A Discussion on Servant Leadership Paper Example

Introduction

Servant leadership is considered the unique style of leadership ideology that is against the one's goal of self-interest in human behaviours. The servant leadership receives attention since it created firm altruistic ethics than the transactional leadership or the transformational leadership (Van Dierendonck, 2011). The fundamental principle that supports the servant leadership is the ability to earn the in-depth knowledge of one's followers. The leaders should first win the people over before they can gain their support. This helps to enhance cooperation by enhancing the relations between the followers and leaders. This study aims at exploring concept of servant leadership among the leaders. The servant leadership concept can be traced by passages that are dated back to the 4th century BC (Melchar, 2010). The most noted passages were documented from Lao Tzu who was considered highly influential, and his teaching on servanthood was aimed at rescuing the society from moral decay (Parris, 2013). Another historical example of servanthood is the case of Jesus Christ who, in the bible, he instructed his disciples that whoever that wished rule should first be a servant of themselves (Liden, 2008). The ancestor of the servant leadership is the assist and researcher Robert Greenleaf. Robert Greenleaf created an essay that targeted poor leadership whereby he explained his idea of service to others thus introducing the phrase servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977). Robert implemented servant leadership to ensure that his workers highest needs were being attained. The central concept of servant leadership is based on putting other people before one's interests, servant leaders usually care about the people that work for them, and other peoples issues come before their commitment.

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Characteristics of Servant Leaders

After the death of Robert Greenleaf, Larry spears expanded the green leaf writings and introduced several characteristics of a servant leader, which include, first, listening, the ability to pay attention to the others views is considered as the start of creating a good relationship with the followers (Dennis, 2010). People who are successful in life usually understand the effectiveness of listening to others. Listening is a substantial benefit that enables to gain knowledge and understand the meaning of what is being expressed.

Secondly, empathy, the servant leaders usually try to connect and understand each person in the society. Gaining insight starts with having the understanding that the role of a leader is to manage a group of people but understanding the group is based on individual's needs (Liden, 2008). Servant leaders usually acknowledge every follower and believe that every individual has something good to offer. Thirdly, healing, servant leaders have the potential to heal the followers. Servant leaders act as a force of transformation, acknowledging that the human heart is delicate and life introduces many challenges in the working environment (Christiano, 2002). The leaders understand the importance of recognizing the heating people and are of assistance in the recovery process.

Fourth, awareness, having awareness on climate mainly the ethical and moral issues enables the leader to be aware of the various conflicts of interest. While identifying these values within one's organisation improves the leader's ability to manage other people. Fifth, stewardship, this refers to the act of making yourself responsible for the failure or success of the institution or organisation. Stewardship involves the services that are done to others and the commitment to meeting other people needs (Blanchard, 2016). The implication, in this case, is that servant leaders satisfy the requirements of the followers in the working areas, the most important mechanism used by the leaders in this case to enhance job satisfaction is persuasion (Liden, 2008). Therefore, the servant leaders have a clear understanding of the motivational and attitudinal demands that the followers require.

Summary of the Group Integration Project

When discussing servant leadership, we tend to have two different perspectives, which is the man-centred approach and the Christ-centered approach. Man-centred approach refers to when an individual place himself before the other and mainly focus on individual gain instead of pleasing God. While Christ-centered approaches put other people needs first and show leadership traits (Blanchard, 2003). The bible is referred to as the God's book since there are many examples of servant leadership portrayed. Since the times of King David, to the times of Jesus Christ service towards the apostles and Paul, therefore servant leadership is considered a unique style of management and administration (Blanchard, 2003). The biblical basis of servant leadership is knowing Jesus as our Lord and saviour and requesting him to soften our hearts so that we can have the ability to love as he loved us (Wilkes, 1998). The overall definition of servant leadership is that it is an important criterion that proves the love of Jesus Christ towards the people they serve and lead. According to Robert green leaf, the christens usually face challenging situations in their daily lives based on servant leadership, however various factors can result in Christians having attitudes that are not in honour of Jesus Christ. Christians should emulate Jesus as an example of servant leadership.

