What Is Servant Leadership?

With servant leadership, a leader isn't an authoritarian, and the workplace isn't a top-down environment.

Instead, there is a decentralized 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:organizational structure in which the leader works with everyone on a level playing field.

How Servant Leadership Works

The term "servant leadership" was coined by Robert Greenleaf, a twentieth-century researcher who was skeptical about traditional 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:leadership styles that promoted authoritarian relationships between employers and employees.

Customer-facing employe🦹es can use🤪 servant leadership to make better connections with customers.

These employees have a close relationship with the consumer and can make bet𓂃ter decisions to retain those customers and ♏acquire new ones.

Servant Leader Characteristics

According to Greenleaf’s observations, the servant leader approaches situations and organizations fro🦂m the perspective of a servant first, looking to lend their presence to answer the needs of the organization and others.

Servant leaders seek t꧟o address stakeholder wants and ꧂requirements as their priority, with leadership to be pursued secondarily.

This contrasts with the leader-first perspective, wherein a person aims🔯 to gain control quickly, often driven by the desiꦗre and prospects for material gain or influence.

Developing and mentoring the team that follows their instructions, or the clients’ and customers’ needs, take precedence over personal elevation.

Even upon attaining a position of governance, a servant leader typically encourages their subordinates to look to serve otღhers as their priority over person𓆏al gains.

A servant leader may aim to share po☂wer with, and encou🐈rage the development and growth of, others.

This trait can ex𒈔tend to listening to followers carefully to better understand their needs, but it also involves leaders holding themselves and others accountable for their wordꦿs and actions.

Servant Leadership Example

Where the leader-first dynamic is oriented to appease a personal desire for power, the se📖rvant leader looks first at how their service benefits others.

For example, a servant leader might question how their efforts uplift those who are under-represented before seeking to attain a position of control. Thꦫeir prog♋ression to a position of leadership comes after, or because of, their commitment to service.

This might be seen in healthcare, in a doctor who works tirelessly alongside nurses to benefit their patients. In the business world, this might look like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:employees, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:customers, and other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:stakeholders prospering due to 🧸a CEO's service-oriented leadership.

Servant Leadership Pros and Cons

Every leadership style has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the context in which it's exercised.

Some of the advantages of servant leadership are:

• Leaders earn respect from their employees
• Employees feel valued, and that management is looking out for their interests
• There is a shared vision
• There is often greater trust among employees and leaders
• Leaders consider the opinions of staff, which is likely to improve innovative efforts
• Individuals develop skills and can advance professionally in a supportive environment

Some of the disadvantages of servant leadership are:

• Few leaders have experience in this type of management
• Adoption may require difficult cultural change
• Decisions can take time, which can be detrimental in times of crisis
• Staff may be given more responsibility than they can handle

The Bottom Line

In a simply structured business environment, where teams innovate together, servant leadership can provide the necessary guida𓂃nce for the achievement of many♎.

It's designed to work in contrast to the authoritarian style that promotes management power over employees.