Servant Leadership
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Servant Leadership
1. Introduction
The human service industry, like any other organization, relies on strong leadership for management. Non-profit organizations, according to Rusell (2016) have a greater necessity for exceptional executives and governance than for-profit organizations. Individuals have a greater aspirations of service firms, that will be heavily criticized by the society if by any chance mismanaged. Personal well-being and the well-being of the society in general are aided by the accessibility to human services of high quality (Coetzer, Bussin, & Geldenhuys, 2017). As such, a good style of leadership plays a critical role in the human service sector.
2. Merits of Different Leadership Styles
I have held a number of leadership positions in my workplace. I held the position of a department head, responsible for handling daily operations in my department, reporting progress, and passing down information from management. I was also responsible for attending team meetings with the management and trying to pass down the message on performance and expectations back to my team. I have also been a local volunteer in the community responsible for coordinating charity work including blood donations and giving back to the community. In these situations, I found different leadership styles to be applicable including autocratic leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership approaches.
In the autocratic leadership approach, the leader is the primary decision making without making or considering other perspectives of people in the structure of decision-making. Every other individual under the top decision-maker has no opinion on decisions relating to daily running, strategy, or operations (Shao, Feng, & Hu, 2017). They are required to follow orders in accomplishing targets and the leader has complete responsibility on results. The merit of this style is that it does not lead to communication gaps because the leader is the primary decision maker and the levels of effectiveness are very high. Time needed to make decisions is very little and crisis situations and emergencies are handled with more effectiveness.
In the transformational leadership style, the leader is in constant attempts to explore the social changes and attitudes of employees when making decisions. Transformational leaders prepare employees for organizational changes and creates an environment that allows the leader to weigh the benefits of the changes before implementation. Therefore, a more interactive approach is preferred compared to a single decision-making structure. The merit of this approach is that it encourages group participation in decision-making and the employees are motivated to achieve targets (Al Khajeh, 2018). There is more interaction that enables the leader to weigh advantages or disadvantages of an issue in the organization. The open communication approach is beneficial to organizations. However, it may lead to slower decision making or poor reception of ideas if employees are not consulted.
Transactional leaders prefer a supervisory role in leading others. Rewards are offered for good results and performance and punishment accorded for poor performance and results. The target is provided for every employee to follow with the consequences (positive and negative) well-articulated before a project, task, or target. The merit of this style is that productivity is significantly higher. Doubts are eliminated on tasks and the decision-making process reduced to a few entities.
Servant leadership is discussed in detail below.
3. Preferred Personal Leadership Profile and Style
In my experience in different leadership roles, I found that servant leadership worked best to motivate people. Several ideas have influenced me to be a leader following the characteristics of a servant leader. Among them are being of service to others and promoting a sense of community.
4. Merits of Servant Leadership
In my experience as a department head and community leader dealing with people from various backgrounds, I found that there are several merits associated with servant leadership. A manager who prioritizes service and has a servant’s spirit is a priceless asset. Servant leadership does have a number of benefits that can help people and the firm;
4.1 Helps in Team Building and Increasing Commitment
Servant leaders reduce employee disharmony and disconnection, resulting in significant employee dispute. It produces a win-win situation for the whole group. It is the role of a servant leader to assist every member of the team in contributing depending on his or her specific abilities and expertise. Lastly, it enhances the company’s core “work together” culture.
4.2 Creates a Positive Culture
When it comes to setting objectives and organizational goals, servant leadership encompasses the entire group. Every person seems to have a say for every decision that are made. Servant Leadership creates a favourable culture in almost any firm due to its ideals, and it empowers people to determine their main performance metrics.
4.3 Helps in Better and Effective Management of Change
Change management that is done well develops a plan for the future. When a leader uses the servant style of leadership, he or she ends up deciding the firm’s objective and goals on the basis of the opinions of the employees. As a result, when personnel organize their destiny, they will be better equipped to handle their professions and achieve an optimal balance between work and life.
