Geenleaf defines servant leadership as a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead (Northouse, p.226).
As Collen Barrett from Southwest Airlines, while being interviewed on the topic of Servant Leadership in a 2008 Youtube video said, that their airline has a passion of serving the people and this is what is their secret of success. She shared an intriguing concept of a priority pyramid in which at the top of the pyramid are colleagues. Serving their colleagues right is of utmost importance to them and this, in turn, leads the employees to serve the passengers better. This is a great example of servant leadership as the airline serves its employee and by doing so they are also leading by example. Another thing that stood out to me from her interview was when she said that when an employee or a passenger is in a problem, they adopt them and make something optimistic come out of it. This is also a trait of a servant leader. The fact that they started this airline because before it only 13% people were flying and most of them were men blew my mind. Southwest Airline is indeed more than just making money, they are connecting people and bringing a positive change, and this is exactly what servant leadership is about.
John Maxwell in his YouTube video “The 5 Levels of Leadership” (2013), stated that leadership is a verb and not a noun, it is an ongoing process. This video was very insightful and taught a lot about what a leader should be and what a leader should never be. The point about level 1- positional level leaders where he states that the employees start cleaning their desks at 4:30 if they do not like the leader struck me well, I could think of scenarios when I did the same too. Level 4- People development level is really aligned with servant leadership as it is about committing yourself to developing other people. This can only be done by serving them right and by guiding them into their right position where they can grow the best and reach their highest potential. As Maxwell said, Successful leaders, discover what others are best at, in this context, they are being mentors and leaders as well as serving others by helping them find their calling.
Servant Leadership differs from Emotional intelligence or self-awareness as Emotional intelligence and self-awareness are personal attributes whereas servant leadership transcends self-interest, it is about serving others and helping them grow. For me, one of the best examples of servant leadership apart from God is, Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama has made it the sole purpose of life to help others find peace and purpose in life. There are so many books written by Dalai Lama that has helped so many people. One of my favorite book written by him is The Art of Happiness. One of my mentors suggested me to read this while I was struggling in life and it helped me find peace and joy. I highly recommend it to everybody since then. I’ve followed his work for quite some time now and I find it very insightful and enlightening.
References:
Barrett, C. (2008). Southwest Airlines’ Colleen Barrett on Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TgR95vnM0c
Maxwell, J. (2013). The 5 Levels of Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPwXeg8ThWI
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.