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Authentic and Servant Leadership Approaches

Dawn Strait
Northcentral University
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Introduction

Servant leadership and authentic leadership are two distinct leadership approaches, but

one can find similarities between them. Both of them are useful in many different leadership

organizations yet each of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, there

may be times when one may want to choose a leadership style because the other may have too

many disadvantages in a particular situation. It is good to examine the research of both styles as a

leader can adapt characteristics that are useful from both approaches.

Servant leadership

In a servant leadership approach the leaders are motivated to help the followers in any

way they can in their daily activities which lead up to the main goal. For example, the leaders

may have persuasive discussions about the activities they would like to have the followers do.

However, they must not be controlling or sound dictatorial in their speaking style they use

among the groups as this is not characteristic of this leadership approach. It adds to the servant

leadership approach if the leaders are understanding and appreciate other people’s feelings.

Community leaders use servant leadership to build trust among its members. It helps foster

personal growth when a leader engages in serving other people (Haar, 2012).

Greenleaf (1970) stated the servant leadership concept as being what he felt was that

people have a natural feeling of wanting to serve (Focht & Ponton, 2015). Greenleaf is credited

with introducing the idea of servant leadership. There are a lot of theories circulating with ideas

of characteristics that a servant leader should develop. There are even some theorists that think

leader and servant mean the opposite so a leader cannot function in a servant leadership.

However, a leader must be a servant before they meet the qualification of a servant leader
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(Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002). Basically what Greenleaf’s definition includes is that the servant

leadership is considered unusual compared to other leaderships because of the meaning of the

word servant. A servant usually means someone who follows, whereas a leader directs and

controls. However, servant leadership is considered one of the many leaderships approaches that

organizations choose to use for their organizational purposes. Servant leaders put their followers

first, which means they are sensitive and responsive to their needs and help them to grow to their

best of their abilities. The servant leaders take their followers viewpoints seriously and

thoughtfully and do it by using good ethical practices (Northouse, 2016).

Spears (2002) has chosen ten characteristics in Greenleaf’s writings that are recorded as

part of servant leadership. First one must understand that communication is important as this

makes listening an essential characteristic and shows that the leader cares about the follower’s

viewpoint. The process of caring for the well-being of the followers leads to the characteristic of

well-being. Other characteristics relate are being alert, persuasive, and visionary. The leader is

prepared for the future. Wise use of time and money shows good servant leadership practices.

Moreover a servant leader wants to help the followers to grow and expand their abilities. Servant

leaderships works when it encourages followers to help each other and the leader which reaches

to better results. For example, servant leadership can help to build a community together.

Consequently, there are quite a few models of servant leadership. Some favor the trait theory,

and some favor the behavioral theory (Northouse, 2016).

There is a well-known model of servant leadership that was created by Liden, Wayne,

Ahao, and Henderson (2008) and Liden, Panacio, Hu, and Meuser (2014) which has three main

sections showing the process of the servant leadership.

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One section relates to the situation, which affects the way a servant leader will act. For

example a hospital will display a more caring affection than a factory leader. Also, the ways of

government is set up in relation to their culture which will affect a servant leadership practice.

For example, some government’s have shared levels of leadership and some do not. Also, each

leader has their own personality and behavior patterns. So, each servant leadership will have

their own individual leadership pattern.

The second section is servant leadership behaviors. The best way is to look at those

behaviors together. One behavior is conceptualizing, which means the leader can take the

difficult problem, find a solution, and then explain to the followers how to solve it. Other

behaviors are characteristic of keeping the needs of the followers first and helping them to grow

and expand in the organizations. Therefore this includes the behavior of letting the follower do

things themselves. However, the servant leaders have to maintain their integrity and help to

evolve and develop positive events in their environment (Northouse, 2016).

The third section is the outcomes. When the leaders give the followers control and use

their follower’s ideas then the followers work results are amazing and the organization as a

whole grows. As the organization grows the results as a whole are better. If a non-profit or for-

profit organization grows and expands it has positive results such as it brings people out of

poverty and has a positive effect on society as a whole.

