Servant Leadership Theory

The two theories that I chose to do my self-assessment by are the authentic leadership theory and the servant leadership theory. The authentic leadership theory was chosen due to my desire to stay true to who I am and what I stand for. However, the servant leadership theory was chosen because of my desire to meet the needs of others while doing what I can to help others succeed as well as meet their set goals. Being a servant while being authentic are the traits I want in my style of leadership and are assessed throughout this paper along with my strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership.

How Servant Leaders Motivate People Servant leadership his become very important in the world today. According to Chan and Mak, servant leadership defines as the “the person who is leader first and who later serves out of the promoting of conscience or in conformity with normative expectations”. According to Boyum (2012), the term servant is defined as “one who is under obligation to work for the benefit of a superior and to obey his or her commands” (p. 33). The ultimate focus of a servant leader is the well-being & continuous development of his team or followers. Although traditional leadership involves the exercise of authority by the individual at the top management level, the situation for the servant leader is difficult. Setting the priorities

Michelle’s life embodies the idea of a person who has the x-factor, she shows that leadership is something that is developed over time and learned through experiences. The x-factor is when individuals in a society spark creativity, it is a multi-discipline that borrows and synthesis existing intellectual resources to generate new ones and approach causation. (Burns, 2003). Michelle is a prime example of the ideals of the x-factor that crates a leader.

Life is a process of searching for missions and then completing those missions presented. Every person possesses a different calling within his or her life, and even some are given several missions to complete in a lifetime. I strongly believe that my mission in life is to be a doctor to help the weak get healthier, and continually learn about serving others throughout my entire life. My greatest ambition is becoming a pediatric orthopedic surgeon because I have had two knee surgeries before.

When facing crucial conversations such as conflicts or negotiations, people tend to look to autocratic or commanding leaders; organizations seldom see servant leaders as the person for the job. Although servant leadership is finding its way into contemporary discussions of effective leadership styles, people still view it as the characterization of a “weak or meek” leader (Collins, 2001, Kindle location 531). The Gospels, however, reveal that Jesus, the epitome of servant leadership, competently addressed critical conversations throughout his ministry (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 11:15-17, John 6:25-60, Matthew 16:21-23). While some may credit Jesus’s success to his divinity, this argument does not hold for those who followed his example of servant leadership. In contrast, Wilkes suggests the effectiveness of Jesus’s ministry was because of his servant leadership, rather than despite it.

Principle four, promote emotional healing in people and the organization, is a principle exclusive to servant leadership. There is no other leadership theory that integrates the need for personal and professional emotional healing within the workplace. According to Wheeler “what is meant by emotional healing addresses when people have hopes and dreams that for various reasons are not fulfilled” (Wheeler, 2012, p. 84). An individual’s success can be affected by the way they deal with disappointments and broken dreams and for this reason it is suggested the leaders help address emotional healing within an organization. At times an entire department or group of people may be traumatized by the same event such as a dysfunctional administrator or intimidation between members.

Servant Leadership is one of the oldest philosophies of leadership that was promoted by influential people, such as Jesus of Nazareth and Martin Luther King Jr. In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples that the only person who is great among them is one who is serving them (Mark 10:42-45). When he washes his disciples' feet, Jesus reminds them that he is their Lord and Teacher, yet he has washes their feet to illustrate he is a servant leader (John 13: 12-15).

A Servant-Leader, is a person that is emotionally and spiritually in touch with humanity, and although they are in a leadership position they are able to work along-side those they lead. Although the term “servant-leader” is a fairly new concept the actions are not. Dating back to the Old Testament, there are examples of servant leaders such as Moses, Joshua and Ruth. Although Christianity has a substantial record of servant-leaders including Christ, most religions have examples of such a leadership. Religion, while a significant factor in the pursuit for serving is not the only foundation that leads one to a position of management and service.

The foundation of my personal leadership philosophy can be found in the principles of servant leadership as spelled out by Greenleaf (1970, 1977). Leadership is granted to individuals who are by nature servants. An individual emerges as a leader by first becoming a servant. Servant leaders attend to the needs of those they serve and help them become more informed, free, self-sufficient, and like servants themselves. Leaders and those they serve improve, enhance, and develop each other through their connection. A leader must also be conscious of inequalities and social injustices in the organizations they serve and work actively to resolve those issues. Servant leaders rely less on the use of official power and control, but focus on empowering those they

Time is the most valuable thing we possess. Where each and every single human being puts in their time says a lot about them, in my opinion. For most people, their passions capture most of it, whether that is sports, academic endeavors, theatre, dance, learning, service and the list goes on and on. My passion is leadership through service; I believe that leadership comes in many forms, and the form I have chosen is servant leadership. Servant leadership is something I didn’t know much about a year ago.

• Leadership Thorsten Grahn (2011) says Jesus modeled the servant leadership to His disciples and developed them into the leaders of His Church, by examining His model we can also adopt Christ-like servant leadership style lead people in any situation. Jesus prayed for us before we were born, so as leaders of the church we should pray for the church; He preached the gospel to the unbelievers, we also should preach the gospel all over the world making them disciples. He feed thousands of people; we should also meet the needs of the people. • Example setting A person cannot teach what he does not know and leave, there is another song or saying that says “practice what you preach”; the more a person teaches his students the more they become like

Emerging Leaders, Doctoral Learners and the like may face many obstacles on the way to completion of their course work in pursuit of obtaining a post graduate degree. Moreover, learners will strive towards achieving a modicum of success while advancing both the theory and practice of leadership principles. Doctoral students have a zeal and a zest for researching the truth about the knowledge of an unknown topic as there is also a noticeable increase in the interest of Greenleaf’s (1977) servant leadership theory. Leadership is usually developed out of uncertain realities and issues that burst forward causing the individual to be stretched in areas he or she normally would not be exposed too and evidence of the leader emerges out of the need to be productive as opposed to being destructive. Essentially, the student argues for spiritual leadership theory, servant leadership, and being-centered leadership by discovering the concepts of positive well-being (psychological, spiritual, and physical) ascribed through scientific research; ethical well- being then arises out of the values, positive attitudes, and behaviors.

*The name of the individual has been changed to protect his privacy When I think of leadership, especially servant leadership, one name stands above the rest from my personal experiences. My dean of students at the university where I received my undergraduate was an exemplary model of a servant-leader. The best leaders put the organization and those working within that organization above their own personal goals and well being. Luke was a walking definition of servant-leadership.

The proposed servant leadership management model is a valued suggestion by our employees. Though it has been shown to increase worker morale and production at other enterprises, we do not have the resources to implement it here at Gecko. We must remember that Gecko Enterprises is a small, family owned business. Along with managing over 100 employees, we do not possess the ability to implement this model while satisfying the union’s requested pay raise. Furthermore, with increasing production costs and lowered productivity, we must do what is best for Gecko Enterprises.

The field in which I intend to develop a career is college access programs. I believe universal access to quality higher education will help individuals build a sense of purpose in the world by contributing to the collective well-being, ultimately creating a just world. The interest began in 2014, the year I began questioning the concept of college after being encouraged to enroll, attend, and graduate from college for 12 years. The question began the instance I started noticing that the role models I grew up with lacked formal education yet they lived happy lives; I wanted to be like them.