Servant Leadership
Even though servant leadership is in most cases associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ it is quite compatible with most religions and theories of philosophy. This paper is a comparative study using Greenleaf's characteristics of servant leadership which is based on Christianity against other philosophy and other leadership theories.

"…The great leader is seen as servant first…"-obert K. Greenleaf. This is a fragment from a sentence in an essay written in 1970 which adequately covers the essence of servant-leadership theory. This simple and yet profound concept has spawned in various books, journals and articles. Greenleaf intentionally sought to come up with a descriptor that might be held about the existing relationship between a leader and his followers. Servant leadership is a new kind of leadership model that puts serving others as the first priority. Servant leadership puts emphasis on increased service to others; this is a holistic approach to…...

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References

Smith, C.(2005). The leadership theory of Robert K. Greenleaf. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from  http://www.carolsmith.us/downloads/640greenleaf.pdf 

Spears, L.(2013).The 10 Gifts of a Servant Leader. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from  http://www.dailygood.org/story/447/the-10-gifts-of-a-servant-leader/ 

Podsada, R.( 2010).10 Characteristics of a Servant Leader. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from  http://www.nine10.ca/blog/entries/10-characteristics-of-a-servant-leader 

Wallace, R., (2007). Servant Leadership: A Worldview Perspective. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from  http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss2/Wallace/wallace.htm

Servant Leadership
At the center of servant leadership is a leader's ability to transform a team, department or entire organization by concentrating on their specific needs for direction, individualized coaching, development and recognition. A highly effective servant leader will also have a correspondingly high level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and exhibit the traits of transformational leadership (Washington, Sutton, Feild, 2006). A highly effective servant leader will often create unique development and training programs that align with the strengths and weaknesses of a given subordinate as well.

Servant leaders also excel at creating team-based cultures that seek to provide their subordinates with an opportunity to gain autonomy, mastery and purpose over their work. These three factors are critical to long-term motivation for learning (Leavy, 2012). Highly effective servant leaders realize that by showing trust, they become trusted. By concentrating on the three foundational elements of long-term motivation, a servant leader sets a foundation…...

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References

Leavy, B. (2012). Michael Beer - higher ambition leadership. Strategy & Leadership, 40(3), 5-11.

Oliveira, M.A., & Ferreira, J.J.P. (2012). How interoperability fosters innovation: The case for servant leadership. African Journal of Business Management, 6(29), 8580.

Washington, R.R., Sutton, C.D., & Feild, H.S. (2006). Individual differences in servant leadership: The roles of values and personality. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(8), 700-716.

Servant Leadership
Defining Servant Leadership

The principles of Servant Leadership were laid out by founder Robert Greenleaf in his important 1970 book, The Servant as Leader. Greenleaf, to his great credit, wanted to stress the point that leaders should first serve, and later lead through service. The leaders who have power but have not led, and use the power to push his or her own viewpoints and agenda, are not the kind of leaders Greenleaf was referring to. In fact in the Center for Servant Leadership website, the theory and philosophy of Servant Leadership is clearly spelled out: "A servant-leader focuses primarily in the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong…the servant leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible" (www.greenleaf.org).

In this paper the goal will be to define and explain servant leadership in a context…...

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Works Cited

Center for Servant Leadership. (2010). What is Servant Leadership? Retrieved February 25,

2013, from  https://www.greenleaf.org .

Greenleaf, Robert. (2010). Ten Principles of Servant Leadership. Butler University. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from  http://www.butler.edu .

Meixner, Cara. (2010). Reconciling Self, Servant Leadership, and Learning: The Journey to The East as Locus for Reflection and Transformation. Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(4),

This is why the journal article advocated more empirical research that is still lacking ten years later (ussell & Stone, 2002, 145).
B. Servant Leadership-Greenleaf

The primary aspect is that a servant leader is first a servant who feels a natural need to provide for the needs of others (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002, 27). A concrete example of this would have been a leader such as Martin Luther King Jr. who exhibited this capacity. Certainly, his leadership without doubt changed the face of the American landscape forever. Without it, the United States might still be the segregated and less equal place that it was in the days of separate rest rooms, lunch counters and segregated buses. The impact upon America's racial situation was immediate and positive. While things may not be ideal today, without such leadership, things would be worse. For this reason, more research is necessary.

