Servant Leader By Robert K. Greenleaf

Many have developed elements that they believe are the foundation of servant leadership. In summary, included in the fundamentals are healing, creating value for community, empowering, empathy, listening, awareness, behaving ethically, and helping others grow and succeed. Healing refers to leaders trying to help solve problems and relationships. Creating value for community refers to leaders serving as an example and encouraging others to also serve the community. Empowering refers to leaders providing followers with autonomy. Empathy refers to leaders understanding others. Listening is a trait all leaders should possess. In order to understand, one should first listen. Awareness refers to leaders attentive to the things happening around them. Behaving ethically refers to the demonstrating of integrity to gain the trust of followers. Helping others grow and succeed refers to leaders providing support to followers to help them develop and accomplish professional and personal goals.

Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.

Throughout history servant leaders have proven to be some of the greatest leaders and idols. Anyone can be a servant leader if they show certain characteristic: Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment, or building communities. Being a servant leader is one something people want to be and is a very good thing to be. Two of the best servant leaders are Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, which is true because of the characteristics they share building communities, commitment, and foresight. They first trait they both show is building communities.

Servant leadership is a theory based on Robert K Greenleaf’s belief that all men have a primary motivation to serve others and through this service they aspire to lead (Parris & Peachey, 2012). Although this leadership model has very little in common with charismatic and situational does however compare to transformational leadership in several areas. The main area of commonality between the two can be found as transformational leaders serve as stewards to change enable the followers to accept the change and move forward with the organization (Tichy & Devanna, 1990, p. 75). In essence, servant leadership becomes the long-term transformational approach to life and work.

Leadership and management for many go hand in hand, and may be perceived as one in the same. In the book titled, The Servant (1998), James C. Hunter challenged this mainstream view, and literally turned this concept, which so many are coached on, upside-down. The notions of what characterizes a virtuous leader, as well as what it means to serve others, are the primary focal points of Hunter’s book. He did an eloquent job of revealing his theory concerning effective leadership by using an allegorical approach which, made the content easier to digest and much more personable. The Servant deeply resonated with me, and I gained significant value from the attitudes Hunter presented which, I can apply to my schooling, personal life, and future career paths. I was also able to discern what I felt to be applicable elements regarding the mark of a worthy leader, and arrived at my own theories.

Being a servant does not disqualify someone from leading, it simply implies that this person wants to help and learn. They see a need to take care of a problem and want to fulfill it. They know when a problem is at hand and that is very good quality to have when it comes to leading because one has to see the problem first and attack it when it is in front of them without hesitation.

Servant leadership, as it applies to the modern world, is a concept that Robert Greenleaf defined in his influential 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader. Greenleaf’s essay explains that servant leadership is an amalgam of concrete leadership styles and “fragments of data” that came to him through “intuitive insight” (1970). Having worked at AT&T from 1926-1964, he accumulated a number of leadership qualities throughout his professional career. After retirement he began teaching at Harvard Business School, but became distressed by younger generations and their rebellious attitudes. After careful consideration, he decided institutions were doing a poor job of serving, so they were doing a poor job of leading. His

Servant leadership rests on the assumption that the leader is servant first. Coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970, the servant leader “focuses on the growth and well-being of people and

Servant-leaders must reinforce these important skills by making a deep commitment to actively listening to others. Servant-leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of a group. They seek to listen receptively to what is being and said (and not said) among others. By listening with intent, followers feel understood and valued, even under pressure, the servant leader demonstrates a sense of empathy and compassion by taking the time to understand what one's body, spirit, and mind are communicating.

Servant leadership is the kind of leadership where the leader himself is willing to work as a servant. The leader wants to serve first in the group. Servant leader’s emphasis on individual development and the transformational leader’s focus on structural growth. According to Larry Spears, Servant leaders are very good listeners, it’s their number one characteristic. (Spears, n.d.) Servant leaders go extra mile for their commitment to listening to others.

According to Wheeler (2011), “servant leadership is not a set of techniques or activities. It is a way of being, a philosophy of living and influencing” (p. 13). As Wheeler noted (2011),

A servant leader inspires others by 'doing' for others not asking what is in it for themselves. To influence others, to influence outcomes, to inspire others we should seek to offer ourselves, our skills, our knowledge, our connections, to make ourselves available to others, to their success, to their growth, and to their

The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as a Leader, an essay he first published in 1970 ("What is servant," ). The servant leader serves first, while aspiring to lead second. The servant leader serves the people that he or she leads, implying employees are an end in themselves rather than a means to organizational purpose or bottom-line. Servant leadership is meant to replace a command and control, top-down, model of management. Servant leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment. A few famous examples of servant leaders are George Washington, Gandi and Caesar Chavez.

In the book The Servant, the author James C. Hunter discusses Servant Leadership, and the impact it has on every aspect of life. The book begins with a middle-aged man, John, who has it all, a supportive wife and kids and an authoritative job as a manager at a glass factory. John however, feels his life is falling apart, his employees aren’t respecting him and his relationships with his wife and kids are becoming distant and negative. In an attempt to make a change, John attended a week long religious retreat that’s main focus is Servant Leadership. The attendees at this retreat were all very different, their careers varied greatly, and their views on how to be a leader were not alike either. In the end though, they all agreed on one thing, making a change to become a Servant Leader was going to reshape their lives, through both their careers and relationships.

Servant leadership underscores service. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first (Greenleaf 2002, p.4). Servant leaders are not only team builders, motivators, but they are ready and willing to take matters in their hands. Besides, they act on their visions and their actions inspire people to become involve. A leader can ascend from anywhere in this world. Moreover, as our leaders rise we are able to examine their attributes, actions, and identify the servant leaders. The ten characteristics that are associated, with servant leadership are; listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. This paper will explore and analyze the actions, qualities of a young female head, as it relates to the ten characteristics of a servant leader.