Servant Leaders

Servant-leaders exercise the following traits and practices in their roles,

They :

- understand the value of every human soul.

- have an inborn or developed sense of caring for others.

- are quick to volunteer to take pressure off someone else.

- rush to the aid of someone who is going through an embarassing or humiliating experience.

- treat all people on a basis of equality.

- do not feel that tasks they expect others to do are too demeaning for themselves.

- are not offended by disruptions of people who are themselves going through emotional traumas or stress.

- expects more from themselves than they do from anyone else.

- are quick to compliment, give credit, and build up those who perform a given task.

- judge people by their potential, not necessarily by one single negative experience.

- do not take credit for someone else’s achievements and love to share credit for any of their own accomplishments.

- get the facts before finding fault or criticizing another person.

- help all people feel they had real part in the success of a project.

- detest practical jokes or statements that focus humiliation or attention on one soul.

- always constructively criticize in private and compliment in public.

- are absolutely honest in their work.

- are equally fair with all under their direction.

- are always willing to listen to both side of a quarrel, discussion , or issue, they know it is a pretty thin pancake that has only one side.

- make themselves accessible to all, not just those with position or power.

True servant leader do not need a check-list of these character traits, for they live them daily…

(Source : http://brd1.chosun.com/board/view.html?bbsno=INSUN03&pn=1&phyno=26)

Characteristics of Servant Leadership

Characteristics of Servant Leadership

Calling

Do people believe that you are willing to sacrifice self-interest for the good of the group? Servant leaders have a natural desire to serve others. This notion of having a calling to serve is deeply rooted and value-based. Servant leaders have a desire to make a difference for other people and will pursue opportunities to impact others’ lives — never for their own gain. A servant leader is willing to sacrifice self-interests for the sake of others. This characteristic cannot be taught, so unless a person has a natural calling to serve, servant leadership is not a realistic or compatible style.

Listening

Do people believe that you want to hear their ideas and will value them? Servant leaders are excellent listeners. They are receptive and genuinely interested in the views and input of others. People instinctively understand that servant leaders want them to share their ideas and that these ideas will be valued. Listening is a skill that can be learned and is essential for those who desire to be a servant leader. Without good listening skills, many of the other characteristics described in this publication cannot be achieved.

Empathy

Do people believe that you will understand what is happening in their lives and how it affects them? Servant leaders can “walk in others’ shoes.” They understand and empathize with others’ circumstances and problems. Leaders who are empathetic have earned confidence from others by understanding whatever situation is being faced. This characteristic is a skill that comes more naturally to some people than others, but it is pertinent for all who aspire to be a servant leader.

Healing

Do people come to you when the chips are down or when something traumatic has happened in their lives? Servant leaders are people who others want to approach when something traumatic has happened. They have developed a remarkable appreciation for the emotional health and spirit of others. They are good at facilitating the healing process and others gravitate toward them when emotional needs arise. The ability to create an environment that encourages emotional mending is crucial for those who want to become great servant leaders.

Awareness

Do others believe you have a strong awareness for what is going on? Servant leaders have a keen sense for what is happening around them. They are always looking for cues from the environment to inform their opinions and decisions. They know what’s going on and will rarely be fooled by appearances. This skill is crucial to the development of servant leaders.

Persuasion

Do others follow your requests because they want to or because they believe they “have to?” Servant leaders seek to convince others to do things rather than relying on formal authority. They are naturally very persuasive and offer compelling reasons when they make requests. They never force others to do things. This ability is important for servant leaders to develop.

Conceptualization

Do others communicate their ideas and vision for the organization when you are around? Servant leaders nurture the ability to conceptualize the world, events and possibilities. They encourage others to dream great dreams and avoid getting bogged down by day-to-day realities and operations. They foster an environment that encourages thinking big and valuing the creative process. Those who want to be great servant leaders must develop an environment that fosters conceptualization.

Foresight

Do others have confidence in your ability to anticipate the future and its consequences? Servant leaders have an uncanny ability to anticipate future events. This is not to say they are psychic or always right, but they are adept at picking up patterns in the environment and seeing what the future will bring. They usually anticipate consequences of decisions with great accuracy. Those who want to be successful servant leaders need to have and develop this foresight.

Stewardship

Do others believe you are preparing the organization to make a positive difference in the world? Servant leaders often are characterized by a strong sense of stewardship. Stewardship stems from medieval! times when a steward would be assigned to hone the skills and development of the young prince to prepare him for his reign. The kingdom relied on the steward to teach and hold the prince in trust so that he would be a successful king. Today the term stewardship involves many of the same things. A steward in an organization is responsible for preparing it for its destiny, usually for the betterment of society. When we describe a leader as having a strong sense of stewardship, we refer to a desire to prepare the organization to contribute to the greater good of society — not unlike preparing the prince to serve the greater good of the kingdom. Making a positive difference in the future is characteristic of the stewardship mentality. Those who desire to be excellent servant leaders need to have a natural sense of stewardship. If you don’t naturally have a stewardship perspective, it is unlikely that the servant leadership style will come naturally to you.

Growth

Do people believe that you are committed to helping them develop and grow? Servant leaders have a strong commitment to the growth of people. They believe that all people have something to offer beyond their tangible contributions. Servant leaders work hard to help people in a number of ways — spiritually, professionally, personally. Those who want to be great servant leaders need to connect to others’ developmental needs and actively find ways to meet these needs.

Building Community

Do people feel a strong sense of community in the organization that you lead? Servant leaders have a strong sense of community spirit and work hard to foster it in an organization. They believe that an organization needs to function as a community. A servant leader instills a sense of community spirit in the workplace. Those who want to be great servant leaders need to work hard to build community in the organization.