Greenleaf theory on servant leadership was based upon the model represented by Jesus Christ (Blanchard, 2014). He also explains that a servant leader is a person who is a servant first, that is, have the desire to serve for example according to John 12:26 Jesus Christ called us to serve "whoever serves me must follow me where I am, my servants will always be, and my father will honour those who serve me" (Greenleaf, 2002). According to the bible servant, leadership is active for both the Christians and non-Christians, emphasises growth, and needs of the people being led but not the individual needs of the people who are leading. Therefore, the people who employ servant leadership tend to find the joy of preparing and developing the diversity that happens within the holy body of Jesus Christ.

Leadership Interview

Summary of the Interview Questions

According to the interview of sheriff bill Holt of the Robertson county sheriff department, in his line of duty, he intends to serve other people in the best possible way he can. Sheriff bill holt chooses his work because when he was in the boy's scouts team, whereby he had an opportunity to spend time with the county sheriff, after which he realized that he wanted to join the line of law enforcement. He later joined the career and has been the sheriff for the past eight years. He believes that he possesses various types of leadership styles that include, directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. However, the sheriff believes that he owns more of coaching leadership method than the supporting leadership method; this is because he has the belief in directing his employees towards the right path and enabling them to make choices that that aimed at developing their career. This is achieved through the sheriff's office giving laws and procedures that enable them to make the employees make the right decisions.

The sheriff also explains how he can accomplish his mission with the imperfect people by stating that there is no perfect individual since everyone has a gift from God and everyone is expected to use the gift appropriately. He indicated that every person in the county sheriff department is a team member and usually help each other. This is achieved through the sheriff department have policies that ensure that everyone follows the code of conduct. The sheriff states that accomplishment of the mission's dependant on coaching the employees towards the right direction rather than suspending them.

The sheriff indicates that he does not entertain criticism, but instead, he shuts them out. However, he welcomes the constructive criticism whereby the final decision lies with the whole team of the sheriff department. He then decides on whether or not to respond to the decision. Sheriff Holt defines self-serving leadership as the leadership whereby people make decisions concerning themselves while servant leadership occurs when an individual makes a decision depending on the other people. For example, the sheriff's department serves a wide variety of people. Therefore, the choices are never about him. The sheriff seeks to lead towards a higher initiative through his believe in Romans 13:1-6 that indicates that authority is offered by God (Spears, 2010). Therefore, he tries hard to achieve that and has a clear understanding of where his power originates.

The sheriff believes that contributions of servant leadership are felt in the organisation in which they are working in, the surrounding environment in which surrounds the working people, the employees, and the society. He has developed servant leadership through his dedication towards serving the people in law enforcement for his entire career. The employees at the department also understand that when working, they need to follow the laws and the policies and procedures, which are an example he sets to his fellow employees. The sheriff indicates the various behaviours he engaged in that were useful and contributed to his success. This includes being open and associating with the community members through helping in charities and sponsorships. For example, the sheriff has served in community boards outside the law enforcement communities.

The sheriff indicates his strengths as treating every person, and his employees included in a manner that he would wish to be addressed. He achieves this by trying to visualize himself in their shoes in their various levels of experience. However, some of his weakness as a servant leader is that sometimes he seeks to achieve things through trying to attain quick solutions, but later after thinking about the issue, he finds out that it was not the best way to handle the situation. He should have taken another alternative. Various strategies are employed by the sheriff to motivate his employees, this includes. Always making it known to the employees that they are appreciated, and their work is valued and essential. The sheriff ensures that his workers hear these words from him in person.

According to Sheriff Holt, his role in implementing servant leadership is ensuring that everyone in the department has an understanding that everybody is to be held accountable for their actions and any consequences attached. Sheriff Holt addresses these issues by communicating with the people to know their problems and clear ways of handling their issues in a way, which pleases everyone. The challenges experienced by the sheriff due to working with external groups include the not knowing what law enforcement concerns and the duties of the sheriff's office. He overcomes this challenges by explaining to the public their various responsibilities and roles. The servant leaders within the sheriff department can be agents of social change through being involved in the correctional facilities whereby the initiate programs to help the prisoners while still in the sheriff's departments that when they are released, they have the capability to be productive people in the society. Also during patrols, the officers should positively treat the people thus leaving the people with the positive image of the sheriff department.

Develop criteria that that describes the leader's perspective on servant leadership behaviour

According to the leader's perspective, the leaders should try to inspire their employees through ensur...