Servant Leadership
Leader Behaviors
Conceptualizing Emotional Healing Putting Followers First Helping Followers Grow and Succeed Behaving Ethically Empowering Creating Value for the Community
Antecedent (existing) conditions
context and culture, leader attributes, follower receptivity
Context and culture
cultures where power distance is low and power is share equally among people at all levels of society is where servant leadership may be more common
Servant Leadership
emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers, empathize with them, and nurture them; seen as ethical and lead in ways that serve the greater good of the organization, community, and society at large •Concerned with how leaders treat subordinates and the outcomes that are likely to emerge
Follower receptivity
ask "Do all employees show a desire for servant leadership?" only effective if followers want it
10 characteristics of servant leadership
1) listening 2) empathy 3) healing 4) awareness 5) persuasion 6) conceptualization 7) foresight 8)stewardship 9)commitment to the growth of people 10) building community
Outcomes of Servant Leadership
Follower Performance and Growth Organizational Performance Societal Impact
Leader Attributes
the qualities and disposition of the leader influence the servant leadership process ex: feel a deep desire to serve vs. strongly motivated to lead
Weaknesses
•The paradoxical nature of the title "servant leadership" creates semantic noise that diminishes the potential value of the approach •No consensus exists on a common theoretical framework for servant leadership •A utopian ring that conflicts with traditional approaches to leadership •Not clear why "conceptualizing" is a defining characteristic of servant leadership
Strengths
•Unique because it makes altruism the main component of the leadership process •Provides a counterintuitive and provocative approach to the use of influence where leaders give up control •Research shows that there are conditions under which servant leadership is not a preferred kind of leadership •Recent research has resulted in a sound measure of servant leadership that identifies seven distinct dimensions of the process
