Kathleen O’Connell
Palm Beach State College
Servant Leadership Orientation In learning about leadership, oftentimes, we see an overlap of characteristics. Drawing on past experiences gained from working in hotel operations, it is clear that the overlap or rather mixture of a number of traits are needed in leadership roles. The four aspects involved in servant leadership include: authoritarian, servant, stewardship and participative (Daft, 2015). Having been groomed for over thirteen in the service industry, including upscale, upper upscale and luxury markets, luckily, my exposure to the growing concept of servant leadership began many years ago. What a feeling, putting on white gloves to pass hors …show more content…
Being a follower is easy, having followers is hard. After being promoted from a line level potion to an assistant manager position, it was a monumental transition. The opportunity taught me, helped me grow, built me up, tore me apart and was immeasurable in its rewards and punishments. The constant push pull, love hate was taxing. In the pre-opening phases, we had a small fire, which luckily was quickly contained. The hotel was on an island, accessible by car, but there was nothing else there, not a gas station or even a convenience store. This meant that we had to be prepared and some days, having toilet paper was akin to winning the lottery. In any case, planning is critical, as is toilet …show more content…
Did something happen at the hotel? The project was my baby and the first six months of immersion were just the beginning. We had a number of leadership changes which were difficult, but my passion and commitment never faltered. As a follower, my disappointments and frustrations mounted and led me to pave a better path for my followers. An anonymous note slipped under the door of the Director of Food & Beverage, written by me in the voice of a line level associate. It fought for change, recognition and equality, all while informing the executive committee about what was broken. Certain things were overlooked and not done well, so then why bother doing it at all, specifically, free food in the cafeteria? My antics resulted in improvement, no matter how they came about, and left the committee in awe and wonder, who wrote