Servant Leadership: Origins, Characteristics, and Influential Figures

This essay delves into the concept of servant leadership, a leadership style emphasizing service, empathy, and community building. It begins by defining servant leadership and tracing its origins, highlighting its oxymoronic nature as leaders prioritize serving others. The essay then reviews the literature on servant leadership, referencing key figures like Robert K. Greenleaf and studies by organizational psychologists. A significant portion is dedicated to outlining the core characteristics of servant leadership, including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, and commitment to the growth of people. The essay then provides examples of influential servant leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, illustrating how they embody these principles in their actions and philosophies. The paper concludes by reiterating the importance of servant leadership in contemporary business environments.

Running head: SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Servant Leadership
Name of the Student:
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Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
Servant leadership is one of the important aspects of the present day business environments. It is
a method where the leaders do not consider themselves as the superiors, rather servant leaders
are the ones who follow the policy of serving first. For them, persuasion and understanding are
much more important than dominating. Service leaders do not differentiate between their
followers. They believe in the policy of bestowing their service to the general good of the
community. The aim of this paper will be to see the origin and the meaning of servant leadership
along with some of it’s characteristics. It will also talk about some of the major significant
servant leaders of human history.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Characteristics of servant leadership...............................................................................................6
Listening..........................................................................................................................................7
Empathy...........................................................................................................................................7
Healing.............................................................................................................................................7
Awareness........................................................................................................................................7
Persuasion........................................................................................................................................8
Conceptualization............................................................................................................................8
Foresight..........................................................................................................................................8
Stewardship......................................................................................................................................8
Building community........................................................................................................................9
Some of the famous servant leaders................................................................................................9
Nelson Mandela...............................................................................................................................9
Mother Teresa................................................................................................................................10
Martin Luther King........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Servant leadership is a term that is widely relevant in most of the companies in the
present day scenario. The very term servant leadership is oxymoronic in nature. This is a term
that was first coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in one of his essay. The two words servant and
leader are totally different in nature. This is because of the fact that a leaders is known to be
someone who always leads whereas a servant is someone who is known to serve everyone
(Trastek et al., 2014, pp.375).
Hence the very basic meaning that comes to our mind the moment we talk about servant
leadership is that of a leader who is a servant first. It begins with the very natural feeling that a
servant leader is someone who will have to serve first (Marshall, 2016, pp.312).
It begins with this very natural feeling that a servant leader is one who will have to
have to serve first. In other words, a servant leader is someone who will have to cater to the
needs and demands of the people. Serving the basic needs of the people will be the first and
foremost priority of the leaders. A servant leader is someone who will always focus on the
growth and well being of the people (Marshall, 2016, pp.312). He will always consider himself
as the servant first. In other words, before being a leader he will always try to recognize himself
as a servant. Rather a servant who will have the people. Servant leaders are the ones who feel
pride in serving others. Others here refer to the people or the community to which they belong.
This is different from the normal leadership because a normal leader is one who usually tries to
accumulate and exercise his power or his position on his fellow followers or on his subordinates.
In other words a normal leader is one who always tries to stay at the very peak or at the very top
of the pyramid. However servant leadership is very different. A servant leader is someone who
always tries to place his service first and then his power (Marshall, 2016, pp.312)
Literature review
The term servant leadership was coined by Robert k. Greenleaf in his essay called the Servant as
Leader. According to his opinion a servant leader is different from that of a normal leader. This
difference that persists between the servant leader and the normal leader is the way they take care
of their position and their responsibility (Marshall, 2016, pp.312). In other words, a servant

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leader is one who always considers himself to be a servant first and then a leader. The leader first
and the servant first are two extreme types. There are however some misconceptions that exists
in the concept of servant leadership (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014, pp.76).
Many are of the opinion that it is perhaps the inverted pyramid structure where the top
management has to report to the lower levels of management. In the present days, a large amount
of study is being carried on by the group of organizational psychologists in order to see how
much effective is the concept of servant leadership in the present day leaders (Marshall, 2016,
pp.312). These bands of psychologists are being led by Adam Grant. According to his study, the
servant leaders are not only much more valued and respected by their followers or their
employees but they are also much more productive in nature (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014,
pp.76).
. This is perhaps of the fact that the servant leaders are not very selective in nature. In
other words, servant leaders always consider that they must serve the community in a generous
manner. In other words they just lend their service to everyone in the society or in the
community to which they belong. They are not very selective in nature. They never usually
waste much time in deciding whom to render their service to.

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Figure1: Servant leadership Model
(Source: greenleaf.2014)
Characteristics of servant leadership
Listening
Listening and communication is of utmost importance in any and every kind of
leadership. However in case of servant leadership it is all the more important because of the fact
that they need to listen to all their followers quite intently. (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014,
pp.76). The servant leaders believe in persuasion and understanding. They render majority of
their time in listening to and understanding the people and their grievances in order to solve
them.

