ENGLISH 8

Submitted by: Daniel Anthony L. Cabrera

Section: 3-BLM

“The Modern Leader within us”

 Activity Title: Servant Leadership

“The Modern Leader within us”

It all started with the ancient Taoist masters, such as Lao-tsu and Chuang-tsu,

have been often cited as knowing something about the true art of leadership. Lao-tsu was

a sixth century B.C. Chinese philosopher who advocated selflessness and non-directive

leadership. While the idea of servant leadership originated at least two thousand years,

the modern servant leadership advocacy was introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970

with the publication of his classic essay, The Servant as Leader. It was in that essay that

he the concepts and fundamentals of servant leadership. According to Greenleaf, "The

servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve,

to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply

different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual

power drive or to acquire material possessions. "Behind all the minor differences of

opinion amongst the Enlightenment thinkers, one can begin to see an effort to understand

the true purpose behind the need for rulers, leaders and leadership. This has to do with

the question of what is the source of legitimate power and authority over others in the

political realm. We need to acknowledge that there was then, as now, differences of

opinion voiced in answer to that question.

There have been great misconception on the words "servant leadership" which is

considered to be null and void due to the research and evidences that have been studied

since in the ancient times. There is much misunderstanding and confusion about what a

'servant leader' actually is and does. Some of these misconceptions is that servant

leaders are doormats. In which they utilize ways for employees to take advantage of them.
This misconception is not true because its fundamentals leads employees to pump up

their confidence and increase their organizational performance. Another misconception

is that servant leaders are kinds of bosses that spend all day walking the halls with a fixed

smile, taking orders from employees who will eventually expect it and feel entitled to it in

which all they do is for the sake of formalities. This is another misconception because

employees of servant leadership are more helpful and creative compared to the traditional

boss who does the work for his own benefit. Servant leaders are subservient slaves to

their environment hence, submissive, passive, and unassertive. Again this is another

misconception because of the fact that servant leaders yield to real and higher job

satisfaction because the employees are happy with the way they serve as a leader.

So how do you determine if a person is a servant leader? According to Greenleaf,

the best test, is if it answers the questions do those who served grow as persons.

Specifically not portraying to the leaders themselves but also to the employees who are

the main focus of servant leadership. Another question that would have to be answered

is that do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous,

more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged

in society; will he benefit, or, at least, will he not be further deprived? It can be easily brain

stormed that these definitions impose some very exacting and difficult to measure

standards. Perhaps, in reality, there has never existed a perfect servant leader in mortal

form. To make matters even more fascinating, there is the less visible but no less

important spiritual side of servant leaders that is suggested in Greenleaf’s writings.

Greenleaf addresses the spiritual dimension of a true servant leader. Servants who

nurture the human spirit are spirit carriers. They serve to connect those who do the work
of the world, or who are being prepared for that role, with vision from both past and

contemporary prophets. Those servants find the resources and make the intensive effort

to be an effective influence. They don’t just make speeches or write books as the prophet

does. They are spirit carriers; they relate and connect the prophecy with the people so

that it changes their lives.

Having discussed the previous paragraphs of servant leadership, it is now vital that

we consider its fundamentals and concepts because of the reason that statistics

strategies and tools have shown that numerous companies have dramatically increased

their organizational performance because of the values and the relation that servant

leadership has influenced and effectively made leaders and employees of the company

grow not only in their capacity to perform a certain task and the capacity to lead but also

on their very outlook in life. They have improved the one thing the servant leadership has

been teaching and that is to value the positivity amongst employees and to dignify every

person who works for the excellence of the company or the industry. It has transformed

the way employees and leaders perceive the gruesome traditional way of life and made

people’s lives better through the values of loving and caring not only for the sake of one

but also for the sake of the many especially employees. And because it has improved the

way servant leaders and employees perform it has also drastically improved companies

and industries who are benefiting from their people.

So now the question remains, how do we become effective servant leaders in the

near future considering that we have already acquired some of the knowledge or the

fundamentals of servant leadership? One thing that we have to consider is that we have

to be committed to develop people. Leaders must help others improve themselves and
also become great leaders. Thinking of our own desires and pleasures would only lead

to our destruction because of the greed that we may bring into ourselves. It is important

to be a person for the sake of others. Another is that we have to be able to know to accept

each other’s personality and differences. Remember that we came from different

backgrounds and origins that might have led us to different perceptions but we must

accept the differences of each other to create a better community and environment in the

work place. Listening is another value that we must consider before we react to every

situation. A leader responds to a problem by listening first. We must also value the art of

conceptualization since leaders articulate a clear vision with passion which engages and

energizes the rest of the team. And lastly but not the least is that we have to understand

that perception is reality. Leaders must be positive and open to the countless possibilities

that life may bring so that at the end of the day we, as servant leaders, will be able to

express and give value to the modern leader within us.

REFERENCES:

http://www.greenleaf.edu/pdf/donald_valeri.pdf

http://toservefirst.com/definition-of-servant-leadership.html

https://www.skipprichard.com/9-qualities-of-the-servant-leader/

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/10-convincing-reasons.html

https://www.hrbartender.com

https://www.scrumalliance.org