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Servant leadership is one of the most highly touted theories of leadership in the last several decades. It advocates that true leaders serve first. While it is a secular leadership idea, it is often used in the context of religious leadership and religious leaders, with Jesus being sighted as the best example of a servant leader. However, while this leadership paradigm is popular, servant leadership has some significant weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and addressed. When they are, it becomes clear that servant leadership is not an appropriate model in all scenarios.
One of the major problems with the concept of servant leadership is that it is very abstract. What does it mean to serve? The answer is different for every person, making it subjective and impossible to measure by an outside scale. Service for one person could mean something different than service to another. In addition, this type of service often relies upon the person in the leadership position trying to make value judgments about what type of leadership is needed by the people they are leading. This can be highly effective if the leader is empathetic and in-tune with the needs of an organization but can come across as paternalistic and condescending in some scenarios. This is particularly true if the leader comes from a very different background than those he is trying to lead.
Another significant problem with servant leadership is that it presumes a level of altruism that is probably not realistic among most very effective leaders. While it is true that…
