...Chapter 10 – Servant Leadership Discussion Questions and Exercises 1. What is the historical basis of servant leadership? What are the unique, underlying values of his perspective? Originating in the seminal work of Greenleaf, servant leadership is a paradoxical approach to leadership that challengers our traditional beliefs about leadership and influence. Servant leadership emphasizes that leaders should be attentive to the needs of the followers, empower them, and help them develop their full human capacities. They build strong relationships, with others, are empathic, and ethical, and lead in ways that serve the greater good of followers, organizations, and the community. 2. In what ways is servant leadership a paradox? Is servant leadership more of a trait or a behavior? Being a servant leader implies following, and following is viewed as the opposite of leading. Although servant leadership incorporates influence, the mechanism of how influence functions as a part of servant leadership is not fully explicated in the approach. Researchers cannot come to an agreement on the characteristics of servant leadership. There are far too many different opinions. Servant leadership is more of a trait because it comes from the leader, the leader wants to help, the leader wants to improve moral, it is natural and not something learned. 3. Have you known people who, by nature, are servants? In a way we are all servants, we all want to please someone and help...
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...Servant Leadership Servant Leadership is not a leadership style but a state of being. The decision to embark on the mission of Servant Leadership cannot be relegated only to the office. If fully committed to being successful, a servant-leader will embrace all the components needed to be a servant and a leader in every aspect of their life. In this paper, I will explore the origins of Servant Leadership, how it can be implemented to build a successful “leader”, and how Servant Leadership effects employee satisfaction. I also found that Servant Leadership is often synonymous with some sort of religious foundation. Many of the articles I read likened Servant Leadership to religious models. I personally found it difficult to connect with this interpretation, even though I see the relationships, so I chose instead to make a broader “spiritual” connection that would appeal to the “non-believer”. By applying the principals of Servant Leadership to all aspects of one’s life, I believe, true satisfaction and success is possible. What is Servant Leadership? Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase Servant Leadership in his essay titled, The Servant as Leader, in 1970. He says that “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” (Greenleaf.). The word “servant” may conjure up visions of maids scrubbing floors or perhaps a “man of the cloth.” Webster’s dictionary...
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...Perspectives of Leadership: Process, Role, Influence, and Servant Leadership Sean Jackson Grand Canyon University MGMT 625 Leadership Styles and Development May 5, 2010 Perspectives of Leadership: Process, Role, Influence, and Servant Leadership Clearly, there many opinions that can be drawn as it relates to the many different perspectives of leadership. “Leadership is defined as a process of influencing a group of individuals in order to achieve a set of common goals” (Northouse, 2004).When a person examines an issue whether it is dealing with today’s economy or an issue they are dealing with at home, one must examine the issue at hand and think about the good things and the bad things and examining the perspectives of leadership is no different. In this paper, I will be comparing and contrasting the different perspectives of leaderships as it relates to processes, roles, influences, and servant. The perspective of leadership is an issue that draws about many challenging questions such as, “What will a person have to posses to become a leader?” or “Is a leader born or made?” These are just some question that can arise when dealing with leadership development. When dealing with the process, it deals with what a leader has to undergo in order to become a successful leader in today’s society. For example, a leader must go through a development process in order to become a successful leader. This process will aid him or her in the way they live their daily lives and really...
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...Servant Leadership Research and Application Paper Annette Fuqua Grand Canyon University: LDR 630 August 21, 2013 Introduction: In a leadership role, one has to make many difficult decisions along with being able to communicate with different cultures. The way one handles a problem could make or break an organization. There are many leadership models that will allow one in a leadership role to handle any problem that may arise in a professional manner. In this paper, I will be reflecting and analyzing on a situation that I had to handle while in a supervisors role. In handling the situation, I will be applying three different leadership models Emotional and Social Intelligence, Valued Based Leadership, and Servant Leadership to handle the same situation. Although, three different leadership models were utilized in the end I will ex-simply that one can utilize any of the models to resolve the situation that will have positive effect for everyone, while maintaining the professionalism that is needed and should be exhibited by any organization. My primary focus will be on servant leadership. By doing this could only allow any organization to grow and be very profitable. The perception of the word leadership is appropriate when speaking about anti-emotional and anti-constructive. As a society in whole we are accustomed to taking any means necessary to prevail in the lead of others. One can observe the different styles of leadership which entails looking out for themselves...
