Comparing Leadership Models: Servant, Transformational, and Participative

Introduction: A Participative Model of Leadership

My personal model of leadership is participative. I prefer to gather everyone's input when engaging in decision-making. By obtaining their perspectives, it allows everyone to feel like a stakeholder in the organization and to feel that their thoughts are valued and their opinions respected. Workers also feel that what they say makes a difference, so long as the leader is able to reflect their input in the final decision. As a leader, the ultimate decision rests with me — but it is equally important to stay informed about what others are thinking and what I can do to better reflect their values within the organization.

As a doctorally prepared advanced practice nurse, my aim is to include people in the decision-making process as much as possible. This means prioritizing their need to be heard, listened to, and acknowledged over my own need to make unilateral decisions. The benefit is mutual: I become better informed about what my workers want and how they see things, and in that sense I am better prepared to assist them in their professional development.

Servant Leadership and Its Core Principles

My personal model of leadership reflects a process of servant leadership in the sense that it allows me to cater to the needs of others through specific actions of listening, hearing, acknowledging, and reciprocating. Servant leadership is about putting the needs of others first, but it is also dependent on the ability to act in a way that assists individual workers in growing and developing both professionally and personally (Russell & Stone, 2002).

In order to listen to workers and genuinely hear their concerns, a leader must do more than simply call a meeting. The leader must also recognize what is not being said verbally: it requires using one's social and emotional intelligence to understand workers even through non-verbal forms of communication, and then responding to those needs accordingly (Cacamis & El Asmar, 2014). A participative form of servant leadership allows me to do just that by inviting workers to contribute input and to be part of the process of change.

Because all workers need to develop accountability skills, this process encourages growth by placing them at the center of the decision-making process. They observe how their contributions affect the organization and are then given the opportunity to take ownership of that change. As a leader, I set aside my positional authority for a moment and focus wholly on them — giving them the space to speak and to share what they would like to see. Afterwards, they understand that they are expected to uphold the standards that result from their input, and this expectation facilitates their professional growth.

Comparing Servant, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership

Servant leadership can be compared to other styles, such as transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Transformational leadership focuses on giving workers a vision of what they should strive to achieve, motivating them toward that goal, demonstrating individualized attention when needed, and providing a logical rationale for why pursuing that vision will benefit them (Warrick, 2011). Transactional leadership, by contrast, focuses on rewarding employees for achieving a goal — that is, there is a transaction or incentive offered: a leader provides a reward for every worker who accomplishes a specific task or adopts a new platform (Barbuto, 2005).

Transformational leadership shares aspects of servant leadership in that the transformational leader provides individualized attention to address workers' specific needs, which is a core feature of servant leadership. It also goes further by modeling the type of behavior the worker is meant to follow and emulate. Transactional leadership is less aligned with servant leadership in that it primarily focuses on rewarding good behavior; however, it shares the same underlying goal — encouraging workers to embrace productive habits and develop into better professionals.

References

Barbuto, J. E., Jr. (2005). Motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: A test of antecedents. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11(4), 26–40.

Cacamis, M. E., & El Asmar, M. (2014). Improving project performance through partnering and emotional intelligence. Practice Periodical on Structural Design & Construction, 19(1), 50–56.

Russell, R. F., & Gregory Stone, A. (2002). A review of servant leadership attributes: Developing a practical model. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23(3), 145–157.

Tobias, R. M. (2015). Why do so many organizational change efforts fail? Public Manager, 44(1), 35.

Warrick, D. D. (2011). The urgent need for skilled transformational leaders: Integrating transformational leadership and organization development. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 8(5), 11–26.