C. Explain the importance of…...

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References

Greenleaf, R.K., & Spears, L.C. (2002). Servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Mahweh, NJ: Paulist Press.

Russell, R.F., & Stone, a.G. (2002). A review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 23(3), 145±157.

Somech, a. (2003). Relationships of participative leadership with relational demography variables: a multi-level perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24, 1003 -- 1018.

Van Wart, M. (2003). Public-sector leadership theory: An assessment. Public Administration Review,

Therefore, the servant leadership theory reflects the need for analyzing this type of leadership.
Servant Leadership Cons

There is also certain criticism addressed by some to this theory. It seems that servant leadership provides a too soft approach that does not favor the development of competitiveness within the company. The increased competition in the business environment requires that companies also build a competitive environment within them in order to help employees develop the skills required by successfully addressing the business environment.

In addition to this, servant leaders do not impose correction of certain issues and required discipline as often as they should. Their approach in situations that require such actions is usually to use persuasion skills in order to determine employees to modify their behavior. There are also situations where confidentiality must be kept regarding certain issues. Servant leaders are usually open to their subordinates, and tend to reveal confidential issues.

Another issue…...

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Reference list:

1. Gill, R. (2006). Theory and Practice of Leadership. Sage Publications. Retrieved March 28, 2013 from  http://books.google.ro/books?id=yNspK3EEFg0C&pg=PA41&dq=servant+leadership+theory&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=HqlUUb_9I5GLswaDzYDwCw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=servant%20leadership%20theory&f=false .

2. Lussier, R. & Achua, C. (2010). Leadership: Theory, Application, and Skill Development. Cengage Learning. Retrieved March 28, 2013 from  http://books.google.ro/books?id=7ctnVNMtBQgC&pg=PA356&dq=servant+leadership+theory&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=9qlUUb72Ds_mtQbsyYCIBg&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=servant%20leadership%20theory&f=false .

3. Joseph, E. (2006). An Exploration of the Relationship Between Servant leadership Attributes and Leaders' Negotiation Strategy. Retrieved March 28, 2013 from http://books.google.ro/books?id=m7eGCulKUCgC&dq=servant+leadership+theory&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=CatUUc7bM4KUtQaIjYHoAg&ved=0CGIQ6AEwCTgK.

4. Bugenhagen, M. (2006). Antecedents of Transactional, Transformational, and Servant Leadership: A Constructive Development Theory Approach. Retrieved March 28, 2013 from http://books.google.ro/books?id=GwUNvwc5rPQC&dq=servant+leadership+theory&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=v6tUUfLAPITKsgbzqoGQBA&ved=0CGQQ6AEwCTgU.

Servant Leadership Annotated Biliography
Within the context of organized ehavior, leadership is one of the critical and core aspects. True leadership is decision making, ut it is more complex. Leaders are not managers -- ut they may manage. Leadership is less formal, more psychological, and effective leadership looks at more of the gray than the lack and white and enales others, or other teams, to work well to achieve goals while demonstrating elief in their actions. Servant leadership is a rather modern philosophy and practice of leadership, first defined y Roert Greenleaf, ut supported y numerous others. The concept is a change in management style from the authoritarian to the qualities of listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, stewardship, and growth. Essentially, this gives the individual leader authority rather than power (Greenleaf, 2002).

Brown, L.M. And B.Z. Posner. (2001). "Exploring the Relationship Between Learning

And Leadership," Leadership and Organizational Development. May, 2001: 274-80.

Scholarly article that…...

