Leaders and followers
The approaches which we discussed before were focusing on a leader who stands out from his colleagues as being special, different and leading the rest of the people. Here we will shift our discussion to other approaches that discuss the importance of the relation between the leader and his followers, in this case the leader will be represented as a team leader not a solo leader, in other word the “Servant”.
Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy and set of practices that enhances the lives of individuals, constructs better organizations in order to create a caring world.
While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the concept of “servant leadership” was described by Robert K. Greenleaf in “The Servant as …show more content…
The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become 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, will they not be further deprived?”
Taken from the Servant as Leader published by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 (1)
Characteristics of Servant Leaders are as follows: “Servant-Leadership is a practical philosophy which supports people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions. Servant leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions. Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.”
Taken from the Center for Servant Leadership web site, April 2003. (2)
A servant-leader is focusing on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. The servant-leader shares power while in traditional leaderships which we discussed previously, the power is exercised from the top by the leader, Also the servant leader cares about the needs of others first and helps people development and performance as highly as …show more content…
Raelin, discusses in his book “Creating Leaderful Organizations: How to Bring Out Leadership in“ about a truly mutual model that incorporates everyone in the team in leadership and transforms leadership from being an individual property into a leaderful practice. (10)
Conclusion
In this review we have tried to gather, discuss and compare most of the leadership approaches that has been practiced in our societies during the early part of the twentieth century starting from the great man theory, traits theory, behavioral theory, contingency or situation theory, leaders and followers theory to the most recent one which is dispersed leadership theory.
We found that the early leadership theories were focusing on qualities and traits that distinguish leaders from their followers, while the other theories developed after were focusing on other variables such as situational factors and leaders / followers skill levels. Recent theory is concerned more about recognizing the needs of employees, spreading the leadership among them and involving the teams in decision making in order to create an environment to achieve the organizations’ goals and objectives.
References:
(1) Robert K. Greenleaf, R. (1970) Essay “ Servant as Leader” . Center for Applied
The approaches which we discussed before were focusing on a leader who stands out from his colleagues as being special, different and leading the rest of the people. Here we will shift our discussion to other approaches that discuss the importance of the relation between the leader and his followers, in this case the leader will be represented as a team leader not a solo leader, in other word the “Servant”.
Servant leadership is defined as a philosophy and set of practices that enhances the lives of individuals, constructs better organizations in order to create a caring world.
While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the concept of “servant leadership” was described by Robert K. Greenleaf in “The Servant as …show more content…
The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become 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, will they not be further deprived?”
Taken from the Servant as Leader published by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 (1)
Characteristics of Servant Leaders are as follows: “Servant-Leadership is a practical philosophy which supports people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions. Servant leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions. Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.”
Taken from the Center for Servant Leadership web site, April 2003. (2)
A servant-leader is focusing on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. The servant-leader shares power while in traditional leaderships which we discussed previously, the power is exercised from the top by the leader, Also the servant leader cares about the needs of others first and helps people development and performance as highly as …show more content…
Raelin, discusses in his book “Creating Leaderful Organizations: How to Bring Out Leadership in“ about a truly mutual model that incorporates everyone in the team in leadership and transforms leadership from being an individual property into a leaderful practice. (10)
Conclusion
In this review we have tried to gather, discuss and compare most of the leadership approaches that has been practiced in our societies during the early part of the twentieth century starting from the great man theory, traits theory, behavioral theory, contingency or situation theory, leaders and followers theory to the most recent one which is dispersed leadership theory.
We found that the early leadership theories were focusing on qualities and traits that distinguish leaders from their followers, while the other theories developed after were focusing on other variables such as situational factors and leaders / followers skill levels. Recent theory is concerned more about recognizing the needs of employees, spreading the leadership among them and involving the teams in decision making in order to create an environment to achieve the organizations’ goals and objectives.
References:
(1) Robert K. Greenleaf, R. (1970) Essay “ Servant as Leader” . Center for Applied