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...Entrepreneurship December 24, 2014 The college of business has three very distinctive pillars that help the college of business move a positive direction. The three pillars are servant leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovation these are pillars that the college base there learning on. While looking at all three pillars you can see how they all play a role with each other. The first pillar were actually go in depth into is servant leader. Servant leader is finding out what the people needs and putting them first. Servant leaders help others and also meet their environment need that’s located around them. A servant led environment wants individuals to include their ideas and how they feel. In the article Leadership Excellence by Barrett, Colleen explains how to treat people and shows the power of a servant led organization. Colleen looks at the most important priorities in customer service, is to follow the golden rule. She encourages people to follow the golden rule treat people like they would want to be treated, and then everything else will fall into place. Having a positive and motivating environment will rub off to the customers and something positive will arise from it (Barrett, 2011). The next pillar that comes along with servant leader is innovation. Innovation comes from a servant leaders environment; in this type of environment its helps the individuals share the power of the organization. Innovation is the important tool that will allow the organization to...
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...What Is Servant Leadership? Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: “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…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.” “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, and difficult to administer, 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?“ A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional...
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...is a mission statement? A mission statement defines every facet of the organization and why they exist. People might wonder how to differentiate a good mission with a bad mission statement. A bad mission statement uses jargon, it's too long, complicated to understand, and it does not communicate why, but rather how and what. In contrast a good mission statement, it’s a powerful, straightforward, and memorable sentence explaining what the business is. The mission statements explain about customers, locations, products and services and gives the competitors a sense of rivalry. In addition, mission statement describes the business morals and gives guidance and encouragement to their employees. This will...
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...Servant-Leadership Theory from a Socially Constructed World View and a Biblical World View Mark J. Dixon Jr. Liberty University Abstract Servant-Leadership Theory has been a progressive theory in which much study has been done. Robert Greenleaf began using the term servant leadership to encourage leaders to first want to serve. There are two different world views discussed in this research paper that will shed light into what it takes to be a servant leader and how it can be successful if there is a full understanding of the theory present. There is the secular and the biblical world view in which differences in the two are identified. Servant-Leadership is meant to be more than just a way to see positive outcomes in a business, but it also transfers into effecting people’s lives. An attempt to enhance understanding and the question trying to be answered here is what separates the secular view of Servant-Leadership Theory from the Biblical worldview. This paper examines the characteristics and goals of servant-leadership though both worldviews to give a better understanding of servant-leadership theory. Keywords: servant-leadership, characteristics, biblical, secular Servant-Leadership Theory from a Socially Constructed World View and a Biblical World View There has been much attention given to leadership theories since the introduction of Servant-Leadership Theory by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. Greenleaf’s intent for servant-leadership is to help not only the leader...
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...ABSTRACT Servant leadership is an ever expanding field that is gaining more attention from business leaders. It is similar to some earlier models in that it focuses on the leader and the behaviors of the leader; it deviates in that the leader puts the follower’s needs before their own. They do this by providing nurturing and support in hopes of developing the follower to realize their full potential. At the heart of servant leadership is the central idea of truly putting follower’s needs before those of the leader. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the elements of Servant leadership. The goal is to explore the characteristics, theories, and models of servant leadership. The idea of servant leadership originated in the 1970’s...
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...first reason that I choice this class is because my major is project management, therefor develop my leadership skill is necessary needed for my future career. As a project manager, one could not only manage a project but also will leading a project team which include certain team members from different backgrounds. After six week classes, my leadership skill has a significant improvement. I had comprehend leadership from both practical perspective and conceptual perspective. First, this journal Report will meanly focus on what I had learn from this class, analysis what specific knowledge are impact me most and how I use those knowledge to improve my own leadership skill. Second Journal report would also lists certain events to support the result of analysis and connect ideals from book to my experiments. The journal report will organized by chronological order. Week One This week is the first week of the quarter, we discussed the basics of the leadership and understood leadership from different aspects. I did not familiar with leadership before I took this class, so the word leadership is a vague idea to me. But from the first week’s class and reading, I had understand that leadership is “ a process where by an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, P12) ”. Beside the improvement of understanding of leadership definition, there were certain ideal that had a significant influence on my leadership. First, I had comprehend the...
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...The Servant Leader 2/16/2016 I. Introduction This essay will describe the true meaning of servant leadership. How the servant leader is inspired and performed his/her job within the health care organization? The paper will also inform readers of how each individual can unleash the servant within described by Larry Spears in his book “Reflections on Leadership.” Everyone has a deep need for serving, sometimes adults find it very difficult to unleash this desire to serve. Having worked in a large Hospital for over five years, it is easy to see why many people get frustrated and depart the health care industry. There are many complicated situations that happen working in healthcare. Throughout the majority of these situations between registered nurses, patient care technicians, and some doctors; there are solutions for dealing with most of those problems. Compassion, empathy, trustworthiness, faithfulness, respect, honesty, integrity, and rapport are all words that will be used frequently within the body of the paper. In my personal quest to better understand how to work well with people in a highly stressful environment as in healthcare, I begin to do my own research on process improvement and better systems that works in the hospitals. I turned my mind to various leadership books on healthcare and process improvements in the hospital setting. Some of the books I read was tremendously inspiring, interesting, as well as educational. After I read...
