Servant Leadership 1

Some characteristics of servant leadership

Servant Leadership

SCD 207/12

Ghana Christian University College

Word Count:2679

Doctor Manuel Adjei

Date: October, 2010.

 Servant Leadership 2

Table of Content

Thesis Statement………………………………………………………………..3

Introduction……………………………………………………………………..3

What Servant Leadership is ………………………………………………….….5

Importance of Servant Leaders…………………………………………………6

Some characteristics of Servant Leadership……………………………….……6

Empathy…………………………………………………………………..………7

Listening…………………………………………………………………….……8

Persuasion..........................................................................................…...9

Stewardship……………………………………………………………….……..9

Building community ……………………………………………………….……9

Commitment to growth of group………………………………………………10

Foresight …………………………………………………………………………11

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….…11

References……………………………………………………………………………...…13
 Servant Leadership 3

Thesis Statement

There are various theories of who leaders are, how leaders come about, and the various

types of leadership which are transformational, transactional, charismatic, servant leadership

amongst others. This paper seeks to define what leadership is, what servant leadership is, the

importance of servant leadership and some of its various characteristics.

Introduction

Leadership is a topic which has seen various debates about its definition, characteristics,

importance and more. It is defined differently by various scholars and some of these definitions

are that Leadership is [ CITATION War85 \l 1033 ] "the ability to turn a dream, a vision of a desired

future state into a reality with and through the cooperation of other people” (p. 1-3). It is also

defined by [ CITATION Win05 \l 1033 ] as “person or people who equips, and influences follower(s)

who have diverse skills, and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s mission and objectives

causing the follower(s) to enthusiastically expend spiritual, emotional, and physical energy in a

coordinated effort to achieve the organizational goals” (p. 5). Leadership is further defined by

[ CITATION Toz97 \l 1033 ] as “the ability to elicit extraordinary performance from ordinary

people” (p. 2), and by [ CITATION Nor07 \l 1033 ] as “a process whereby an individual influences a

group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p. 3). Leadership is a process because there is

an interaction between the leader and the follower whereby the leader is affected by the follower

and the follower is affected by the leader thought their interaction. This influence between the

leader and follower is important because without this influence there would be no leader-

follower relationship between them, leadership takes place in a group which implies that an
 Servant Leadership 4

individual cannot be a leader if there are no followers. The leader stirs the followers towards the

common goals which are desired by the group.

According to [ CITATION Chu87 \l 1033 ] a search for the word leader will show words like:

general, leader, director, monarch, chief, skipper, and master. Leaders need good communication

skills to pass on directives to their subordinates in a clear and understandable context, leaders also have to

be honest because it is important for them to retain the trust of their followers in that should they lose the

trust of their subordinates and not gain it back they would lose the support of their follower. Loyalty does

not stem from position but rather it is earned,. Leaders need to look into the future and plan for all the

situations that they may face in the coming future. Leaders also need to put words into action which

means that their plans must be implemented by the group and not shelved. Leaders also have to exhibit

personal courage which means they must do the right thing no matter the replications of their actions.

They also should accept failure and work towards their goals without letting failure dissuade their efforts.

They ought to learn from the mistakes they make and use that knowledge to solve future troubles. There

are several debates about how leaders come about and some of these arguments are the trait and process

approach as well as the assigned and emergent leadership theory.

The trait approach holds that leaders are born with special characteristics or qualities which set

them aside from non leaders [ CITATION Bry92 \l 1033 ]. Some of these characteristics are height and

fluency in speech, but the process approach also suggests that leadership is not inborn but can be learnt

either by observation or through learning [ CITATION Jag82 \l 1033 ]. Another theory on how leadership

comes about is the assigned versus emergent leadership theory where the assigned leadership is that

leadership which is held by an individual who occupies or heads a position in an organization, assigned

leaders according to [ CITATION Nor07 \l 1033 ] are not always the real leaders which implies that there

can be other people who are not holding leadership positions in the organization but are still performing

the leading and guiding duties of a leader. Emergent leaders are that kind of leaders who acquire their
 Servant Leadership 5

leadership role through the support of followers who accept that individual as their leader. Emergent

leaders come about over a period of time in which they as individuals where verbally involved, well

informed, sought the ideas and opinions of others, and implemented these jointly accepted ideas

[ CITATION Fis74 \l 1033 ]. Followers on the other hand are [ CITATION Pat03 \l 1033 ] “those who are

subordinates to a given leader within a given organization” (p. 3).

What Servant Leadership is

[ CITATION Gre771 \l 1033 ] explained servant leadership as

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

serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served

grow as persons: 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 they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?