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Empathy
One of the major important aspects of servant leadership is empathy. In other words,
being just sympathetic to ones employees or one’s followers is not always enough (Olesia,
Namusonge & Iravo, 2014, pp.76).
A servant leader is one who will try to place themselves in the place of their followers while
solving their problems. Servant leaders will always try to find out the potentiality and the
confidence of hiss co workers.
Healing
This is one of the major qualities present within a servant leader. A servant leader is
someone who must know how to render emotional support to his followers as well. It can often
happen that some of the employees or followers are suffering from poor or broken self
confidence. It can also happen that they are undergoing a series of mental breakdowns. In such
cases, it is the duty of a servant leader to understand and share the feelings of his fellow
followers.
Awareness
A servant leader must be very much well aware about himself and also about his fellow
followers. Awareness is something that will always enable a leader to take logical decisions
regarding business ethics. Servant leaders who believe in awareness are the ones who are not
running after solace. Rather they are the ones who want to stay aware and awakened about each
and everything going on around them (Trastek et al., 2014, pp.375).
Persuasion
The servant leaders are the ones who do not believe in imposing their decisions on
their followers. Rather they try to persuade and convince people rather than dominating and
bossing over them. (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014, pp.76).

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Conceptualization
This is also very much important in case of the servant leaders. This enables them to
view and deal with each and every problem from a conceptualizing perception. They try to draw
in their knowledge of day to day lessons in solving the problems. They believe in developing a
proper concept of the solution that they are about to provide to their people. It is because of the
fact that they want to promote the general good of the people and hence believe in developing
their concepts first before rending help to their followers.
Foresight
It is farsightedness that is a must for every servant leader. It is with the help of this
ability that are able to gather information and experiences from the past and also the present, in
order to overcome the past mistakes, and gear towards a bright future. They always have an
immense sense of responsibility towards the growth of their employees. The servant leaders
always consider social service as their first and foremost duty.
Stewardship
His basically refers to the commitment that the servant leaders make towards the
people or the community, to which they belong. It also gives much importance on tools of
openness and persuasion rather than control (Grandy, 2013, pp.616). They always have an
immense sense of responsibility towards the growth of their employees. The servant leaders
always consider social service as their first and foremost duty.
Commitment to growth of people
This is the major motif of the servant leaders (Marshall, 2016, pp.312). They
consider themselves as servants of the community or the people to which they belong. In other
words, they render all their efforts in developing the society. They always have an immense
sense of responsibility towards the growth of their employees. The servant leaders always
consider social service as their first and foremost duty.

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Building community
Servant leaders are of the belief that the human history as already suffered a lot due
to the transformation, from the local communities to the large institutions. They want to render
all their service in building a community not via any kind of mass movements but by rendering
their service and their liability to the community related group. This is the most important aspect
of servant leadership. They always believe in surrendering themselves to the benefit of others
that is the society to which they belong. Hence, building up the community in a positive direction
is their major goal.
Some of the famous servant leaders
Nelson Mandela
One of the famous quotes by Mandela is “If you want to make peace with your
enemy, you have to work with your enemy, and then he becomes your partner.”
It s evident from this fact, that he was a believer in selfless service to the people and the
community to which he belonged. He never made any distinctions between people. He wanted to
serve people in general (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014, pp.76). He was a man of peace and
he even believed in the principle of treating one’s enemy with proper love. He was someone who
believed in persuasion rather than fighting and dominating on his enemies. He wanted to bring a
change in the society through peace and harmony and not through fights, wars and bloodsheds.
He believed in the principle of forgiveness (Grandy, 2013, pp.616).

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Figure2: Servant leadership
(Source: greenleaf.2014)
Mother Teresa
She is one of the major examples of servant leadership. She was some none who had
given up her life for the welfare of millions of poor, innocent and homeless orphans. It is for her
selfless work that she has earned this title of “MOTHER” This is because of the fact that she has
always extended her help to all the children of the world in general. She used to bestow her love
and care to any and every children whom she used to find on any and every corner of road in
poor miserable condition. What made her so famous is the unconditional love and care that she
bestowed over all. She sacrificed her entire life towards the service of the society. She was very
much empathetic to each and every one of the society. She knew how to render emotional
support to the people in need (Olesia, Namusonge & Iravo., 2014, pp.76).
Martin Luther King
He is someone whose life and services can be termed as the important lessons of servant
leadership. He was someone who knew how to render support and listen to them whom the

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society considered being unneeded and unwanted. Throughout his life, he wanted to bring the
feeling of peace, harmony and justice. He wanted equal justice for each and every one of the
community. He even rendered immense effort in uniting all his fellow Americans in recognizing
one common vision that is to serve. Serve the nation and serve the fellow members of the nation.
This is because of the fact that Martin Luther King was of the belief that there is only one way
through which the Americans can achieve great heights, and that is only thorough unconditional
service (Grandy, 2013, pp.616). He even claimed that he does not want to be remembered
through the number of prizes he received but he wants to be remembered by people because of
his service towards them.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that servant leadership is very much needed in order to
serve the country and the Nation through selfless devotion. Leadership is achieved not only
through domination but also through persuasion and understanding. Though it is an age old
concept but efforts must be made in order to incorporate this vision. This will obviously help in
improving the relationship between the employees and their leaders. This will also bring about
more transparency within the leaders and their followers and it will eventually boost up the
confidence and the potentiality of the employees within any and every business organization.

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