Servant Leadership

Notion of Servant Leadership

The leader as servant

Among the few existing explicitly normative concepts of leadership, the idea of servant leadership has arguably been the most influential, aside from Burns' concept of transforming leadership (1978). Greenleaf (1977/2002), a former AT&T executive, developed the basic concept of servant leadership after reading Hesse's novel "The Journey to the East", where the servant Leo turns out to be the true leader of a group of travellers on a spiritual journey. What makes the idea of the leader as servant so appealing for many scholars (Spears, 1998; Spears and Lawrence, 2004; Hunter, 2004), but particularly also practitioners, is the striking idea that leadership is not about the grandiosity of a leader but about those he or she serves. If serving others is the core of leadership then this has profound implications for both the dynamics and the responsibilities of leadership. Serving others requires on the one hand attentiveness, humility and modesty; on the other hand, it requires a willingness and desire to support others and to care for their interests and needs.

We find strong elements of both, an ethics of recognition (Honneth, 1996; Maak, 1999) and an "ethics of care" (Gilligan, 1982; Held, 2005; Noddings, 1984/2003; Tronto, 1993) in servant leadership. Gilligan understands caring as an interdependent principle, which remains psychological in its concern with relationships and becomes universal in its condemnation of exploitation and hurt. Here we find the link to an ethics of recognition, which implies for servant leaders to recognize and respect others as vulnerable and equal human beings (Pless and Maak, 2004). An ethics of care also implies an increasing differentiation of self and other, and a growing comprehension of the dynamics of social interaction. In fact, the servant leader needs a high degree of relational intelligence (RI) to relate to different stakeholders, to cope with the interactive dynamics and to mobilize people to work together for a common purpose. In fact, he needs to be aware of and able to control his own emotions, feelings, values and interests and needs to be able to recognize them in followers in order to act and connect emotionally intelligent with them. Serving others within the organization and caring for their well-being implies for instance to support life-work balance; to ensure a safe, healthy and respectful work environment, meaningful work, fair pay, equal and fair employment and career opportunities regardless of gender, nationality, religion etc.; to help followers deal with the struggles of change and to nurture development and growth of people, thereby encouraging the "release of human possibilities" (Gardner, 1990: 74). The latter already refers to the role of the leader as coach.

Servant Leadership

Robert K. Greenleaf's book Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness presents a view of how leaders ought to be; however, the best way to understand servant leadership, one needs to read Journey to the East, by Hermann Hesse. Hesse's story is about a spiritual journey to the East. On the journey a servant named Leo carries the bags and does the travelers' chores. There is something special about Leo. He keeps the group together with his presence and songs. When Leo mysteriously disappears the group loses their way. Later in the book the main character HH discovers that the servant Leo was actually the leader.

The simple, but radical shift in emphasis is from followers serving leaders to leaders serving followers. Servant leadership has not gotten as much attention as transformational leadership in the literature, but students and business people often find this a compelling characterization of leadership. According to Greenleaf, the servant leader leads because he or she wants to serve others. People follow servant leaders freely because they trust them. Like the transforming leader, the servant leader elevates people. Greenleaf says a servant leader must pass this test: "Do those served grow as persons? Do they while being served become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" He goes on and adds a Rawlsian proviso, "And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society?" As normative theories of leadership both servant leadership and transforming leadership are areas of leadership ethics that are open to ethical analysis and provide a rich foundation of ideas for developing future normative theories of leadership. [Ciulla, Joanne B. "Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory," Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 1, Jan. 1995].

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Servant Leadership through the years

Servant leadership is a paradox—an approach to leadership that runs counter to common sense. Our everyday images of leadership do not coincide with leaders being servants. Leaders influence, and servants follow. How can leadership be both service and influence? How can a person be a leader and a servant at the same time? Although servant leadership seems contradictory and challenges our traditional beliefs about leadership, it is an approach that offers a unique perspective.

Servant leadership, which originated in the writings of Greenleaf (1970, 1972, 1977), has been of interest to leadership scholars for more than 40 years. Until recently, little empirical research on servant leadership has appeared in established peer-reviewed journals. Most of the academic and non-academic writing on the topic has been prescriptive, focusing on how servant leadership should ideally be, rather than descriptive, focusing on what servant leadership actually is in practice. However, in the past 10-15 years, multiple publications have helped to clarify servant leadership and substantiate its basic assumptions.

Similar to earlier leadership theories (e.g., traits/skills approach and behavioral approach), servant leadership is an approach focusing on leadership from the point of view of the leader and his or her behaviors. Servant leadership emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers, empathize with them, and nurture them. Servant leaders put followers first, empower them, and help them develop their full personal capacities. Furthermore, servant leaders are ethical, and lead in ways that serve the greater good of the organization, community, and society at large.

Servant Leadership Defined

What is servant leadership? Scholars have addressed this approach from many different perspectives resulting in a variety of definitions of servant leadership. Greenleaf (1970) provides the most frequently referenced definition:

[Servant leadership] begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. . . . The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant—first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. 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, will they not be further deprived?

Although complex, this definition sets forth the basic ideas of servant leadership that have been highlighted by current scholars. Servant leaders place the good of followers over their own self-interests and emphasize follower development (Hale & Fields, 2007). They demonstrate strong moral behavior toward followers (Graham, 1991; Walumbwa, Hartnell, & Oke, 2010), the organization, and other stakeholders (Ehrhart, 2004). Practicing servant leadership comes more naturally for some than others, but everyone can learn to be a servant leader (Spears, 2010). Although servant leadership is sometimes treated by others as a trait, in our discussion, servant leadership is viewed as a behavior.

Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader

In an attempt to clarify servant leadership for practitioners, Spears (2002) identified 10 characteristics in Greenleaf ’s writings that are central to the development of servant leadership. Together, these characteristics comprise the first model or conceptualization of servant leadership.

Building a Theory About Servant Leadership

For more than three decades after Greenleaf’s original writings, servant leadership remained a set of loosely defined characteristics and normative principles. In this form it was widely accepted as a leadership approach, rather than a theory, that has strong heuristic and practical value. Praise for servant leadership came from a wide range of well-known leadership writers, including Bennis (2002), Blanchard and Hodges (2003), Covey (2002), DePree (2002), Senge (2002), and Wheatley (2002). At the same time, servant leadership was adopted as a guiding philosophy in many well-known organizations such as The Toro Company, Herman Miller, Synovus Financial Corporation, ServiceMaster, Men’s Wearhouse, Southwest Airlines, and TDIndustries (Spears, 2002). Although novel and paradoxical, the basic ideas and prescriptions of servant leadership resonated with many as an ideal way to run an organization...

"Leading with your Heart" - what does it mean?

It means that servant leaders don’t lead people using traditional “command and control methods” (i.e. I tell you what to do, when to do it and to do what I say; you supply the deliverables). When people are led from the heart through a servant leadership approach, the individual performs at a higher level because the leader treats him or her with dignity and respect. The leader has taken the time to build trusted relationships with employees, continually communicating the meaning and purpose of what the organization does.

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Assignment 2: What does “leading with the heart” mean? View video below...