According to author Northouse (2016), “servant leadership is a paradoxical approach to leadership that challenges our traditional beliefs about leadership and influence” (Northouse, 2016, p. 253). The paradoxical challenge of servant leadership is in its foundation of the leader altruistically serving followers instead of followers serving the leader. In this style of leadership, leaders help, support, and empower ones’ followers to reach their full potential as individuals (Northouse, 2016). Thus, I will start with a brief overview of servant leadership, then imply that leaders who supplement their current leadership style with servant leadership behaviors will create a positive change in ones’ business environment.
First off, servant leadership was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970. Yet, according to Northouse (2016), some of its major sightings come from author Larry Spears. Spears (2002) identified ten characteristics from Greenleaf’s writings which make up the core of servant leadership, these ten characteristics being listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (Northouse, 2016). Together, each of these characteristics creates the foundation of what servant leadership is and are self-explanatory in nature. Furthermore, Linden et al. model of servant leadership creates a good framework for understanding how servant leadership creates positive outcomes within a working environment.
Liden et al. (2014) model of servant leadership functions within three progressive stages. The first stage is the antecedent conditions which encompasses the context of a situation, the followers’ culture, the leaders’ attributes, and lastly, leader-follower receptivity (Northouse, 2016). Each of these dimensions needs to be taken into account before a leader moves to the second stage of enacting a leadership behavior. Hence, the second stage of the model is using one of these seven core behaviors: conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating value for the community to affect change in ones’ followers (Northouse, 2016). Thus, a leader who puts forth the effort to use these core behaviors is ultimately going to benefit from the main strengths of using the servant leadership style. These strengths being ethical behavior from altruistic leadership and follower development from guiding and directing followers to participate in being leaders themselves (Williams, 2018). The last part of Liden et al. model is the outcome of the enacted behaviors of the leader. The outcome is essentially the leader tracking and assessing any performance, growth, and the societal impact he or she has encouraged from leading in the servant style. So, using servant leadership and my experience as a follower. I will describe how one of my managers from my former employer encouraged me to be a leader using the servant style alongside his main style of situational leadership.
To start, my experience comes from being an employee at Best Buy, the giant electronic retailer. I officially had seven managers at the store I worked but one main manager who oversaw the computer department. When I started my job in computer sales, I was well versed in computer knowledge since building computers was a hobby of mine. But, I had no experience in selling products. So, I sounded like a robot spouting off technological mumbo-jumbo and just was confusing our customers who were looking to get rational advice for their next purchase. The main manager who oversaw the computer department (whom I will call Bob in this Blog), was aware of my struggles. Bob showed servant leadership in his empathy and stewardship towards choosing to personally train me instead of delegating that work to my supervisor. Once a week he took me aside to do simulated training. Bob would pretend to be a customer and would act and ask different questions each time we trained until I was more fluid in my responses. Bobs method of coaching help support and empower me to be more self-confident. Healing my emotional laps of being shy and timid when talking with customers. Yet, even though my performance and growth as a computer sales consultant improved significantly in a two month. Bob still checked in on me each month, listening to any concerns I had, continuing to support me in taking take the lead on my own. Thus, just as Northouse described servant leadership, Bob was “attentive to the concerns of their followers, emphasize with them, and nurture them… putting followers first, empower them, and help them develop their full personal capacities” (Northouse, 2016, p. 225).
Lastly, it was clear that Bobs’ commitment to the growth of people was in the interest of a long-term sustainability and commitment to employees first. Bob’s intentions and goals seemed to be aligned with reducing turnover and treating employees as valued assets, not overhead. His passion for fellow followers was clearly different than the other managers who only valued short-term profits, seeing employees just as instruments to maximize corporate sales. However, Bob built a community of followers who shared a deep level of appreciation and respect for him. Thus, Bob’s use of servant leadership behaviors did lead to a positive change within his employees. Yet, as Northouse pointed out, the downside to servant leadership is not everyone will accept the positive effects this leadership style. Leaders should take into account that out-group members can exist within their work environment. These employees “are less-compatible with the leader and usually just come to work, do their job, and go home” (Northouse, 2016, p. 139). Nevertheless, Bob’s actions of “servant leadership created a healthier organization that nurtured individual growth, strengthen organizational performance, and, in the end, produce a positive impact” (Northouse, 2016, p. 236).
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership Theory and Practice (7th Edition). London, United Kingdom: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Williams, J. (2018, 04 04). Strengths and Weaknesses of Servant Leadership. Retrieved from psu.instructure.com: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1923777/modules/items/23736288
Edward W Klock says
I found your blog to be a very good read this week. I to had a manager that had taken me under his wing when I was working in construction. It was easy for him to do this with most of his men because he was in the trenches working with us. I believe when the manager is out working with their employees there is more of a promising outcome using the servant leadership approach. This is because it is beneficial when servant leaders are honest with followers and treating them almost as partners (PSU, 2018)
I have also seen the opposite effect and failure of the servant leadership approach. This occurred more times than not when the manager would never leave their office or trailer. This has also been stated in our readings stating “Servant leadership will backfire if a leader tries to engage this process while actually being a power oriented or domineering personality (PSU,2018). The leaders that I have seen that failed at this seemed to just yell orders to people instead of portraying the type of leader that has trust in his employees.
All in all, I tend to agree with you that all leaders should have some altruism. It is important for organizations to see this and become beneficial for them to be successful.
Pennsylvania State University (2018). PSYCH 485 Online Course Commentary. Retrieved April, 7, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786625