My leadership style as servant leadership and aspirations for transformational growth

Perceived Leadership Integrity

Leadership Style

My leadership style can be best described as servant leadership. This approach is based on the idea that the leader exists to bring out the best in the people who are being led. Ultimately, I feel that as a leader I fit in a role where I am seeking to optimize the strategies and plans related to the organization as a whole, and that the best way for me to do so is to ensure that the people under my charge are equipped to perform at their highest level (Greenleaf, 2016). One leader alone cannot bring about the organizational results that are desired; only the entire organization can do that. Therefore, the role of the leader is to facilitate each and every member of the organization to operate at his or her highest possible level, without constraints, and that they may be encouraged to do so.

I volunteer for an organization where I have taken on a leadership role, largely as the result of being one of the first people to dedicate time to the organization. As my role has evolved over the past few years, I find that empowerment of others is the best way to achieve the organizational results. This is something that I have learned over time. For the most part, the people who might be considered one level down from myself are highly competent, dedicated people. If given the opportunity and resources, they will excel. The theory basically trickles down from there -- at each level, if people are empowered to be at their best, they will do so. So my experience is that by providing the knowledge and resources people need to excel, they will usually do so, and this is the best thing that the leader can do for the organization, because hundreds of people with informal power are far more powerful than one individual who happens to have been bestowed with formal power.

Leadership Style Aspirations

There are several other leadership styles that we learned about in class, and there are most definitely elements of those styles that I would like to adopt, to varying degrees. If we look at Lewin's leadership styles, I clearly fit within the confines of the democratic leader, and that is not something I would want to change. But I would like to add a greater transformational element to my leadership. I am actually at this point an accomplished transactional leader. I can empower people to perform routine tasks to a high level of confidence simply by giving them the background knowledge and tools, and allowing them leeway in how they wish to interpret the organizational vision.

However, I would like to add a transformational element to this. Transformational leaders "inspire their team members because they expect the best from everyone," which already fits my philosophy (MindTools, 2016) but transformational leaders also wish to see their team move from one state to another. The transformational leader has an element of vision that can be quite powerful, because that vision allows for the organization to move from one state to another, under the guidance of a strong leader who can convey that vision and the steps that will take the organization from its present state to its envisioned state.

There are a few reason why I like this approach. First, it is compatible with the way I already approach leadership. For the most part, my leadership approach fits within the democratic school (Cherry, 2016), but the transactional-transitional line is about organizational outcomes, not the way someone leads. Any leadership style can, in theory, be either transactional or transformational, depending on what the organization needs. In my case, I excel at transactional leadership, which works well for most situations, but there are times when I feel that it would be beneficial to empower people not just to perform their jobs well, but to transform an organization into some new great vision. This might be an element my ego sliding into my thinking about leadership style, but so be it. Ultimately, I would like to have that power to take an organization or unit forward in some new way, while simultaneously doing it through the empowerment of the people within the organization. I do not see these two styles as mutually exclusive, and that is one of the reasons this is something I want.

I also have examined the transformational leadership concept as something that I would like to incorporate because I feel that all leadership, ultimately, is situational in nature. Stone (2004) argued that transformational leadership is contrary to servant leadership in terms of where the leader's focus lies, but I do not subscribe to this logic. The leader is always an intermediary between the organization and the followers; those bodies have a mutually beneficial relationship, and the leader ensures that the benefit is maximized. The leader, therefore, can retain a servant focus, while pursuing organizational objectives. The pursuit of follower and organizational objectives is not mutually exclusive. It all depends on the situation. The situational aspect of leadership means that the most effective leaders are those who can recognize the differences between situations and adjust their styles -- however subtlety -- accordingly. It is actually unlikely that a leader would be able to completely adopt a whole new leadership style, but adding to one's skillset can only make one a more effective leader when the time comes to recognizing a unique situation and make adjustments to take advantage of that.

Organizational Change

Organizational change is a unique leadership situation. A great article that explains the role of leadership in the context of organization change is Hannan & Freeman (1984), where the authors discuss structural inertia and the challenges that it poses for implementing organizational change. This is one of the things that fascinates me about transformational leadership -- organizations are bound by inertia, especially large, longstanding organizations. That inertia is an impediment to change, and for the leader, a substantial challenge. Inertia is also a challenge for a servant leader. The servant leader would empower the followers, in whom the inertia is embedded.

I would still uphold the principles of servant leadership, but I would adopt a slightly different approach. I would approach the change first by selling the change to the staff. I would need to engage them, so that when I allowed them to turn their resources towards the direction of the organization change, that they were on board. This can be difficult, but ultimately organizational change literature supports the idea that any leader -- regardless of leadership style -- needs to bring about organizational buy-in prior as an antecedent to successful organizational change (Stauffer, 2008).

Ethical Considerations

The ethics of leadership are a significant issue . One of the things that a leader must always bear in mind is that the power is imbued with responsibility, and thus the leader cannot abuse that power. The servant leader is probably the least likely of all leaders to abuse power, because this leadership style emphasizes that power should be transferred to the followers, rather than retained by the leader. The leader uses his or her power mainly to improve the ability of the followers to succeed, something that has a lower likelihood for ethical abuses.

Nonetheless, it is important for a leader to understand that abuses of power can occur even among leaders who naturally seek to defer that power. A leader has a high level of formal power within the organization, and even a servant leader can guide employees to put their energies to counterproductive, or illegal tasks. Thus, the leader needs to always maintain his or her ethical compass. There is no need for a servant leader, or even a transformational leader, to empower and motivate people to do things that they should not be doing. Being cognizant of the potential for the abuse of power is something that any leader should be, and remembering to always stick to the empowerment approach will go a long way towards ensuring that no ethical violations occur.

Conclusion

This course on leadership has been highly informative. I have learned about the different leadership styles that exist. Because the differences in styles mean that they are not mutually exclusive, a lot of leaders end up with something of a syncretic style, and I am no exception. But it has proven vital for me to learn not just that there are different styles, but what those styles mean in the context of running an organization. I have come to subscribe to the idea of situational leadership, even within the context of having generally one main leadership style. I have learned that one of the most important things a leader can do is to be flexible, and adaptive in dealing with different situations. To me, a lack of flexibility is something that invites trouble for the leader, because no two situations are exactly alike, nor should they be treated as such.

I have also been able to, while working my way through this course, gain a better sense of how I prefer to lead. I have learned that there are specific names and theories attached to the leadership styles that have traditionally pursued. In a sense, this has provided me with a sense of validation, but more than that I feel that this has provided me with the ability to evaluate the styles I use, and the styles that I may wish to incorporate in the future.

On the whole, I have gained significant understanding of how leadership works, and been able to learn more about how I lead. I will be able to better lead in the future, knowing what I know now. This course has brought to me a lot of value in becoming a better leader, and providing me with aspirations for the future that I did not have previous.