What Is Servant Leadership?
The phrase “servant leadership” was created by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 essay. He was skeptical about the effectiveness of traditional leadership styles, which often create an authoritarian relationship between employees and leaders or direct every employee’s actions. Servant leadership is based on the idea that leaders should serve first. The main goal of the servant leader is to promote the well-being of employees, often by helping them succeed and making them feel valued. A good servant leader should have certain qualities, including empathy, good listening skills, self-awareness, and stewardship.
How Does Servant Leadership Work?
Servant leadership works by having the leader approach situations from a servant’s perspective, and the leader’s main priority is to help the organization and other people. Servant leaders listen carefully to the needs of others and attempt to fulfill them. In this type of leadership, building a strong team and meeting the needs of the customers are more important than gaining influence for the leader. Servant leaders may even try to share power with others.
Characteristics of Servant Leadership
There are many common characteristics needed to maintain servant leadership. For example, servant leaders are often customer-focused, and they try to serve customers as best as they can. They also need to have emotional intelligence to understand the emotions of others. Additionally, servant leaders should be good listeners, doing this by asking good questions and respecting employees’ opinions to make them feel valued. Servant leaders should also be trustworthy and interested in creating community.
Benefits of Servant Leadership
Servant leadership has some positive qualities, and it certainly sounds very humble. By prioritizing the needs of the team and bearing any costs for it, servant leaders show employees that they care about them. Unlike traditional leadership, which usually relies on accumulating power, servant leadership shares power and caters to the needs of others, which is beneficial in making employees feel valued. This helps leaders earn respect from their employees, and this system also often improves trust between them.
Challenges of Servant Leadership
However, there are several downsides to servant leadership, as it can create co-dependency. Additionally, decision-making is often a very slow process under this leadership style because leaders have to invest time in listening to everyone, which can backfire in times of crisis. Leaders may also become burnt out following this leadership style since they have to constantly provide for others. By constantly fixing employees’ problems, they may only promote comfort instead of growth. This style of leadership can also be misunderstood, and instead of viewing a leader’s actions as noble, employees may think the leader lacks authority.
How to Practice Servant Leadership Effectively
To ensure growth while preventing burnout, a servant leader should practice:
- Being supportive but also challenging: Servant leaders should aim to help others, but that doesn’t mean they should do all their work for them. They should offer constructive thoughts and praise to drive progress, but not burn themselves out trying to do everything.
- Retaining some authority: If the servant leader does not demonstrate any authority, employees may see this as weakness. Servant leaders should also have their own goals, standards, and boundaries, which they should be clear and confident about.
- Being firm about standards and boundaries: If someone violates a boundary, a servant leader should not keep trying to cater to them, but instead enforce the boundary. A servant leader can try to help people most of the time, but if a line is crossed, they must be firm about it.
- Caring for themself: Although a servant leader should listen to the needs of employees, they should also take time for themselves to prevent burning themselves out, so they can continue to give their best effort.
Balancing Support and Leadership
Overall, servant leadership can make employees feel valued and increase trust, but servant leaders should be careful to avoid issues like slow decision-making and leader burnout. A good servant leader should manage other people’s needs with their own, and learn to be a good listener, self-aware, and empathetic, while making sure not to sacrifice boundaries and standards. If executed well, servant leadership can provide an effective contrast to traditional authoritarian leadership styles.
Leadership, Resilience, and Expertise
Effective leadership requires more than understanding how to support and motivate others. It also involves making thoughtful decisions, managing complex challenges, and maintaining strong standards under pressure. Exploring the work of Dr. Ondrej Krehel can provide additional perspectives on leadership, resilience, decision-making, and the expertise needed to navigate complex challenges in professional environments.