about servant leadership

The Explanation of Servant Leadership as a Mentality

The explanation why servant leadership is referred to as a mentality rather than an ideology but rather philosophy is discussed below. The servant-leader has the distinct trait of going beyond and beyond to serve those in the organization. The leader prioritizes the interests of those, causing others in the group to look up to him or her as a role model and mentor. This promotes collaboration in organizations so the leader can communicate effectively with colleagues when delivering services to consumers.

Robert Greenleaf and Servant Leadership

Robert Greenleaf, the guy who proposed servant leadership 30 years ago. According to him, “a great leader must be a servant first, (1970)” meaning that inner motive to serve in any position within the organization. The servant leader think of others first before considering the authority that may be there. The ambition of this kind of a leader is to help others in any way necessary thus making the operation of the organization improve. The key thing in servant leadership is identifying the possible problems that colleagues face within the organization hence it is the role of this leader to find solutions through consultation forums. The servant leader is a desire to serve oriented type of leadership.

The Impact of Servant Leadership

The Servant Leadership changes the personality of the colleagues, followers and the organization so much in terms of performances. The servant leader associates with others thus motivating them and therefore leading as an example on doing certain tasks perfectly. A good example happens when a leader in a restaurant decides to serve customers taking up the work of the waiter; this shows that leadership has no limits one can do the job that the juniors allocated in the organization. The employees will do their duties following the leader thus the customers’ satisfactions met and the organization benefits from the income generated from the customers.

REFERENCES

Barbuto Jr, J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. Group & Organization Management, 31(3), 300-326.

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452.