Servant leadership [ CITATION Ser09 \l 1033 ] is about “moving people to a higher level of

individual and communal self-awareness by. Its principal tenet is that, it is the duty of a leader to

serve followers, his or her key role being to develop, enable, and support team members, helping

them fully develop their potential and deliver their best” (p. 3). “Tears shed for self are tears of

weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength” servant leaders therefore tend to experience the

plights of their followers and look to develop their followers in all aspects of the followers life which

needs to be improved [ CITATION Myr05 \l 1033 ].

Servant leadership possesses several characteristics which are [ CITATION Lar98 \l 1033 ]

listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship,

 Servant Leadership 6

commitment to the growth of others, and (a concern for) building community. Servant leadership

is about seeing to the needs of others without the desire to manipulate or deceive them.

Importance of Servant leadership

The absence of leadership has negative effects on organizations in that the organizations moves

slowly towards attainment of its goal, stagnates and finally loses focus of objective [ CITATION

Placeholder1 \l 1033 ]. Leaders act as the guiding frames of an organization in that it is their job to direct

the followers towards the attainments of goals.

Servant leaders spend lots of their time serving the needs of the members of the organization.

They do this because it is their foremost duty to serve the needs of their followers before their personal

needs. They listen to the needs of their followers and come up with ideas which are aimed at solving the

needs of the members whom they lead, these ideas are then implemented. The servant leader helps

develop the employees and bring out the best in their subordinates by training them and encouraging them

to express their opinions without fear. They also deal with the development of the individuals in the group

so as to better both the individual members and the group itself.

Some characteristics of Servant Leadership

Servant leadership has ten know characteristics and these characteristics are empathy

which means feeling what others feel, listening which is how servant leaders derive information,

the ability to heal the hurt of their followers and also awareness of issues surrounding them, the

ability to persuade is also one of the characteristics of a servant leader and so are the ability to

conceptualize situations, foresight and good stewardship. Servant leaders are committed to the

growth of their followers and also make attempt to build community.

 Servant Leadership 7

Empathy

[ CITATION Hei10 \l 1033 ] Empathy is closely related to the knack for reading other people's

emotions - the awakening of a passion in an observer that is a sensational reaction to the other

person's condition... Empathy relies not only on one's capacity to make out someone else's

emotions but also on one's ability to put oneself in the other place and to experience a suitable

expressive reaction (p. 442). This means that to emphasize with a person one must feel the plight

or situation of another. Servant leaders are the type of leaders who ask themselves how they

would feel if they where the ones who found themselves in the situation and they act according

to it in their attempt to help who ever needs their assistance. To empathize directly depends on

ones ability to feel the plight of another. If you have not experienced a certain feeling then it is

difficult to fully understand how another person experiencing that situation feels [ CITATION Hei10

\l 1033 ] and as such servant leaders tend to empathize with the plights of people.

The ability to feel what others feel forms the basics of empathy but also means that

people who find it difficult to make out the feelings of others such as autistic people cannot

emphasize and as such cannot be effective servant leaders, but [ CITATION May97 \l 1033 ] says

“even those who are not naturally sensitive, or do not have a high natural level of emotional

intelligence can take steps to show more sensitivity to the feelings of others” (pp.3-31).

Empathy is developed innate in that people are born with the ability to feel and children

are able to identify with the happiness and sadness of their caregivers. This increases as the child

develops a self-concept. The more conscious the newborn is of his or her feelings the more he

explores his limits and abilities and the more prone the child is to applying this new found

knowledge unto others [ CITATION Vak03 \l 1033 ].

 Servant Leadership 8

Empathy is also learned and inculcated in that we are taught to feel when we either cause

others to feel pain or happiness [ CITATION Rog59 \l 1033 ]. Empathy enhances servant leadership

in that servant leaders look to improve or better the situation of their followers and as such when

they emphasize with the sufferings of their followers they are motivated to cause change and

work towards rectifying the sufferings of their subordinates.

Listening

According to [ CITATION Spe041 \l 1033 ] leaders have from time in memorial been

appreciated for their communication and decision-making skills which are backed with an indebt

desire to listen to others. The talent of paying attention to people is the basis of creating an association

or relation with followers and the ability to attentively pay attention to people is a learned trait (Spears,

2004). Servant leaders are able to notice the needs or desires of their followers sometimes by

observing them, but are able to gather more details by listening to the plights of subordinates. It

is when they know what their followers go through that they are able to make decisive decisions

which are meant to rectify the plights of the followers.