Servant Leadership Development

Servant leadership is characterized by a belief that leadership development is an on-going, life-long learning process. For this reason, servant leaders commit to continual development in the 11 characteristics of servant leadership.

Some characteristics come more naturally to some people than to others. By their nature, characteristics such as calling, empathy, healing and stewardship are more difficult to learn and develop than other servant leadership characteristics. These are characteristics that leaders must already have to be successful servant leaders. Characteristics such as listening, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, growth and building community all are learnable skills, so servant leaders can continually develop these. We encourage you to reflect and thoughtfully assess the degree to which you have what it takes to be a servant leader. If you are committed to being the best servant leader that you can be, we urge you to continuously work to develop these characteristics.

(source:http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/index.jsp?what=publicationD&publicationId=200)

Servant Leadership is…?

The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970.

In that essay, he said: “The servant leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants toserve, to serve first. Then consicous choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different fromone who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assauga an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions… The leader-first and the servant-first are tow extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servnat-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.

The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become a healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?

(source: http://www.greenleaf.org)

Servant Leadership is…

Servant leadership is a Way of Life.

It aims to co-create with God a just, non-violent and sustainable habitat for all that lives. Servant leaders exist less for themselves than for others. They work for the tansformation of human systems and for a finer world.

Servant Leaders use Power for collaboration not for control, for cooperation not for conquest. Their use of Power forges a robust dynamic that brings loyalty and productivity to the interaction of leaders and the led.

Servant Leadership reflects the Paradox of Compassion and Command that defines the character of God. In the work of leading others, Servant Leaders strive for the balance of Velvet and Steel as revealed in the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth.

Servant Leadership seeks alignment with the primal human view that the cosmos is Ensouled and responds to Love as the abiding Power in all relationships. This perception translates into a contemporary relationship with the earth that sees humanity as in the earth, not on it. Thus humans are Creation’ s ensoulment become visible and responsible, making the soul of education in Servant Leadership an education of the Soul.

Servant Leadership functions from trust in Love as the energy to overcome the Fear that distorts leadership into the struggle for domination, vengeance and control.

Repressive power in any system eventuates in violence –from such milder forms as passivity, quitting the company or, in the case of children, running from home –to the fiercer forms of violence as smoldering non-compliance, strikes, mutiny, armed rebellion or the horrors of genocide. In a world become too small for violence, power has no acceptable moral purpose except for empowerment to participate in power –in freedom and dignity.

Where freedom is the context of any form of human organization members at all levels are harnessed to a loftier goal than competitive personal gain. The high purpose in servant-led systems –families, schools, businesses and nations –is the inclusion of all its members in proportional responsibility for decision-making and the success of the system. Organizations so aimed will be enlargers of life for their people.

We believe that there is nothing optional about Servanthood as an approach to life. It represents the way the world must go if humanity is to pass successfully through the sea-change of planetary evolution that marks our time.

(source: http://www.srvleader.org by Bennett Sims)

Christian leadership is …

What can we say about leadership in Christianity? What leadership did Jesus as the greatest leader in the world demonstrate?

Christian leadership is servant leadership.

Servant leadership is at the heart of Christian leadership. Servant Leadership is different from servanthood. All Christians, not just leaders, are called to be servants, serving each other, following Jesus’ example in washing his disciples’ feet, and loving our neighbours as ourselves. Along with that call to servanthood is the need we each have to allow ourselves to receive from Jesus, just as he washed his disciples feet. When Peter protested, Jesus told him, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ (John 13:8)

What underpins servant leadership is the motivation behind our actions as leaders. If personal desire was the sole decision criteria, Jesus would have chosen not to go through the pain and suffering on the cross. In the garden at Gethsemene, Jesus prayed, ‘Father if you are willing take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours, be done.’(Luke 22:42) The weight of the burden of taking not only our guilt but also our sins themselves, had become too heavy. Even at this point, Jesus could have got up and walked away. Jesus’ leadership modelled servant leadership throughout his ministry. This will require us also to set aside personal gain,  to make sacrifices, and to put the needs of others above the direction we may prefer for ourselves. You’ve probably met people who are highly career minded, people who’s main motivation is to get themselves in a position where they will gain some reward. This is the complete opposite of the leadership Jesus demonstrated.

Some may suggest that servant leaders are weak.  However, nothing could be further from the truth. They  model integrity, where their thoughts, words and actions flow from a consistent desire. The word integrity comes from the Latin word meaning ‘whole’ or ‘complete’, as in integer, or whole number. One of the biggest reasons for leaders losing the respect of their followers is that the lack true integrity where their private lives and thoughts do not match their public statements, or that they are inconsistent, adopting principles that are popular and appropriate to the moment, rather than sticking to their underlying, but potentially unpopular, principles. Maintaining integrity is not always easy!

Servant leadership is not a particular style of leadership, but rather relates to the motivation behind a leader’s thoughts, words and actions. Leaders can fit any of the six leadership styles described by ourleadership style indicator, and still be very much a servant leader.

Servant leaders are not leaders on the basis of their position or leadership role, but rather lead according to their calling, vision and principles.  One of the challenges for servant leaders is to ensure that their vision and principles are in line with others in their organisation, and therefore it is highly important for them to engage with others to develop a common vision and shared values.

Whilst serving others as the heart of leadership may not appear easy, it is perhaps in one sense easier for a leader to be consistent with the vision and values that they hold for themselves, rather than always seeking to live upto an image, to constantly seek opportunities to sell themselves, or to be for ever trying to read the political signals sent out by others.

(Source: http://www.teal.org.uk/dl/servant.htm)