A study was done that determined another twelve main essential characteristics that a

servant leader should have, which provides clarity to the definition of servant leadership (Focht

& Ponton, 2015). The study was to support Greenleaf’s (1977) definition by examining the

servant characteristics and their definitions. The method used was a Delphi study, which is a

series of questions personal characteristics given to a group of anonymous professionals

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knowledgeable in servant leadership. This was used as the primary data for the study. The

questions were analyzed, and another questionnaire was developed and sent out to be completed

as the feedback that was sent to the participants was controlled. This process continued until 70%

of the participants rated individually the servant leadership characteristics with a three or higher

on a four- point Likert- type scales (Hsu & Sandford, 2007). After three rounds of questions the

study narrowed down the servant leadership characteristics to twelve primary ones with

definitions. The primary characteristics determine which qualities the servant leader should have

before becoming a servant leader. There are other studies that support this study and there are

researchers that question the world primary (Focht & Ponton, 2015).

The twelve primary characteristics from the study can be described in various ways. First,

a servant leader honors and respects each of the followers. They listen to the followers and try to

understand their ideas and goals are for the organization. Also, the servant leaders present

themselves as believable and support the truth among the followers. In addition, they are

sensitive to others concerns but show that they have standards and rules they follow. They show

an example of good behavior. The servant leader is there to provide help to the followers and

through the servant like actions encourage and motivate the others to complete the goals of the

organization. Furthermore, the servant-like characteristics puts the follower’s necessities before

their own. On-the-other-hand, the servant leader tries to avoid promoting competition among the

organization. They support teamwork (including the leader) as a better way to accomplish the

goals. Servant leaders accept the followers when they see them as wanting to learn something

from the organization. All-in-all the servant leader will reach their full potential if they have an

attitude of willingness to learn from everyone because each person has something new to teach

(Focht & Ponton, 2015).

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Strengths of Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is unique in that servant leadership is concerned with all areas of the

follower’s life and express concerns for their growth and development but do it in a caring and

sensitive manner. It is the only leadership approach to get so concerned about the relationship of

caring for the followers to such a depth. This type of servant attitude helps the followers achieve

the goals. Servant leadership has changed the role to influencing the followers without

controlling them. It shares responsibility with them and including them in a part of the decision-

making process. Moreover, there is a Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) which can

measure the qualities of a Servant Leader.

Weaknesses in Servant Leadership

One of the noticeable weaknesses of the servant leadership is the opinion that leaders and

followers make based on the definition of servant. They think that the definition of servant

means the opposite of leader so there cannot be servant leadership. Also, in the definition there is

not a clear distinction between trait, behavior, or ability characteristic. The servant leadership

tends to think they have the best relationships because they put others needs before their own.

Also, they need to come up with a clearer explanation when they say they are using the behavior

of conceptualizing. In addition, followers may not desire a servant leadership type and may not

consider it the appropriate type for their organization.

Authentic Leadership

Authentic leaders have their own high standards in which they base their actions on in an

organization. They have to be an effective communicator in order for the followers to have their

best attitudes and commitment to reach their strategic goals. Good attitudes also affect
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relationships between leader and employees. Because of corruption arising in corporations,

people were ready for a different type of leadership, so authentic leadership with its transparency

among its leader was introduced and leaders and followers gravitated toward it. The leaders

displayed their true qualities and accepted the qualities of their workers (Men & Stacks, 2014).

In their journal article Men & Stacks (2014) revealed a study from empirical research that

concludes that there is a positive relationship between authentic leadership and symmetrical and

transparent communication. Being honest and not deceptive builds trust among the leader and

follower. Trust becomes a good basis to start a good relationship with others. Consequently,

happy employees produce better work.

Authentic leaders based their work on high values. The authentic leader shows their good

actions as an example for their followers. They are able to share their views and values with

other in the hopes of building strong relationships. The authentic leader is understanding of the

followers and by being open minded and honest connect with them and through good

relationships the followers become very productive.

An important aspect that makes authentic leadership a successful approach is the leader’s

ability to obtain self-discipline. The greater the self-discipline the more goals are reached, and

the outcomes are better. It helps the leaders when they are faced with challenging situations to

face them with a logical reaction. Even though the authentic leader may be concerned about self-

discipline and self-awareness they also want to be involved with helping the followers and

showing compassion when needed. However, this leadership style is a changing leadership style

as the individual’s life develops (Northouse, 2016).

On the other hand, from literature and research through studies with individuals one is

able to reaffirm characteristics in other definitions and add some to the parts of authentic
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leadership. The first is that they conclude that self-awareness, which is included in many

definitions, is important because one needs to understand their own abilities and skills. Another

aspect is that this type of leader regulates his own standards and interests. Nevertheless, an

authentic leader has to be honest and fair in relationships and guidance of the followers. In

addition, in accordance with the leader following the positive psychological capacities such as

confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience gives them positive strength to lead others

(Northouse, 2016). Also, the leaders have to have significant knowledge about is the right and

wrong in their decisions they make because it will affect the all the people of the organization.

