Advantages of servant leadership

Diversity
The servant leadership approach can be effective in a diverse workplace, as an autocratic style of
leadership can cause alienation among employees. A democratic form of leadership can
sometimes cause opposing points of view to be lost or distorted to fit the needs of the group. The
servant leadership style serves each member of the group. This allows for personalized
management for each diverse member of the team and can help to maintain team cohesiveness.

Loyalty
In other forms of management styles, the needs and visions of the company are put ahead of the
needs of the staff. With servant leadership, the needs of the staff become of primary importance.
The managerial staff develops a moral standing in decision-making that favors the employees.
The strong consideration for the needs of the employees, and the advantages this can have in the
areas of career development and work-home life balance, develops a strong sense of loyalty from
the employee to the company.

Involvement
A workplace that runs under a servant leadership style can choose to operate for the needs of
individual employees or it can operate as a collective where the group makes decisions. Unlike a
democratic management style where the majority rules, in a servant leadership setting, all
opinions and input matters. A company can obtain a wide variety of solutions to issues and
improve the feeling of teamwork within the workplace by using the servant leadership style to
get employees involved in decision making.

Productivity
Leaders that use the servant leadership style tend to gain a great deal of respect and trust from
their employees, according to psychology professor Paul T.P. Wong of Tyndale University
College in Toronto. The strong positive feelings between management and employees that the
servant leadership style promotes translate into a high sense of morale. When employees are
satisfied with their jobs and their company, workplace productivity rises.
Disadvantages
False Premise

In his August 2010 article "Why servant leadership is a bad idea," 30-year veteran executive
coach Mitch McCrimmon says servant leadership simply does not align with basic business
structure. Managers serve the primary purpose of representing the interests of owners and top

management, not employees. While part of the manager's job is to motivate and support good
employee performance and behavior, literal service to employees goes against inherent business
structures.

Lack of Authority

Servant leadership can actually lead to a minimization of the authority of the subject manager
and the overall management function in the business. When employees see their manager
catering to their needs in an extreme manner, they are less likely to view him as an authoritative
figure. If top management wants front-line mangers to push employees to better performance, it
is difficult for the servant manager to step back into this role as a more dominant figure.
Demotivating

Servant leadership may lead to demotivation of employees, who then produce fewer results over
time. McCrimmon likens this to a parent-child relationship in which the parent bails the child out
of trouble by constantly stepping into to fix things or to do the work for the child. When
employees believe their manager will step in to take care of any needs they have or to resolve
issues that arise, they are more tempted to sit back and exert less effort in producing quality and
put less thought into resolving issues or conflicts.
Limited Vision

Leaders at all levels of a business are distinct from regular employees by their role of developing
vision and providing direction. A manager needs to have some level of detachment from his
employees so he can explore new opportunities, brainstorm ideas, resolve problems and
formulate a picture on where his department, store or business is headed. Only by having this
separation from employees can managers focus on vision and then step in to articulate the vision
by providing direction to employees.