When I first saw “Servant Leadership” I imagined that it would be in regards to the followers serving their leaders. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Servant Leadership is referring to a leader serving their followers in order for the followers to get things done (PSU WC, L11 p.1). This can then turn into the followers serving the organization so that the organization can better perform (PSU WC, L11 p.1). The servant leadership model has three basic components, antecedent conditions, servant leader behaviors, and outcomes (PSU WC, L11 p.3). While I do not have any personal experience with Servant Leadership that immediately comes to mind, it reminds me a lot of my friends’ experiences in the military and how they talk about their superiors. For the purpose of this post, I am going to talk about how the components of the servant leadership model relate to the standard military experience.
As a disclaimer: I am not in the military as I am medically unable to enter, so I will be writing based off of civilians perspective as well as references the experiences of my close friends.
Antecedent Conditions are described as pre-existing factors that set the tone for a leadership situation, which are broken down into context and culture, leader attributes, and follower receptivity (Northouse, 2021). When looking at the antecedent conditions of the military, one can see that the culture is very strong. Everyone in the military has a strong respect for one another, and it is very important that followers respect their superiors. This leads into leader attributes and follower receptivity. Both of these terms are talking about the individual attributes or traits of the person, and once again the military has worked very hard to build a culture of respect in its members, which one can infer leads into their personal traits (PSU WC, L11 p.3).
Next, Servant Leader Behaviors refer to the behaviors that leaders develop in order to help their followers grow and better serve the organization (PSU WC, L11 p.3). Think about basic training, or even a Sargeant serving a squad. The goal of the leaders is to ensure the success of their followers in order to better serve the organization. We want to ensure that people come out of boot camp strong and prepared to better serve their country, or we want to ensure that a squad is trained to the best of their ability to complete a mission and return home safely. This all comes down to the behaviors of the leaders and how they build up their followers (PSU WC, L11 p.3).
Lastly, we take a look at outcomes. A positive outcome in this situation in accordance with the servant leadership model, would be if a subordinate is trained up by their superior and are able to move up in the ranks. For instance, when a Private is able to move up and become a corporal or a Sergeant. If the leaders have developed strong leadership behaviors, they are more likely to have successful outcomes within this model(PSU WC, L11 p.3).
While there is some debate about whether or not the Servant Leadership model is successful, it appears to fit well into how the Military currently operates (PSU WC, L11 p.5). Whether or not this was intentional on their part remains to be seen, however it would be interesting to conduct research studies in this context. Overall, we can see examples of each aspect of the Servant Leadership Model, Antecedent Conditions, Leadership Behaviors, and outcomes, aligning with the standard practices of the US military.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (Ninth Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2023). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2258466/modules/items/38306092
I think your blog post was well written. I am currently active duty, and I believe that you captured a lot of the concepts accurately regarding the servant leadership theory as it relates to boot camp and a sergeant serving their squad. I wrote my post based on the opinion that servant leadership would not work in the military as a long-term leadership style due to our competitive culture and the nature of our occupation. Your post offered a different viewpoint that was interesting.
After reading your post, I do believe that boot camp can be considered a form of servant leadership in the fact that the drill instructors are serving the recruits so that the followers can contribute efficiently to the organization.
The only thing is, they don’t accomplish this outcome by using the servant behaviors. There is no compassion, empathy, or emotional healing during boot camp. While the drill instructors do behave ethically and they do 100% instill a sense of value for the community within their followers, it is not done in the kind manner mentioned in the text. According to the text, the servant leadership process only works when leaders have a humanistic philosophy and have altruistic tendencies. Servant leadership will backfire if a leader tries to engage this process while actually being a power oriented or domineering personality (PSU WC, L.11, P. 4). Although the drill instructors may not actually be that way once they are off the drill field and back in a normal work environment, the persona the give while training recruits screams “I’m in charge and you will do what i say, RIGHT NOW!!!”. But it has to be that way because they are literally creating warriors.
It is possible that I’m overthinking this theory as it relates to the military. Plus, this is only my opinion, I can’t speak for the military as a whole. But the servant leadership theory, in my opinion, seems to be referring to leaders who are not as rough around the edges and who are constantly appealing to their followers’ needs. Depending on what branch of the military a person is in, drill instructors and sergeants are literally meant to be hard-core. Of course they still do their jobs by ensuring that their subordinates are well taken care of but when they walk in the room, every thing and every one better be on point or they will fix that immediately.
As I mentioned earlier, I wrote my post based on the opinion that servant leadership isn’t a sustainable leadership style based on the time frame after boot camp. Such as when the recruits earn their title and make it to their unit and during deployments/war time. This is why I can see how some aspects of this theory fit into the military, but there are better theories that embody the essence of how the military operates. But I also understand your perspective.
References:
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2023). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership: How Does Servant Leadership Work. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/su23/2235min-5298/content/12_lesson/05_page.html.
Hello Lexi,
The most important part of successful leadership is to lead with example and to help the followers to reach the shared goal. When it comes to the military, I can only talk about the German military, as that is where I live. Servant leadership plays a huge role in the military because the main mission of the military is to serve their country and to protect the people that live in it. Therefore, I believe that all leaders at all ranks can be described using servant leadership as they all have the same shared goal and are working to serve the same need, which is to protect the people in their country. One part of servant leadership that was identified by Spears (2002) was that Stewardship is a main aspect of this type of leadership (Northouse, 2021). It is about taking responsibility for the actions of the followers and the people in the respective country (Northouse, 2021). The leaders in the military must take full responsibility for their actions and the actions of the people they lead in order to successfully lead and to ultimately save lives.
Also, a sergeant needs to be able to build a community which is another aspect of servant leadership (Northouse, 2021). The military is all about unity and comradeship. People that I know have been in the military here in Germany refer to their comrades as brothers and sisters and this is because the leaders have crafted them into a family that would never leave each other’s side in difficult situations, even when it comes to life or death. Every day the leaders in the military need to identify the needs of the people and the needs of the country, need to adapt to those situations, and need to adjust their leading strategies to fit these needs. A strength of servant leadership is the constant development of leaders and followers (Pennsylvania State University World Campus, 2023). The leader develops relationships to his followers and adapts his way of leading to the development and needs of the follower.
Thank you for sharing this blog post with us!
Best regards,
Magnus Eisenmenger
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice. SAGE.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2023). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2258466/modules