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bibliography and suggested reading list. It focuses on public service, particularly the theory of how servant leadership can proatively impact public service industries and change the manner in which bureaucracy and outdate rules can change the entire paradigm of "service." Likely this material is more of use to academics, leadership students, and those wishing to adopt a more servant style in their daily organization.

Wallace, R. (2011). Servant Leadership -- Leaving a Legacy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Not academic in tone, but part of a set of books that take the core philosophy of servant leadership and puts it squarely within a personal crisis situation. The book takes the paradigm of servant leadership and places it within the daily lives of regular people and asks us to find ways that servant leadership can build integrity driven leaders who will use vision, innovation, and emotional intelligence to transform an organization.

After all, FDR, Churchill, Lyndon Johnson, have all emerged in history as wonderful leaders, but few of their biographers would describe them as the type of selfless people one could describe as servants. Yet, all three of these men are renowned as excellent leaders. As a reader, I was left cold by Greenleaf's hard sell of the servant-leader idea. In fact, even his allusions to Christ left me wanting a greater explanation, because, if I did not have a strong theological background, I probably would not understand how some of Jesus' acts prior to death could be considered servile actions.
Conclusion

In this book, Greenleaf does an excellent job of explaining what he means by the term servant leader. He gives an in-depth description of the attributes that he thinks are necessary for an excellent leader. Moreover, he gives in-depth explanations of how servant-leaders can take up the mantle in the…...

Servant Leadership
Applying Distributed Leadership and Servant Leadership

In a Middle School Environment

The effects of distributed and servant leadership within a middle school environment is best measured and made most relevant when student achievement scores, both in the short- and long-range, significantly exceed regional and national averages. Only by creating an agile, strong and highly effective distributed leadership plan for continual learning process and training improvement can any middle school hope to create a strong catalyst of education that will enable students to excel beyond the average (Shakir, Issa, Mustafa, 2011). The traditional, hierarchic and often transactionally-based leadership models that rewarded didactic, often inflexible techniques of teaching are being proven incredibly out of touch with 21st century student needs (Sussan, Ojie-Ahamiojie, Kassira, 2008). Distributed and servant leadership needs to concentrate more on create a learning ecosystem that can quickly translate tacit and implicit knowledge shared among all members of a school's staff,…...

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References

Andy Hargreaves, & Dean Fink. (2008). Distributed leadership: democracy or delivery? Journal of Educational Administration, 46(2), 229-240.

Reed, L., Vidaver-cohen, D., & Colwell, S.. (2011). A New Scale to Measure Executive Servant Leadership: Development, Analysis, and Implications for Research. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3), 415-434.

Shakir, F., Issa, J., & Mustafa, P.. (2011). Perceptions towards Distributed Leadership in School Improvement. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(10), 256-264.

Sussan, A., Ojie-Ahamiojie, G., & Kassira, R.. (2008). The Role of Faculties as Leaders in Higher Education. Competition Forum, 6(2), 391-397.

Because at the intersection of a persons' greatest talents and passion is where anyone can excel beyond what is possible in any other area of their lives. A development leader, a servant leader in any educational institution must see that as their mission in life; helping students find those core strengths and helping the students align them with their passions. That is how any student is given the foundation of excelling in their lives.
A servant leader then is one who looks out for that intersection of talent and passion in others and helps them get to that point. As a result of this focus, servant leaders also have a unique set of traits as well. First, they are highly transparent; people know what their true motives are, and as a result they are highly trusted in many organizations. Second, they are known for having excellent listening skills, empathy, a…...

Servant Leadership -- obert K. Greenleaf
Introduction to obert K. Greenleaf

In order to examine the views and philosophies of obert K. Greenleaf -- even before reading his book -- it is helpful to review the Web site which fully describes his brainchild, "The obert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership." The late Greenleaf, a former executive at AT& T, began his initial career there in management research, development and education. Following his work at AT& T, Greenleaf became a respected lecturer and consultant for MIT, Harvard Business School, and Dartmouth College.

