201c<\/span>recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and\/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one\u2019s goals\u201d (Wikipedia). They also have a strong sense of empathy. Both of these elements are key in having awareness as a servant leader. However, emotional intelligence does not fully analyze how one\u2019s feelings, or responses to feelings, will affect others in the broader context, nor does it consider all other societal, political, or situational dimensions. \u00a0In a servant leadership model, having emotional intelligence for oneself is not enough. Rather, one must recognize their own emotions, as well as those of others, and consider the other physical, social and political factors at work. A servant leader needs to be able to filter all this information, and make a decision, knowing the impact it will have on all involved. <\/span><\/p>\n

I am hard pressed to find an example of a leader who exemplifies this quality. It is a complex skill to be as aware as this definition indicates. I believe that there are elements which are trait based, others can be learned. Some people have an innate emotional intuitiveness, easily able to \u201cread a crowd\u201d and identify all the emotional and social elements at play. They are very introspective and can articulate their emotional responses. However, one must learn what to do with this information, how to navigate social responses and analyze possible results of decision making or behaviour. I think every leader is constantly refining their ability to do this, as it is a very complex and nuanced skill. <\/span><\/p>\n

References:<\/span><\/p>\n

Emotional Intelligence. (n.d.). In <\/span>Wikipedia<\/span><\/i>. Retrieved from \u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Emotional_intelligence<\/span><\/p>\n

KnowledgeAtWharton. (2008, July 9). <\/span>Southwest Airlines’ Colleen Barrett on ‘Servant Leadership’. <\/span><\/i>[Video file]. Retrieved from <\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6TgR95vnM0c<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maxwell, John. [Leadership]. (2015, Aug. 30). <\/span>John Maxwell 5 Levels of Leadership Full Video <\/span><\/i>[Video file]. Retrieved from <\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oe6XacmIZms<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Eighth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quinn, R. E., & Spreitzer, G. M. (1997). The road to empowerment: Seven questions every leaders should consider. Organizational Dynamics, 26(2), 37-49.<\/span><\/p>\n

Searle, T.P. and Barbuto, J.E. (2011). Servant leadership, hope, and organizational virtuousness: A framework exploring positive micro and macro behaviors and performance impact. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 18(1), 107-117.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Servant Leadership Precis Servant leadership is an altruistic approach to leadership which emphasizes follower development. A servant leader puts the needs of others before his\/her own self interest and the priority is to serve others, ensuring all their needs are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,32],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-unit-4","tag-servant-leadership","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/leadinnovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}