The concept of servant leadership implies that the leader serves the followers and the company or organization. The prime purpose of a servant leader is to prioritize employees’ needs and well-being. This leadership model presupposes that the leader’s personal values include empathy, altruism, honesty and trust. Some typical traits of servant-leader comprise listening skills, awareness and aspiration of contribution to follower’s growth and empowerment. Thus, the concept of servant leadership aims to promote the organization’s overall growth and enhanced efficiency by facilitating employees’ personal development owing to the leader’s servant, supporting and empathic behavior.
Mainly, personal values and personal models of servant leadership positively affect individual and group behavior. Employees become more effective, engaged and satisfied with their work due to prioritizing their growth and well-being (Eva et al., 2019). Servant leaders contribute to better creative performance, helping attitudes and service organizational citizenship behaviors by “actively developing followers’ potential” (Robbins & Judge, 2021, p. 484). The servant leadership model connected with positive team outcomes such as team cohesion, a trusting and safe work environment and better team performance (Chiniara &Bentein, 2018). Higher levels of team performance are the consequence of increased team potency, a conviction that the group fulfills “above-average skills and abilities” (Robbins & Judge, 2021, p. 484). Thus, servant leadership results in enhanced team productivity, which, in turn, leads to beneficial outcomes for the organization.
Every leadership model affects the organization, while the leader’s values determine the company’s workspace, climate, and objectives. Servant leadership maintains a service climate and serving culture resulting in customer satisfaction. Employees acquire leaders’ servant values and transform them into increased organization efficiency. Eva et al. (2019) highlight the positive relation between this leadership model and “organizational commitment and operational performance”. Servant leaders do not put the organization’s needs first, but the company gets better results due to employees’ growth and a safe, trusting workspace.
It can be concluded that this leadership model implies that the leader’s personal values are distributed in a progression, from the leader to the individuals, to the team and the organization. Servant leadership also impacts society since positive empathic behaviors and attitudes are instilled in more and more people. Servant leadership broadcasts to society the importance and influence of selfless, caring, respectful and equal relations.
Therefore, the concept of leader-servant is strongly connected with the Christian worldview, which suggests that every human creation should serve. Servant leadership promotes the same values as Christianity does, and Jesus can be seen as the first servant leader. Nonetheless, this model, in some way, contradicts traditional management concepts and is “paradoxical in the sense that “leader” and “servant” are usually opposites” (Bateman et al., 2019, p. 361). Usually, a leader notion is associated with dominance, power accumulation, and status differentiation. On the other hand, the servant leader shares power and is close to his followers. Still, like any other leader, the servant is a role model for their employees.
My personal model of leadership has much in common with the servant leader concept. To meet the needs and promote the growth of followers, I apply active listening, empathy and providing feedback. My personal model implies respect for all employees and solicitude about their well-being. I strongly agree that satisfied followers will be more active, grateful, and engaging and contribute to the organization’s overall performance and success.
References
Bateman, T. S., Snell, S., & Konopaske, R. (2019). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world (13nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Chiniara, M., & Bentein, K. (2018). The servant leadership advantage: When perceiving low differentiation in leader-member relationship, quality influences team cohesion, team task performance and service OCB. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(2), 333-345. Web.
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111-132. Web.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2021). Organizational behavior (Updated 18th ed.). Pearson.