What is Servant Leadership?

Introduction to Servant Leadership

Robert K. Greenleaf first introduced the Servant Leadership concept in 1970 and it has gained popularity since the 1990s, because it is all about nurturing an atmosphere and an environment where people blossom. While we find Servant Leaders in all kinds of organizations where people have authority over others, unlike traditional leaders, Servant Leaders enable success by enabling people to succeed.

Servant Leadership creates sustainable and healthy organizations. Over time, employees will align with a shared purpose, vision, value system, and principles. In turn, it will be easier to reach organizational short- and long-term goals.

Why should you adopt Servant Leadership?

Servant Leadership represents a significant development in management thinking. Servant Leadership behaviors represent an opportunity for everyone in every organization including the customers, the business, teams, individuals, and the Servant Leaders themselves.

Servant Leaders are motivational leaders who foster great teamwork and promote ownership from ideas to solutions. The result is happier employees, more innovation, increased productivity, and a healthier organization.

Servant Leadership vs. traditional leadership

Traditional leadership is the use of authority, coercion, or social power to influence others. In other words, someone is your leader if they can command you to do something. This style of leadership has been effective in getting things done in hierarchies and bureaucracies and often relies on formal rules that determine who has power over who.

A Servant Leader is someone who focuses on purpose, vision, inspiration, and providing feedback and they will support the people they lead to excel in their work. All of this means that it requires more time and energy to be a servant leader, but in the long run it leads to creating healthier organinzations.

Pros and cons of Servant Leadership

Pros:

• It is a more humanistic management style
• It gives satisfied customers
• Creates engaged and motivated employees
• Encourages higher performance
• It provides lower turnover rates
• Develops a healthier organization
• Empowers people
• Stimulates autonomy in individuals and teams
• Develops relationships and builds trust
• Supports building coherent teams based on shared values
• Employees become purpose-driven
• Employees will likely adopt the same leadership style themselves
• It is well suited for remote work
• May increase emotional security
• May increase emotional intelligence in people
• May improve inner well-being for employees

Cons:

• It may be a great way to lead, but it will not work with all people in all situations.
• Requires a lot of trust and openness
• Leadership development for people to become Servant Leaders may be challenging.
• Servant Leadership may turn into self-sacrifice.
• Servant Leadership is not always the best option for time-pressured leaders.
• This type of leadership is unsuitable for someone with a natural preference for a more hands-off approach or a more controlling style.
• Servant Leadership is not the best match for people that expect detailed work descriptions.
• Servant Leadership is challenging in bureaucratic or hierarchical organizations where leaders make the decisions.