It was during the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam war years when many young people were rejecting traditional American values that Greenleaf began to develop his theory that the institutions in America were not fulfilling their responsibilities in serving the needs of the people. He wrote an essay in 1970 called The Servant as Leader, in which he pointed out that the nation…...

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References

Greenleaf, Robert K. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power &Greatness. Mahwah, New Jersey: 1977.

Both of these positive leadership styles share a number of similarities. Transformational and servant leaders are motivational and trustworthy individuals, positive role models, considerate towards other people, and good communicators and listeners. On the other hand, transformational leaders are more organizational based; that is, they stress the goals and objectives of the organization. Servant leaders instead place more of their focus on the people in the organization or their followers. The distinction is not a clear cut one, but consists of gray areas.

As the world of business becomes increasingly complex, with faster changes and greater competition, organizations will need powerful leaders as these. Both transformational and servant leaders can quickly react to change, encourage others to embrace it, and also bring about change on their own. Some times it will be easier to adjust to change through organizational adaptations and other times through a more person-focused effort. In a large…...

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References

Peterson, R., Martorana, P, Smith, D. And Owens, P.(1998). The Impact of Chief Executive Officer Personality on Top Management Team Dynamics: One Mechanism by Which Leadership Affects Organizational Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 88(5), 795-808.

Smith, B., Montagno, R., and Kuzmenko, T. (2004). Transformational and servant leadership: content and contextual comparisons. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 10(4), 80-92.

Yeon Lee, S., Recchia, S.L., and Sun Shin, M. (2005) Not the same kind of leaders: four young children's unique ways of influencing others. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 20(2), 132-149

Leadership Annotated Bib
Culver, Mary K. (2009). Applying Servant Leadership in oday's Schools. Eye on Education:

Larchmont, NY. his text focuses on how an educator or member of educational administration can use methodologies first utilized in business practices to become a more effective leader. he text is broken down into scenarios wherein an administrator and/or a teacher had a behavioral or some other issue inside the classroom. he thesis then becomes that by reading the given scenarios, the reader can learn by the examples provided.

he book teaches the reader how to apply the scenarios in the text to real world situations. By doing so, the reader can then apply their own real life situations and try to glean lessons which can be equally applied to the rest of their educational experience.

Hannigan, John B. (2008). Leadership in Higher Education: an Investigation of Servant

Leadership as a Predictor of College Performance. Capella. his document is…...

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This text is useful in research because it has a unique perspective. Nichols believes that all teachers, whether they are aware of it or not are participants in servant leadership.

Sipe, James W. And Don M. Frick (2009). Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving. Paulist: Mahwah, NJ. This book discusses the basic principles of servant leadership. It allows the reader to understand what this type of leadership means both within its own meaning and within the context of other leadership methodologies. It also provides the reader with important lessons on how to become a more effective leader. Sipe and Frick break down the different components on effective leadership and allow the reader to accept or reject different techniques based upon their individual strengths and weaknesses.

The book can be used as an effective research tool because it acts as a basic guide for those with limited knowledge of servant leadership. It ensures that I have an understanding of this leadership and what it requires of me in terms of becoming a more effective leader. From here, I can formulate my own individual plan for more effective leadership.

Servant Leadership
obert Greenleaf developed the concept of servant leadership around the idea that leaders contribute to their organizations the most when they facilitate the people under their charge to be at their best. According to his organization's website, servant leadership is "servant first ... the natural feeling that one wants to serve" (Greenleaf.org, 2015). This juxtaposes the more traditional view of leadership that puts the leader first. In that more traditional view, there are a number of different leadership styles that a leader can have, and most of the scholarly focus is on either leadership styles or traits, to determine what types of leadership are most effective, and what defines leadership practice (Manktelow, 2015). What differentiates servant leadership is that the perspective shifts from being about the leader to being about anything but the leader. The leader has a role, but that role is to facilitate the excellence of others…...

