What kind of leadership works? A recent Financial Times headline suggested that, for the leader, a bullying approach can get you to the top. But for the organisation and for those who follow, a different kind of leadership is required.
A powerful voice in the dialogue to reshape management and leadership policy, Robert Greenleaf, developed his theory of servant leadership while he was an executive with AT&T:
'It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant - first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served.'
Greenleaf published an essay in 1970. ‘The Servant Leader’ puts forward a test of a servant leader.
'Do those being 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, not be further deprived?'
This test is difficult to administer but it reinforces the idea that successful servant leadership has a positive effect on those being led. It is therefore a 'people building' type of leadership and not a 'people using' one. Such an orientation for leadership comes from within. Servant leadership is about being as much as doing. Being a servant by nature and nurture first and then as a leader, doing by pointing the way for others to follow. It is at its base a spiritual leadership - by the example of the core values of servant-hood others follow and give authority to the leader.
The servant leader begins with a sense of being a servant. That is carried into whatever he or she does each day, particularly into the relationships with those who follow. (Every leader must inspire followership in order to lead!) Paradoxically the servant leader leads and serves the needs of those who follow. It is this caring, understanding of those who follow that gives the servant leader authority.
To lead is to show the way. The test of leadership is who follows. Do they in following, grow as people?
The task for the servant leader is how to lead whilst also being able to serve. Many would say that service is about following not leading. There has to be a clear vision which is owned not only by the leader but also by the followers; a vision which has synchronicity with the values and ethics of the group or organisation.
Servant Leadership is strong, visionary and prophetic. It encourages responsibility and participation in the followers; and builds frameworks of support to serve the poor and weak. No one is diminished or treated unjustly by a servant leader.
What kind of leadership is there in your organisation?