5. Theories that Resonate with My Style: The Trait Theory
In my experience as community leader and a department head in my workplace, I was not aware at the time that I preferred a servant leadership style. I was confronted with a number of issues such as leading individuals who are not motivated to do as they are required. Particularly, this was a conspicuous problem when it came to volunteer work. Donations and coordinating people to help in charity events was significantly difficult. People seldom go over and beyond to do things that do not benefit them. This is where I discovered the power of servant leadership and how well it works to identify issues and solve them.
There is one theory that resonated with me the most, that is, the trait theory of leadership. Arguably, the ‘great man myth’ led to the trait theory of leadership, which highlighted leadership characteristics that enabled leaders to lead with absolute authority (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). The notion of the great man as a leader reveal little about the interpersonal qualities required to lead effectively. In a community whereby dominance, coercive techniques, and individuality are greater ideals than humility, cooperation, and power sharing as well as authority with everyone, the servant’s selflessness and gentleness are “considered as weak and ineffective.”
6. Learning and Development Opportunities and Experiences of Benefit to My Style
Past experiences in positions of leadership indicate that a leader who focuses on the needs of other people before their own has a better chance of influencing and inspiring them to become followers. In my experience, I found that people are not willing to step out of their comfort zones especially where there are no motivations in terms of finances, salaries, or academic gains. For example, being a liaison community leader meant coordinating community events, the local calendar on special occasions, with the national schedules to ensure that charity activities did not interfere with the stipulations of the law or other major events. In this role, I found that people need a leader to see direction. A servant leader is a better choice because then people are able to identify with his style and to understand their roles. Servant leadership develops ones skills in terms of being an empathetic listener, better communicating, making decisions from a present position, providing guidance through example, and being able to inspire through leadership.
As a part of my individual development, I found that I made people feel valued. I have, over the years, gathered servant characteristics including awareness, listening skills, stewardship, foresight, empathy, and conceptualization. I have strong skills in relation to authenticity, compassion, contribution, creativity, fairness, honesty, humour, openness, and trustworthiness. I perceive these skills and knowledge to be the most important in regard to motivating and inspiring people to achieve set goals.
However, I needed to develop firmness in decision making and speedier decision making because I lacked these skills. These skills will be built by acquiring boldness, authority, and an ability to strike a balance. To acquire more knowledge as a servant leader, I will follow complementary leadership mentoring. This will allow me to be paired with mentors and leaders who have stronger competencies in areas that I am weak. These areas include the ability to develop others and employee engagement. Leadership mentoring will help to reduce these weaknesses. I will also practice job shadowing to get a feel of how leaders in my field approach issues relating to authority and boldness and how they achieve a balanced leadership style.
The leadership development strategy will commence immediately and be completed after two months. The success measures will be conducted monthly and at the end of the mentoring program. To achieve this, an assessment survey will be performed. A formal appraisal from the mentors will also be conducted combined with a peer review of my individual progress.
Servant leaders are much like any other leader when it comes being aggressive, enthusiastic, and determined (Gandolfi, Stone, & Deno, 2017). They simply have a distinct focus and collection of motivations that govern their decision-making and management. In reality, the central emphasis on the subordinate is what distinguishes servant leadership from several other leadership styles.
7. Conclusion
The emphasis a servant leader puts on the wellbeing and advancement of everybody within the firm is the essential to engaging people. The servant leader is motivated by the fact that he or she seeks out any chance to positively influence workers’ behaviour first, thereby establishing a difference in people’s lives. It is a ‘natural calling’ of servant leadership, that is always a commitment for the purpose of others’ professional and personal progress, rather than for selfish enrichment. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that servant leadership be better defined to include other aspects not only in leadership but also in management.
References
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Gandolfi, F., Stone, S., & Deno, F. (2017). Servant Leadership: An Ancient Style with 21 st
Century Relevance. Review of International Comparative Management/Revista de Management Comparat International, 18(4).
Shao, Z., Feng, Y., & Hu, Q. (2017). Impact of top management leadership styles on ERP
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