Servant Leadership: Are you on the right leadership path?

 "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." - Mark 9:35

Servant Leadership can be defined as the natural desire of a leader to serve first rather than to be served. The striking difference between a servant leader and other leadership styles is that the servant leader seeks to ensure that other people’s highest priority needs are being met. There is some debate as to the number if characteristics that define a servant leader.  This blog will focus on five characteristics that will help you determine if you are on the path of service.

1. Empathy: The servant leader attempts to truly empathize with others. Staff members must be considered not only as employees, but also as people who need (and desire) respect and appreciation for their personal development. 

2. Awareness: The servant leader possesses a general awareness and especially self-awareness. Through reflection, he/she is not afraid of acknowledging his/her weaknesses.  He/she has the ability to view situations from a more integrated, holistic position.  This characteristic helps the servant leader base decisions on what is best for others.

3. Healing: The servant leader has the ability to heal others (emotionally) and his/herself. A servant leader finds solutions for his/her staff and resolves conflicts to boost morale because he/she sincerely wants to encourage and support the personal development of each individual.

4. Listening: A servant leader has the motivation to actively listen to his/her staff and supports them in decision-making.  The servant leader also pays particular attention to non-verbal cues and "listens" to what his/her staff members' body language is communicating.

5. Persuasion: A servant leader does not take advantage of his/her authority and status by coercing compliance; they rather try to convince those they serve.  Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends & Influence People) describes persuasion as "arousing in the other person an eager want."

We'll end this blog with a quote from a champion of servant leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf,

“This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built...If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them."