Characteristics Of A Servant Leader

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Servant Leadership To become a true servant leader one must be a servant first (Marquis and Huston, 2009). In order to be a servant leader, you must develop defining characteristics. Three important servant leadership qualities are listening, awareness, and persuasion. Awareness is a characteristic that stands out in clinical practice and provides self-awareness not only to the leader, but also to all staff. Often, the terms ‘manager’ and ‘leader’ can be confused, but it is critical to realize that a leader possess the ability to serve their subordinates rather than direct.
Leadership Characteristics
Listening
Being able to communicate well is expected of all leaders, but as a servant leader communication is based on the ability to listen.
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A servant leader needs self-awareness about their values, beliefs, and feelings and must reevaluate these often to maintain control (Marquis and Huston, 2009). By maintaining self-awareness the leader can educate the group on how to maintain awareness. For example, there is a patient that is a 300lb diabetic with history of hospitalization that has no motivation to exercise, improve diet, and is on Medicaid. An employee may have a bias towards this patient and accuse them of being lazy and abusing the system. A servant leader would show by example that the nurse will provide excellent care for this patient as you would any other patient and disregard any bias towards the situation or …show more content…
He exhibited excellent listening qualities along with his profound amount of knowledge and experience made him a valuable resource to the unit. His ability to connect with the staff to provide solutions and guidance matched by their respect towards him was an outstanding example of servant leadership. He provided me with a positive outlook on what it means to not only be a manager but a servant leader.
Conclusion
In becoming a servant leader, the characteristics that are possessed provide a successful leadership style. These characteristics provide abilities to be demonstrated in clinical practice that influence and educate clinical staff. Servant leadership has the ability to change one’s views about leadership in general by stressing the need to be a servant before a leader (Marquis and Huston, 2009). One must dedicate themselves to the structure of servant leadership to become an influential teacher and role

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