I was researching Servant Leadership theory this week for use in my final policy paper and a question occurred to me; do I know anyone that exemplified servant leadership? From my perspective, servant leadership centers mostly of the leader’s behavior and interaction with the followers, but what makes this theory unique to me is the motivation of the leader for his/her behavior.
It is often difficult to tell what the motivations are of other people, especially when you are in an uncertain situation such as a business setting. I like most people want to think the best of other people, but also have a build in self protective mechanism that questions intentions. How do you know that you can trust that someone is a servant leader interested in and motivated by their altruistic desire to serve me as a follower? The answer is in their consistent behavior; they will almost always be concerned with the follower’s needs and well being first.
Northouse lists several characteristics that exemplify a servant leader. They are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (Northouse, 2013, pp. 221-222). If you take these in their totality, this is a difficult set of behaviors to consistently accomplish. Leaders that exhibit these observable behaviors and come close to hitting this mark regularly have something special; selfless service towards others.
I had a new boss once that came close to exhibiting these behaviors of servant leadership. He was a seasoned individual that was only a few years away from retirement and was not interested in further career advancement. On the other hand, Dennis did whatever he could to help his followers learn and advance, even if it was at risk to his own position. One of his favorite sayings was “The most important thing you can do is take care of your people. You take care of them and they will take care of the mission.” He operated daily to take care of his people; both personally and professionally. I believe that he was a servant leader because of his consistent demonstrating of his motivation through his behavior. Dennis has now retired and I’ve moved on to new positions…I like to think that some of his altruistic motivations rubbed off on me…and the folks can tell from my behavior.
Works Cited
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership, Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
tqk5126 says
Perhaps one of the most relevant leadership behaviors that defines servant leadership is in the premise that dictates that such a leader will inevitably place the follower’s needs above his or her own. And, what is somewhat interesting about your former leader is not only does he do this selflessly to solely promote nurturance and development of his people, but to create a clear focus on organizational performance. Specifically, he best demonstrates this when he iterates, “…You take care of them and they will take care of the mission.”
Some leaders could easily operate under the guise of servant leadership, claiming to value such concepts that proponent a people first attitude, only to simply do so as a means to their own advancement. In other words, these leaders may speak to creating a culture that facilitates building relationships, discovering needs, and subsequently attending to these needs, but expect personal reciprocation in the end and admonish a quid pro quo philosophy in their provisions for their people. Although not necessarily stated explicitly, such leaders that covet this mindset may demonstrate their true lack of commitment to the servant leadership concept by expecting personal favors (completing additional assignments on behalf of the leader, for example), articulation of the many ways the leader has served his or her people to those of significant standing (Who hasn’t experienced the leader who implicitly expects you to discuss his or her positive attributes when asked by his or her supervisor?), and added affinity and respect (for example, the leader no longer expects you to challenge their thought processes or strategies). Clearly, these devices can be said to abuse the concept of servant leadership when one seeks to utilize those strategies that he or she has employed to benefit the organization’s people to function as leverage for personal advantage, albeit often somewhat subtlety.
Your former leader, however, is to be admired as a true servant leader as he is clearly aligned with ensuring the needs of his people are paramount, and expecting only organizational performance in return.