What Does a Servant Leader do Differently Than a 'Normal' leader?
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Your vision is to be the best leader possible.
Ideally, your team would grow and expand under your leadership as well as complete tasks and keep progressing in a positive direction.
Let’s say you have an idea of what leadership is in the traditional sense, but have you thought much about other styles, servant leadership in particular? I’ve seen ‘servant leader’ listed on LinkedIn profiles quite often lately and wanted to research this a little more. There are a lot of frameworks and theories out there on types of leadership styles, but servant leadership is complex enough to discuss on its own.
What is servant leadership?
It’s a style of management where the leader focuses on putting the needs of the team first. Robert K. Greenleaf wrote an essay in 1970 that was called “The Servant as Leader” and he stated there are either servant-first leaders or leader-first leaders. As you may guess, a servant-first leader is going to focus on the team first, and a leader-first leader is going to focus on their own rise to authority and power and their own goals.
A way to visualize how this servant leadership is different from traditional leadership is the example of a hierarchy where leaders are at the bottom and employees are at the top. Does this sound crazy from what you are used to? Keep reading.
What are the benefits of servant leadership?
The thought behind this is that if your team is fulfilled in both personal and professional ways, their work quality improves, and they work more efficiently. A servant leader is always trying to develop their people so that creativity and potential can be found within them. A traditional manager is often focused on tasks, and as long as those are complete and performance is satisfactory, the employee is paid and that’s the end of it, repeat each day. With that mindset, the employee doesn’t have a sense of purpose to their job, whereas, a servant leader ensures the employee has purpose tied in as well, leading to engagement, lower turnover, and the leaders of the future. The team morale tends to be higher under a servant leader as well for these reasons.
What are the main characteristics of a servant leader?
1. Ability to listen
Have you seen the quote about listening to understand rather than to respond? A servant leader is not going to be the center of attention, they want to understand before they are heard or understood. Think about hiring a new employee and actually ask for their thoughts in various areas to let the new employee feel they are valued. Additionally, take the time to ask an employee if what they are doing is what really drives them. Employees will also feel engaged if their thoughts and opinions are required in new projects.
2. Ability to appreciate
This goes beyond showing appreciation for what a person can do for the business. A servant leader understands who their people are and appreciates them for their unique qualities and as a person.
3. Ability to exhibit humility and develop others
Servant leaders have to be humble, and cannot focus on self-promotion. If you go into servant leadership with the mindset of self-driven motivations, you will be unsuccessful. It’s important to make sure you are encouraging employees to try new things or to take chances. Make sure to show support and recognition for achievements.
4. Ability to trust
There is a level of chance that has to be taken with people who work for servant leaders and so a servant leader will trust that the people working for them are true and can be depended on. It’s common for a leader to try to maintain control however, employees will not develop their confidence within if they don’t get a chance to be trusted and own projects.
5. Caring and compassion
A servant leader knows they are in their position to serve others and they have to treat others well, showing care and concern for their wellbeing.
6. High emotional intelligence
Servant leaders have a firm grasp on their own emotions, allowing them to reduce stress, communicate well, empathize with their team, solve problems and mitigate conflict.
Are there any drawbacks to servant leadership?
Like everything in life, there has to be a balance for this to work, and sometimes a particular style may not work in all situations. Either way, there are positives and negatives, and you can try something different from the norm starting slowly.
- In competitive, fast-paced work environments, it can be a common feeling of the leader to feel they are being left behind.
- It may not work well when there is life and death type of decisions being made in the workplace as in the case of police or fire for example.
- It can take time to adapt to this style of leadership.
- Be cautious to not lose sight of goals while focusing on serving others.
- There is no room for ego, so many leaders fail until they realize this or until they can work on keeping this in check for a period of time.
- At times, employee motivation may dwindle as sometimes the leader has to step in when problems arise.
Think about how you can incorporate servant leadership traits into your current management style, if you’re not already doing so and comment or ask questions!
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Recommended references to learn more about servant leadership.
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm
https://www.leadershipahoy.com/servant-leadership-what-is-it-pros-cons-examples/A