Servant leadership principles and practice

Servant Leadership

Even though servant leadership is in most cases associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ it is quite compatible with most religions and theories of philosophy. This paper is a comparative study using Greenleaf's characteristics of servant leadership which is based on Christianity against other philosophy and other leadership theories.

"…The great leader is seen as servant first…"-Robert K. Greenleaf. This is a fragment from a sentence in an essay written in 1970 which adequately covers the essence of servant-leadership theory. This simple and yet profound concept has spawned in various books, journals and articles. Greenleaf intentionally sought to come up with a descriptor that might be held about the existing relationship between a leader and his followers. Servant leadership is a new kind of leadership model that puts serving others as the first priority. Servant leadership puts emphasis on increased service to others; this is a holistic approach to work that promotes a sense of community and sharing the power of making decisions. The servant leadership framework is based on various tenets which are; service to others (Smith, 2005). This implies that servant leadership starts when a leader assumes a servant's position when interacting with their followers. Legitimate and authentic leadership does not arise from exercise of power or self-interested actions but from having the fundamental desire of helping other people. A servant leader's main motivation and purpose is encouraging others while an indirect outcome of servant leadership in an organization is its success. Another tenant is holistic approach to work. Servant leadership holds that work exists for a person just as the person exists for the work. This theory therefore promotes a view that people should be encouraged to be who they are in their professional as well as their personal lives. Promoting a sense of community is another aspect the framework of this theory.

Servant leadership questions an institution's ability to render human services and argues that only community that can be defined as a group of individuals that are jointly liable for on an individual basis as well as a unit can perform functions .therefore establishing a sense of community among followers enables an organization to succeed in its objectives. The sense of community can also come up due to the actions of individual servant leaders. Sharing of the decision making power also forms a framework for the theory. Effective leadership is evidenced by nurturing of servant leadership in others.by nurturing participatory, empowering environments as well as the encouragement of talents of followers servant-leaders create a workforce that is effective, motivated and a more successful organization ( Smith, 2005). There are several attributes that are associated with servant leadership these are listening which is a crucial tool for communication which is necessary accurate communication as well as active demonstration of respect for others. Empathy which is the ability to mentally project ones own consciousness into that of another person. Healing involves making whole thus servant leadership has taken in the shared human desire of finding wholeness in one's self and supporting this wholeness in other people (Podsada, 2010). Awareness is also important since without it one can miss leadership opportunities. Effective servant -- leader builds group consensus through a gentle, clear and persist persuasion without exerting group compliance through position power. A servant leader is also supposed to come up with solution to problems which are not currently in existence (Podsada, 2010).Therefore the aspect of conceptualization is important in servant leadership. Foresight is important and better that taking guesses on what is likely to happen. Servant leader's area also expected to be committed to the growth of people. They are supposed to demonstrate appreciation and encouragement of other people. Servant leaders have the responsibility of showing a way for the building of the community that has eroded due to the rise of large institutions. Stewardship is also important when it comes to servant leadership. The stewards in organizations are concerned with individual followers in the organization but also the entire organization as a whole coupled with its impact on and relationship with the entire society (Smith, 2005).

Having looked at servant leadership and what it is about we can now examine if it is compatible with other philosophies or leadership theories. I agree with the statement that despite the fact that servant leadership is associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ it is equally in agreement with several other faiths as well as philosophical theories and leadership theories. Early leadership theories focused mainly on the qualities that set apart leaders from their followers with subsequent theories looking at variables like situational factors and levels of skills. The participative theory is an example of a theory that is compatible with servant leadership according to Greenleaf. Participative theories suggest that an ideal leadership style is one that takes seriously the input of other people participative leaders encourage the contributions and participation from other group members hence help them feel more relevant and committed when it comes to the process of making decisions. This is not different from how servant leaders let their followers participate in making decisions. Servant leadership is also compared to transformational leadership by James Macgregor Burns. Like servant leadership, transformational leadership has become very popular due to its emphasis on extraordinary leaders characteristics as well as its humanistic valuation of the followers. Transformational and servant-leadership theories are rooted in the charismatic leadership framework. Both theories share the focus of charismatic leadership model which is leadership behavior and qualities (Wallace, 2007).

When looking at worldviews of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism we can say undoubtedly that these views are compatible with servant leadership in factors like nature and exemplars of leadership, the core vision, basis for moral leadership, the source of wisdom for the leaders, levels of being and finally the role played by the community. This therefore implies that the aspect of servant leadership is present and uniform in all these religions .it means that believers and followers of the religion practice servant leadership as their religion requires (Wallace, 2007).