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...communication skills. One who cannot communicate well will never be a leader. A leader must know how to speak so his ideas are understood in the correct way. The next aspect of effective leadership is the ability to make decisions to change, and not always stick to the status quo. What good are leaders who are afraid of change? Another aspect of leadership is the ability to handle failure, because this is an aspect of leadership whether we want to believe it or not. My experiences in life have greatly influenced my definition of leadership. Throughout my career and life I have had a chance to experience different leadership styles and theories exhibited by different people. I have learned to use the good and not use the bad when dealing with followers. Different people and different situations require different approaches, as well as different styles and theories. The theories I will explore in my research that has also influenced my thinking on leadership and leaders are Transformational Leadership, Leader-Member Exchange Theory, and Servant Leadership. Philosophy Transformational leadership is a leadership style that I admire and hope to use effectively when I return to work. “Transformational leaders integrate creative insight, persistence and energy, intuition and sensitivity to the needs of others to forge the strategy-culture alloy for their organizations” (Bass & Avolio, 1993, para 3). I think that it is easier for people to follow a person that inspires...
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...GCU's Colangelo College of Busines has embraced three distinctive pillars that set the stage for students to be driven, successful leaders. Servant leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation are the pillars upon which the Colangelo College of Business is grounded. The mission of GCU is to challenge and inspire students to be servant leades and these pillars help set the foundation for academic success. The catapault in which to have students launch into a fruitful career relies upon an entreprenuerial spirit while exemplifying the values of servant leadership. A closer look at each of the pillars can shed light into the correlation each pillar has with one another. Entrepreneurial Spirit Jerry Colangelo is a businessman and a visionary whose inspirational work ethic and drive provided GCU a platform in which to inspire future leaders. Mr. Colangelo believed that an entrepreneurial spirit is key to success. One should be willing to take risks, and the most successful persons are risk takers. Additionally, one must maintain integrity at all times (Colangelo, 1999). An entrepreneur is one who creates a business and is willing to take full accountability for the success or failure of the company. Economic growth is dependant upon entrepreneurial activity, but it is imperative that the entrant is able to sustain the process from fledgling company to one of a successful corporation. There is a hybrid model that addressed this issue. There is research that suggests the success...
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...Three Pillars Essay Linda Rivera Grand Canyon University: UNV-504 (UNV-504-0502) May 23, 2015 . GCU's Colangelo College of Busines has embraced three distinctive pillars that set the stage for students to be driven, successful leaders. Servant leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation are the pillars upon which the Colangelo College of Business is grounded. The mission of GCU is to challenge and inspire students to be servant leades and these pillars help set the foundation for academic success. The catapault in which to have students launch into a fruitful career relies upon an entreprenuerial spirit while exemplifying the values of servant leadership. A closer look at each of the pillars can shed light into the correlation each pillar has with one another. Entrepreneurial Spirit Jerry Colangelo is a businessman and a visionary whose inspirational work ethic and drive provided GCU a platform in which to inspire future leaders. Mr. Colangelo believed that an entrepreneurial spirit is key to success. One should be willing to take risks, and the most successful persons are risk takers. Additionally, one must maintain integrity at all times (Colangelo, 1999). An entrepreneur is one who creates a business and is willing to take full accountability for the success or failure of the company. Economic growth is dependant upon entrepreneurial activity, but it is imperative that the entrant is able to sustain the process from fledgling company to one of a successful...
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...Texas that started flights in June 18, 1971. Since its inception it has been a low cost, customer focused airlines, that offers leather seating and full size cabins. Southwest have 46,000 employees that handle more the 3,600 flights daily, throughout 93 destinations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, the Common Wealth of Puerto Rico and five near-international countries. http://www.swamedia.com/channels/Corporate-Fact-Sheet/pages/corporate-fact-sheet. 2. Examine the culture of the selected organization. Southwest has three main values that motivate all of its employees. They are a warrior spirit, a servant heart, and a fun-luving attitude (the way Southwest spells “love”). A warrior spirit is in reference to an employee to “take the initiative” or “care about your customers” This spirit means being fearless in terms of delivering the product. The servant heart refers to the aspect of treating others with respect provide what the customer needs in a cost efficient manner. The fun-luving attitude is that the employee should not take themselves to seriously. These cultural values start from the interview and last throughout the employment. Southwest has a low two percent volunteer turnover rate. “Well, one example,” she said, “is asking, in job interviews, what they did when they had to respond to an irate customer. Not what should they have done, but what they actually did. We begin to get to know how people really behave.”...
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