With the lifestyle typically exhibited in the military, you might think only an authoritarian-style of leadership would be evident. In this style, the primary emphasis is on getting the job done and less on people and their feelings. Interaction between leaders and followers deals with giving direction to get the job done (Northouse, 2016, p. 75).
Although, after a twenty-year career, I could tell tons of stories showing this, here is a quick one. As Storekeepers, we were responsible for all the repair parts and consumables carried on the ship. One day we had pallets of stores on the pier that needed to be loaded. On those days, that was the priority, nothing else mattered. One of the junior sailors wasn’t moving fast enough as he was doing something else. After repeatedly tell him to get to the pier, he said to me: “you know no one here likes you.” My response was simply: “I don’t care, we have a job to do. Let’s go.” I had no concern for his feelings, we just needed to complete a task.
As we have learned throughout this semester, there are many types of leadership traits, behaviors and theories and not one is perfect for all situations. This week, it is Servant Leadership. Throughout my career, I also worked for, and learned from leaders that actually practiced Servant Leadership. In this type of leadership the good of the followers takes precedence over the self-interests of the leader. Leaders are concerned with the development of the subordinates. They provide are ethical leaders up and down the chain-of-command (Northouse, 2016, p. 226).
There were ten characteristics identified in our text that help identify a servant leader: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (Northouse, 2016, pp. 227-228). In taking the first three characteristics, listening, empathy, and healing, a servant leader will listen first and make sure they truly understand what the follower is saying. There are numerous times where I have witnessed a leader having to put aside the good of the department and ship to take care of a follower (Northouse, 2016, p. 227). One instance for me was the passing of my maternal grandfather. My ship was out on a training exercise when I received the news by my Chief. He sat and talked to me for a couple of minutes making sure I was OK and asking if I wanted to fly back to Pennsylvania for the funeral. Due to scheduling, I didn’t, but the offer was still made.
The other characteristic I wanted to mention is the commitment to the growth of people. Here a servant leader treats each follower as unique with intrinsic value that goes beyond the daily contribution. Servant leaders want to help their followers grow professionally and personally (Northouse, 2016, p. 228). At one point in my career, I had a leader say something that has stuck with me from that day forward. He said: “You are my replacement. It is my job to ensure you can take my place when I leave.” Obviously I was not his direct replacement, but I understood what he meant. It was his responsibility as a leader to ensure my career development continued on an upward trend. The times I was placed in a leadership position, I attempted to do the same thing. I feel it is actually the most important thing a leader can do – ensure the continued development of their followers, so one day they can move up in their career.
There are potential positive outcomes when this type of leadership is in play. As Greenleaf mentions when he first introduced the theory, the primary goal is to “create healthy organizations that nurture individual growth, strengthen organizational performance, and finally, produce a positive impact on society.” There are three potential positive outcomes: follower performance and growth, organizational growth, and societal impact (Northouse, 2016, p. 236).
When talking about follower performance and growth the outcome to look for is for followers have a great self-actualization. When leaders nurture them, followers can realize their full capabilities and have the opportunity to reach their personal goals. It can also reflect a favorable impact on the way followers do their assigned jobs. And as I mentioned previously, as it happened to me, followers of servant leadership may become servant leaders themselves (Northouse, 2016, pp. 236-237).
Servant leadership can have a profound effect on organizational performance. Our text mentions that numerous studies have found that there is a positive relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. Followers will tend to go beyond regular requirements of their jobs and help the overall function of the organization. This leadership can also enhance the team effectiveness by providing team members the confidence that they can work well as a group (Northouse, 2016, p. 237).
The final positive outcome is societal impact (Northouse, 2016, p. 237). If servant leadership is prevalent on a U.S. Navy command the impact on society can be great. It is a regular occurrence that when ships pull into ports anywhere around the world, they look for community relation projects. This not only a good thing for the community, but it reflects well on that crew and the United States. A prime example from my career was when Guam was hit with a Super Typhoon. Pongsonga spent 18 hours over the island causing millions of dollars of damage and loss of life. Members of the US Navy and US Air Force stationed on the island got out in force helping with the post storm clean up. Humanitarian efforts like this are typical of our military.
So, can servant leadership work in the US Navy, yes it can. As with other leadership styles, there is a time and place for it. But it is incumbent on the leader to ensure it is used whenever possible. It is also incumbent on the follower to take advantage when the leader is practicing this type of leadership.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.
Kevin, thanks for the feedback. We are of the same opinion Thinking more about it, I can add that the biggest reason you get promoted is knowing your job. To be able to do that, the leaders do need to practice servant leadership as part of a full arching leadership program. The people I worked for during my career, for the most part, were able to provide all the types of leadership that were discussed this week.
First and foremost, thank you for your service, I’m sure you hear it a lot but probably not as much as what you should. I agree and truly believe that servant leadership can exist in the military as well as anywhere else. Sure you are going to have those authoritarian style leaders but even those leaders can also be servant leaders. In my opinion, a true leader is always looking at developing their followers. Even though a servant leader is more focused on the good of their followers and less on self-interest they are still putting the burden of the organizations outcomes on themselves. It is the job of a servant leader to create or push their followers into the path of leadership. Show them the way to accomplish something that maybe they never thought they could do or become. I am a firm believer, as a supervisor, that leaders should be looking at developing their replacement as your leader had once told you. It is like our children, we do the best we can as parents to prepare them for the world and all it has to offer. We aren’t for our self-interests but rather for the success and safety of our children. We are their servant leaders and the organization is the world. It makes sense that those of us that are leaders want to develop the next batch of leaders who take on more responsibilities in order for us to be able to focus on other areas of concern or helping out the next individual that could be the next president of the company.