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References

Crippen, C. (2004). Servant-leadership as an effective model for educational leadership and management: First to serve, then to lead. Management in Education Vol. 18 (5) 11-16.

Greenleaf.org (2015) . What is servant leadership? Greenleaf.org. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from  https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/ 

Manktelow, J. (2015). Leadership styles. Mindtools.com. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from  https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm 

Spears, L. (2002). Introduction: Tracing the past, present and future of servant leadership. Focus on Leadership. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from  http://civicleadership.lipscomb.edu/uploads/41763.pdf

Leadership Theory and Style in My Career
My particular leadership style is servant leadership because this fits my job as a coordinating manager. I work with various teams to arrange meetings, do updates, clarify aims and agendas, answer questions, communicate frequently and effectively, and provide adequate and orderly assistance. By applying the principles of servant leadership, namely putting others first before myself and "prioritizing the needs of others," I aim to please and assist in every way possible so that the maximum coordination can be achieved (Liden, Wayne, Liao, Meuser, 2014, p. 1434).

Leadership has had many definitions over the years (Northouse, 2016) but perhaps the best way to describe a theory of leadership is to discuss its components. Leadership is essentially a process that influences groups to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 2016, p. 6). This can be achieved by developing a theory of leadership that fits one's needs and surroundings.…...

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References

Liden, R., Wayne, S., Liao, C., Meuser, J. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5): 1434-1452.

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Ed. LA: SAGE.

Parris, D., Peachey, J. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3): 377-393.

strong leader. To be a leader in any field requires a ton of empathy, and a desire to want to do right by those working or learning underneath one's supervision and authority (Spears, 2005, p 2). In a 2005 article, Larry Spears describes a new image of leadership -- the servant leader. This is the idea that the leader aims to serve the ones working under them in order to better facilitate those individuals' own personal and educational development. The argument presented does co-align with the principles of the Carter & Moyers Standards at Lincoln Memorial University.
The primary assumptions of the concept of servant leadership follow the idea that one feels the need to serve others. Servant-leadership is essentially a stance where leadership actually empowers the individual being led. Leadership is not expressing one's authority to other's dismay, but rather the ability to understand where others are and work…...

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References

Lincoln Memorial University. (2012). Standards & candidate proficiencies alignment matrix. Carter & Moyers School of Education. Web. Retrieved October 16, 2012 from http://sharepoint.lmunet.edu/colej/Shared%20Documents/STANDARDS_Matrix.pdf

Spears, Larry C. (2005). The understanding and practice of servant leadership. Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. School of Leadership Studies Regent University.

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There are several different types of army leadership styles that can produce the desired results among the armed forces.  Leadership in the army differs a little from leadership in other scenarios because some type of followership is built into the armed forces. The main leadership styles that you are likely to encounter in the army are transactional, transformational, servant, and autocratic. 

Transactional leadership is the type of leadership one most often encounters in the military.  It is based in structure and relies strongly on both rewards and penalties.  Rather than collaborating with subordinates, the transactional leader....

Servant leadership is one of the most highly touted theories of leadership in the last several decades.  It advocates that true leaders serve first.  While it is a secular leadership idea, it is often used in the context of religious leadership and religious leaders, with Jesus being sighted as the best example of a servant leader.  However, while this leadership paradigm is popular, servant leadership has some significant weaknesses that need to be acknowledged and addressed.  When they are, it becomes clear that servant leadership is not an appropriate model in all scenarios. 

One of the....

A surprising number of factors contribute to church leadership.  While many people think that either knowledge of religion or adherence to religious principles are the two most important characteristics in a church leader, they are often secondary to actual leadership characteristics.  Servant leadership has served as a model for the ideal Christian leader, both in and out of the church, but on its own is not enough to be an effective leader for the church.  Leaders have to incorporate some other management principles to be truly effective. 

Church Leadership Essay Topics and Essay....