Another factor is authentic leadership changes according to the development process of the

authentic leader, whereas if traumatic events happen, they affect the leadership. Some events

influence a person to become an authentic leader (Northouse, 2016).

Advantages of Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership has recently become a choice of a leadership approach. However,

one of its strengths is when the leader promises to be trustworthy to all. The leaders will make

sure that their ideas are not deceptive, and this is what people are looking for in today’s leaders,

so this makes it popular with the people of society. The standards are easy to learn by leaders

who want to become authentic leaders. Not only are the leaders trustworthy, but authentic

leadership requires the leaders to do what is best for the others and ethical for them. Also, since

authentic leadership can be developed it lends itself for many people to learn and acquire. In

addition, authentic leaders can learn the positive psychological characteristics and moral

behaviors. For this leadership, it can be measured by the theory-based Authentic Leadership

Questionnaire (ALQ) (Northouse, 2016).

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Disadvantages of Authentic Leaderships

A disadvantage is that authentic leadership is a relatively new leadership approach with

new research currently being done. It does not have enough research and tests to support its

credibility. Another problem is that the authentic leadership does not give specifics on how

moral values affect authentic leadership. Researchers lack the ability to clearly see how to add

the positive psychological aspects to the characteristic of the authentic leadership. All in all, the

effectiveness of authentic leadership is questioned because it does not always include technical

training or abilities (Northouse, 2016).

Similarities Between Leadership

Servant leadership and authentic leadership are similar in the area in which they are

concerned about the treatment of the followers. Both approaches are sensitive to the needs of

their followers and will help them with any problems they have.

However, authentic leadership is a developing leadership over a lifetime while servant

leadership is serving the followers in their daily goals as well as long term goals. Also, authentic

leadership is based on self-awareness. They are concerned about their own self-esteem, self-

confident, and the leader’s control. The servant leadership is concerned about the followers

needs and their self-esteem and share control through teamwork (Northouse, 2016).

Servant Leader

I had an art teacher who was a servant leader. In the art class that I attended every week

she was the leader. We had many different projects that we could choose from to do. We had the

opportunity to learn new projects and it was easy because she was very helpful. Carol, the leader,

would sit at the art table with me and helped me assemble my materials needed for the day. If I
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did not know how to do a project, she would show me how to do some of the project by starting

the project herself, thus, showing by example. She then had me do it so she could help me if I

had any problems. She empowered me to do my best in a very caring manner. If I made a

mistake, she would help me redo it. It seemed like it fit the definition of teamwork, which is a

part of servant leadership.

Authentic Leader

My social worker, Lauri, is an authentic leader. She is self-assured in the way she

dresses, talks and her interactions. Any problem that I have she discusses with me and tells me

the most positive outcome. Also, when we go to the group parties she would dance with the

groups and she was always smiling. She was professional and always cheerful. I would consider

her a modern, authentic leader.

Educational Situations

I would tutor a class of five high school students for English. If I was an authentic leader,

I would start the class on a positive note saying hello and have the students talk about the events

that happened during the week. Next, I would tell each one of them that they would have to work

hard in the class so they can graduate from high school. I would let them know that I am there

and want to know exactly what concepts they are having problems with so I can help them. If we

work together then there will be a positive outcome. I would be positive and honest with them.

If I was a servant leader, I would teach a group of five math students that are in 9th grade

Algebra. First, I would put them in a group with others that have similar problems. I will go to

each group and show them an example problem similar to the one that they are going to do. If

they get it right, they do another one. If they do it wrong, I go over the problem with each person
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and then give them another example problem. I will keep doing this until they are understanding

the concept.

Conclusion

Authenticity has a mixture of characteristics that are related to the morality and positive

parts of a person’s being. It has to do with self-actualization but actually combines the positive

concepts that belong to other leaderships and behaviors and combines them together (DeLauer,

2012). Leadership approaches can only be effective if they get good feedback and then can

adjust their style to their particular followers accordingly (Sykes & Botham, 2008). A lot of

people consider this type of leadership the modern leadership. However, servant leadership is an

option if a leader thinks that teamwork is a priority. Both of them are compassionate towards

their followers which is needed in every organization.

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