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“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” (Robert K. Greenleaf).
16 year old immigrant, John W. Nordstrom came from Sweden, arriving in America with the hope of starting a better life. 14 years later, he opened a shoe store, the beginning of one of America’s leading fashion lines today. Known for its outstanding customer service, you may know it as Nordstrom. The founder of this company was one of the many business leaders who made it big in the Klondike Gold Rush. John W. Nordstrom demonstrated servant leadership by developing a philosophy to always deliver customers the best service possible, a foundation for the company’s success today.
What is servant leadership? Servant leadership is shown when an individual or an organization thrives to support others around them and uses their power to make others stronger.
John W. Nordstrom was born on February 15th, 1871. His childhood was not a happy one. When he turned 16, he decided to leave his home country for America. In the first years of his childhood, his family got along fine. However, after his father’s death, his family’s lives depended on him and his siblings. In his autobiography, he recited that his mother expected him to do work that his brother, who was 10 years older than him could do. “I often cried when I had trouble doing things she expected me to do and couldn’t and felt very helpless” (Nordstrom 10).
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.
Servant Leadership is defined as a leadership that is based on serving others altruistically. Servant leaders put the wellbeing of their followers ahead of their own needs in order to see them grow to their fullest potential. The leader makes sure that their followers grow as persons, become wiser, healthier, freer, and more likely to become servant leaders themselves (Northouse, 2013).
Servant Leadership is a leadership style that primarily focuses on the people side of leadership. It was developed by Robert Greenleaf in the early 1970s.
Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.
Servanthood is to serve the needs of the people in the best way possible and bring forth the greatness these individuals have to offer their community. Being a servant leader also means being selfless. Leaders are placed in certain organizations and a position to bring forth the calling and vision God has for His people. Servant leadership in it entity is to motivate and encourage individuals to turn away from self-serving. Wilkes, author of the book, Jesus on Leadership, says it the best, “A servant leader serves the mission and leads by serving those on the mission with him”
3. Servant leadership is when a leader works not out of his own self-interest, but that of his followers. This is, as claimed by many, the best form of leadership that all should follow. It has been present in the military, specifically the Marine Corps, but
Defining the term “servant leader” or “servant leadership” is a difficult task. Many have attempted to define this concept but I think the Business Dictionary does the best in capturing the essence of servant leadership. It states, “Servant leadership stresses the importance of the role a leader plays as the steward of the resources of a business or other organization, and teaches leaders to serve others while still achieving the goals set forth by the business.” The Army’s stated mission is to fight and win our Nation’s wars, by providing prompt, sustained, land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of
16 year old immigrant, John W. Nordstrom came from Sweden, arriving in America with the hope of starting a better life. 14 years later, this man opened a shoe store which became the beginning of one of the leading fashion lines in America today, Nordstrom. The founder of this company was one of the many leading business leaders who made it big in the Klondike Gold Rush. John W. Nordstrom demonstrated leadership by developing a philosophy to always put customers first, a foundation for the success of Nordstrom today.
Servant Leadership describes a leadership style that focuses on serving the needs of the team, client or
At its core, servant leadership is about service to others and originates from within. Servant leaders possess individual qualities within themselves that facilitate their leading through acts of service. Ten traits characterize servant leadership: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building communities. Servant leaders, according to Parolini (2004), are characterized by their ability to “bring integrity, humility, and servant hood into caring for, empowering and developing others in carrying out tasks and processes of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, team building, and shared-decision making” (Parolini, 2004, p. 9). A historic
From the group Biblical Integration Paper, it was understood that servant-leadership is not only a gift of purpose that God places in the hearts of His people, but it is also a calling in one’s life to truly touch the lives of others in need. Living a successful life, as a servant-leader is not one that focuses on self-fulfillment, rather it is in seeking a fulfillment that comes from Christ when one pours him/herself out for the sake of others. It is through servant-leadership that one is able to bring hope into hopeless situations (Group Integration Paper,
Dr. Kent M. Keith was a presenter on behalf of the Greenleaf Seminar on Servant Leadership at the 53rd annual conference for the Arizona School Boards Association in December, 2010. He correctly pointed out that servant leadership is about serving others, about becoming distinguished through the altruistic desire to serve, and about the "…universal recognition of the importance of serving others" (Keith, 2010).
Servant leadership is a type of leadership whereby the leader serves the needs of the people, empathizes with them, and involves them in solving their needs. Servant leadership is all about involving the people you are leading in your decision making, being ethical and caring for the people to enhance their personal growth at the same time improve their life. A servant leader does not simply delegate roles; he starts the work and energizes the others to join him and get the work done. According to Spears (2004), the servant leader as defined by Greenleaf is one who gets the natural feeling of wanting to serve first and then a conscious choice brings him/her to lead. This leader makes sure that other people’s highest-priority needs are take
A leader is a person who takes risks, attempts to achieve shared goals, and inspires others to action (Marquis & Huston,
Servant leadership is basically a set of leadership practices and the philosophies regarding leadership. Surely most of us know what leadership really is. Leadership is seen simply as the accusation and exercise of power for someone who is on top of the pyramid. This is the conventional and simple form of leadership that we all know and love. Where on one hand there is the conventional form of leadership, the servant leader model is the form where the needs and concerns of others are put first. In this model, the needs and concerns of others are placed