Situational leadership principles and applications

¶ … Leadership

The underlying assumption of servant leadership is that the leader exists to serve the needs of others. The servant leader marshals resources in such a manner as to give his or her employees the best opportunity to succeed. Under the servant leader, people will grow, improve and achieve a higher level of self-actualization as part of their path to superior performance (Greenleaf, 1970). Self-awareness is a critical element of servant leadership. Self-awareness helps the servant leader to understand the ways in which his or her actions are affecting those around him or her. The servant leader must also combine this self-awareness with self-concept. The servant leader must have the self-concept of wanting to serve, and feeling that he or she exists to serve the needs of others. This selflessness translates to servant leadership, but for a person to be an effective servant leader he or she must be aware of this driving need, and seek to cultivate it. That person's actions will then be more aligned with servant leadership, guided by knowing altruism.

Emotional intelligence also plays an important role in servant leadership. Self-awareness is one of the key elements of emotional intelligence, but beyond that people who have a high level of emotional intelligence also have empathy and strong social skills. Servant leaders must have these traits. Empathy is important because the servant leader exists to meet the needs of others; understanding those needs is therefore crucial. Social skills help the servant leader to engage in a free flow of communications with people. Not only does the listening aspect help the servant leader to better understand the needs of others, but it can help him or her to better understand the link between his or her actions and the meeting of those needs. The best servant leaders will have a very high level of emotional intelligence and therefore be able to read and respond to the needs of employees very quickly, and accurately.

These factors -- self-awareness, self-concept and emotional intelligence -- will also affect one's leadership style. High levels of these traits would make one a perfect candidate for servant leadership, but if levels of these traits differ, they could guide one to other forms of leadership. For example, a leader with relatively poor social skills is unlikely to be a servant leader, and is more likely to pursue a transactional leadership style. Somebody with great social skills but lacking in self-awareness or self-concept could become a "great man" -- style leader or could become an autocrat (or both, in some political cases).