Leaders must constantly pay attention to the voices of their followers [ CITATION Max03 \l

1033 ] and as such successful servant leaders are leaders who have learnt the true value of listening

to what people or their followers have to say. Without listening leaders would find it difficult to

know the full extent of what is actually going on and would also find it difficult to relate with

their followers and with time the followers would begin to lose interest in following their leader

since followers equate a deaf ear to a closed mind[ CITATION Lar98 \l 1033 ].
 Servant Leadership 9

Persuasion

Servant leader rely on the act of persuasion and not their position power when they are

making decisions for the organization. They seek to convince others and not force followers to

do as they are told[ CITATION Lar98 \l 1033 ]. Servant leaders are very good at building group

consensus and motivating their followers to participate in activities which would lead to their

development. Servant leaders are naturally very persuasive and give good reasons why a duty or

task must be performed. Servant leaders understand that visions which are not clearly thought

through exceed the ability of the visionary and as such are difficult to accomplish[ CITATION

Spe041 \l 1033 ] they try to enlarge the vision so as to cater for the needs of the organization since

a failed vision implies that the vision was too small to serve the needs of the

organization[ CITATION Max03 \l 1033 ].

Stewardship

Stewardship means to serve or cater for and can be traced to the olden times when

stewards where expected to train or develop the skills of a young prince [ CITATION Noa71 \l

1033 ]. A steward in an organization trains the members and prepares them for the times ahead.

Servant leaders are stewards because they prepare the members of the organization for activities

which would lead to the benefit of society since servant leaders desire to make positive

influences on individuals, society and the world. Servant leaders therefore hold themselves liable

for all circumstances met by the organization[ CITATION Spe041 \l 1033 ].

Building community
 Servant Leadership 10

Servant leaders contribute to society’s moral fiber since their services exceeds the

boundaries of the organization and contributes to the development of society[ CITATION Spe041 \l

1033 ]. This knowledge encourages servant leaders to search for ways by which they can

facilitate good community building beginning with the member of the organization who would

later go out and influence society. Servant leaders believe that there has been a loss of societal

history from the changes that have taken place in mans development from local societies to large

institutions and it is the duty of leaders to ensure that the changes are regulated and they do this

by working hard to facilitate good community spirit in the work environment.

Community in a sense needs to be molded by servant leaders and to reconstruct society as

an effective life form for people, servant-leaders need to show the way [ CITATION Gre771 \l

1033 ]. Servant leaders can do so by demonstrating infinite responsibility for a definite group

within a community

Commitment to the growth of people

Servant leaders are committed to the growth of their followers, they believe the worth of

individuals go beyond the contributions they can make to the organization and as such attempt to

develop the various aspects of the followers life ranging from personal through professional to

spiritual and extends to whatever area needs improvement.

Servant leaders understand the need for shared duties and as such give tasks based on the

strengths of the follower so as to foster growth of the followers [ CITATION Spe041 \l 1033 ].

Servant leaders are conscious of their responsibility to foster the development of their

subordinates and as such can allocate fund for the private and professional development of their
 Servant Leadership 11

subordinates, they also listen to the ideas of their followers and encourage workers to participate

in decision-making processes.

Foresight

This is the ability to look into the coming future and predict the various challenges which

the group would come across. The leader implements decisions based on previous experiences

on which plans worked and which ones failed. They do this so as to prevent or limit repetition of

previous mistakes, get full understanding of the circumstances they face and also the results of

policies they have implemented[ CITATION Bar07 \l 1033 ]. Servant leaders have a great knack for

predicting future outcomes of decisions they have made and as such take time to ensure that the

policies or plans they implement would generate a positive outcome. The foresight ability of a

leader is not learnt but rather innate[ CITATION Spe041 \l 1033 ] which mean leaders are born with

the ability to look into the future and predict outcomes.

Conclusion

Leadership is important because their activities stir the organization towards their goals,

without the efforts of leaders; groups would lose focus of their objectives and would soon

dissolve. Leadership according to some scholars is innate whiles some others believe it is

acquired. People become leaders when they occupy some positions or are made leaders by the

members of the group who have developed some believe and respect or an individual dual to that

individual’s character or personality. Servant leaders are those leaders who tend to empathize

with their followers and by so doing get first hand information about the circumstances their

followers face, they also listen to the followers so as to gather more information about the
 Servant Leadership 12

circumstances at hand and through this interaction build a combined plan to solve their problem.

Servant leaders also tend to use persuasive power to encourage followers to work towards the

attainment of a set goal, and keep good care of the personal and professional needs of the

followers and y so doing ensure that their followers undergo various development processes and

have positive influence on the society or community. They also analyze the results of past

decisions and learn from them, this gives them a good idea of the situations they face and the

results of actions they would take to solve current or future situations.

 Servant Leadership 13

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