My hope for this blog is that it will enable you to truly become a servant leader. For some that may include simply understanding what it is and what it is not. For others, you may already have a good idea of what it is about but have never really focused on the specific behaviors that will help you “become” one. There may be some of you who are practicing servant leaders but you desire to dig deeper and really fine tune your servant leadership skills. Regardless of where you are in your servant leadership journey, I’m hopeful that you will find our topics and discussions to be fruitful.
Servant leadership dates back to biblical times; therefore, we certainly do not consider it to be a “fad” or a “latest” leadership approach. In fact, it has been tested many times in many environments and has consistently proven to be not only a rewarding approach to leading but also an effective one. Even with such success, servant leadership is often misunderstood and dismissed by many before even attempting to understand it or experience it first-hand.
What servant leadership is NOT:
· It is not about taking a weak position
· It is not about being soft with followers
· It is not about religion
· It is not only for non-profit organizations
I imagine that each of you nodded to at least one of those items and thought …. Really? That’s going to take some explaining! We will explore and do some myth-busting on many of the incorrect beliefs regarding servant leadership.
Who is a servant leader? What is servant leadership?
Servant leader. A leader who is servant first. Such leaders naturally want to serve and eventually aspire to lead and in doing so, help those who follow them to grow as individuals (Greenleaf, 1998).
Servant leadership is a form of leadership that places the self-interest of the leader behind what is best for those being led and is characterized by valuing and developing people, providing and sharing leadership all in the context of authenticity and building community for the greater good (Laub, 1999).
For much of our journey together, I will refer to some key books and I highly recommend that you add them to your personal library. In particular, I love the way Sipe and Frick (2009) conceptualized servant leadership into Seven Pillars and we will use their model as a foundation for our journey. According to Sipe and Frick, servant leadership includes the following characteristics/pillars:
Pillar I - Person of Character
Pillar II - Puts People First
Pillar III - Skilled Communicator
Pillar IV - Compassionate Collaborator
Pillar V - Has Foresight
Pillar VI - Systems Thinker
Pillar VII - Leads with Moral Authority
We will explore each of these pillars during our servant leadership journey. When you visit, please bring your thinking cap as I will regularly ask you to reflect and take purposeful action toward becoming a servant leader. This will be a mutual journey and one I hope will be fruitful for all.
Cheers to a great journey!
Rebecca
References:
Laub, J. A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the servant organizational leadership assessment (SOLA) instrument. Dissertation Abstracts International (UMI No. 9921922).
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