Servant leadership

Servant Leadership Introduction Most people believe that servant leadership entails giving orders to followers, which is a wrong perception, since giving orders, is tantamount to directing your people always. The origin for this view of leadership can be traced to north USA where employers pushed staff to perform many duties, working for long hours and were able to reap the much output. The leaders however, came to realize that this kind of leadership was not sustainable since it required one to supervise followers constantly since the absence of a supervisor resulted in reduced output. Furthermore, upon death of the proprietor, such organizations could not survive any longer (Vondey, 2010).
Developments in servant leadership
Vondey (2010) states that scholars embarked on looking for a sustainable way of management that created value for staff and the organization. This led to a more enterprising relationship between leaders and servants, giving rise to self-driven and responsible followers.
The main aim of servant leadership is for the leader to make an initiative of taking care of all the needs of followers. Organizations have particularly taken note of servant leadership since it encourages followers to perform tasks just like the leader, leading to structuring of organizational beliefs, clear chains of command and delegation of duties. Followers will offer services in the same way they see their leader do and this promotes service delivery if the leader is transparent and generous to followers (Winkle, Allen, DeVore & Winston 2014).
For there to exist a proper relationship between the leader and followers, the leader should not exert his influence among the followers by commanding them around, instead the leader should work with followers, encouraging and showing them how to carry their duties successfully. This shall motivate followers to improve their productivity and growth, enhance recognition from the company, promote their integrity and they shall provide proper community services.
Winkle et al (2014) says that from research, the servant leadership provides an outlook on how the followers are likely to perform. If a leader serves those under him, he shall have followers who will mostly do the same to others. Most followers will perceive the leader as a role model and will not hesitate to serve others if their leader serves them well. They shall do this by giving one another spectacular service, marketing their company and creating the habit of encouraging others to express themselves fully.
In essence, followers acquire great values from a healthy servant leadership relationship. This will in turn influence ones personality, skills and talents. A great feature of this relationship is interdependence among the staff when choosing the best decision to take. In addition, there is always cooperation and a sense of positive correction with an anticipation of general organizational success (Winkle et al., 2014). As a result, one’s individuality fades away and in return, we get interdependence among the followers.
The role of servant leaders is to examine, heed and guide all stakeholders on what is happening within the organization. All concerned shall express themselves clearly without fear and will always accommodate decisions of others. Disputes shall be resolved amicably and all parties shall use this platform to improve their services. As a result, the leader shall not claim to be the person with the final answer rather he shall encourage output from all concerned parties and will instill in them the aspect of organization-wide consulting.
References:
Vondey, M. (2010). The Relationship among Servant Leadership, Organizational Citizenship
Behavior, Person Organization Fit, and Organizational Identification. International Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol 6(1), pp 4-11.
Winkle, B. V., Allen, S., DeVore, D., Winston, B. (2014). The Relationship Between the Servant
Leadership Behaviours of Immediate Supervisors and Followers’ Perceptions of Being Empowered in theContext of Small Business. Jouurnal of Leadership Studies, V13(13/R5), pp 70-79.