APPLYING SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE

Running head: APPLYING SERVANT STYLE OF LEADERSHIP
APPLYING SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE
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APPLYING SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE1
Introduction
Leadership is the skill and functionalities associated with the act of guiding and directing
a group of individuals, towards fulfillment of a collective organizational goal or objective. A
leader is primarily the individual who is responsible for leading or directing teams towards
achievement of both personal and professional development. Contrary to traditional and popular
beliefs, a servant style leadership is based upon the foundational principle that the leader must
aim to serve the workforce and not the other way around (Kashyap & Rangnekar, 2016).). The
following paper will hence extensively discuss upon the principles of servant leadership, scope
of quality improvement, comparisons between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and the key
characteristics of performance driven teams practicing the same
Discussion
Principles of Servant Leadership
In a servant style of leadership where a leader must serve and not traditionally lead, he or
she must be aware of the following principles (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018; Grisaffe, VanMeter &
Chonko, 2016):
 Empathy: A competent servant leader must be empathetic and understanding towards
the unique perceptions, ideas, opinions and decisions of team members and also
demonstrate a non-judgmental attitude towards their application.
 Active Listening: A competent servant leader is expected to engage in two way
communication where he or she must first actively listen to the team members’ concerns
during the decision-making process.

APPLYING SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE2
 Conceptualization: Servant leaders must engage in decision-making and problem-
solving skills bases on long term benefits in the form of abstract, hypothetical concepts
instead of limiting application of the same across merely daily life functions.
 Persuasion: A servant leader is not expected to be authoritative or engage in delegation,
but is rather recommended to gently persuade and convince team members to cooperate
for collective fulfilment of organizational objectives.
 Healing: The aim of a servant leader is to ensure comprehensive and holistic
development and growth of team members via mentoring, discussing and coaching
activities.
 Stewardship: A servant leader must engage in caring for and building trust, not only
across team members but also across the entire organization for the purpose of achieving
collective wellness within the community.
 Foresight: A servant leader must have the ability to analyze and draw conclusions from
previous mistakes of situations and apply the same for influencing existing decision
making and foresee future scope of organizational threats.
 Team-building: A servant leader must aim to engage in activities and functions which
directly have the potential to build unity, harmony and cooperation across members of the
team.
 Commitment towards Team Growth: The aim of the servant leader is to ensure, not
just collective achievement of goals and objectives but also the growth, development and
improvement of each team member across both professional as well as personal levels.