Quality Essential for Present and Future Leaders - Essay Example

Running Header: Servant Leadership Servant Leadership - A quality essential for present and future leaders Servant Leadership andleading an organization In today's fast paced business world, every organization is scouting for practical and powerful leaders. What does it take for a leader to run an organization Most of us know that it just take efforts to reach the top of the ladder, but seldom do we realize that it takes much more to sustain at the top of the hierarchy ladder as a leader. It takes more than just leadership. You need to be a "Servant Leader". A "Servant Leader" is one whose primary motive is deep desire to help others. A servant-leader is the one who is first a servant (Greenfield .R, 2002, Pg 27). The servant leader serves others rather than expecting others to serve him. The spirit of leadership rises from the leader letting others achieve and improve their capabilities and goals. Servant leadership starts as a feeling before it develops into a leadership attribute (Blanchard, 2001, Pg 352). A servant leader seeks to serve rather than control. Needless to say that their primary goals are more inclined towards human life enhancement. The focus on the less privileged in the society moves the role of a servant leader form an organization but to the society as a whole. Certain imperative characteristics that define and distinguish a servant leader are as stated below. These need to be necessarily communicated to the current and the future servant leaders of the organization to mould future servant leaders. Inculcating and allowing each of the group members to learn the attributes listed below goes a long way in becoming a servant leader. Empathy - The first quality for any strong leader is to stay empathetic. By empathy we mean the ability of a leader to put him, in the shoes of others, to act, react and understand the emotions and actions of his peers or his subordinates. A servant leader works to understand and empathize with others. The ability of a leader to accept people as they are and not reject them as people, though their performance or actions may not be fully accepted is an important attribute to make them a servant leader. Listening - Communication has always been an important attribute for a leader. This is even so true for a servant leader. The ability of a servant leader to inculcate patience and listen to issues and problems of peer and others within the organization plays a vital role in defining his or her success. Servant leaders naturally identify and try to resolve the problems of the group. Their ability to listen to what is being said and not said allows them to stay in touch with the inner self of their peer and assist them in guiding and reacting to their group's problems. Foresight - Foresight is an important characteristic of a servant leader. Servant leaders not only learn from lessons of their past but also from others. Their ability to foresee and link the future to the present allows them to take decisions that have a positive impact on the group and the organization. Their ability to foresee is a consequence of both experience and intuitive mind set. Commitment to group - One of the remarkable characteristics of servant leaders is their ability to look through people beyond their contribution at work or in social life. Being strongly committed to the cause of the group and helping the group work towards achieving it allows the servant leader to reach the personal, professional life of their group. This commitment to a large extent defines an individual as a servant leader. Compromise between individual comfort and group comfort - A servant leader serves the group. In many situations, the chances are that the thoughts of the group may be entirely different from that of the servant leader. Having said so, the servant leader needs to necessarily develop the attitude to compromise on his or her personal comfort or the ultimate goal or benefit of the group. Making dream to reality - An analysis of the servant leaders of the past would reveal that all of them had a dream which they were hoping to make a reality. This dream was not just that of growing but was towards a larger cause. The ability of an individual to look at a problem and finding a solution away from the day to day reality distinguishes the individual as a servant leader. A servant leader also wishes and directs his group to think big to achieve big. Persuasion than authority - People in an organization do not feel very happy about authoritative attitude. A large number of organizations have the problem of employees communicating about authoritative attitude. To the contrary servant leaders have a persuasive and convincing attitude. Servant leaders do not rely on hierarchical authority, but rather on persuasiveness to convince their group. Once the idea and the thoughts are conveyed and the group is convinced, there is no stopping to their growth and achievement. Creating awareness - An important characteristic of a servant leader is to introspect and analyze about one's one self. This also flows into creating both general and self awareness amongst the group. The qualification for leadership is that one can tolerate a sustained wide span of awareness (Greenleaf, 2003, Pg 56) Building community - One of the important characteristics of the servant leadership model is to build a community within a given institution rather than a large institution. A large institution is encompassed with challenges both internal and external. Accordingly the shift from small communities to large organizations has also added to it. Servant leaders being aware of this shift and the loss it has created, focus on building a community within the large institution for a better reach in the large organization. As the Senior Sales Manager and a future servant leader, I believe me understanding the concept of servant leadership and its necessary attributes would not alone help me become a successful servant leader. The purpose of being a servant leader is to help other grow. True leaders serve to seek those who are led (Frick, 2004, Pg 15). Thus communicating the attributes of servant leadership to the future servant leaders of my organization is in my opinion definition of my future as a successful servant leader. One of the major challenges that a servant leader faces is their assumption that people want to change. Change Management is an integral ongoing process which a servant leader needs to initiate. Communicating the attributes for becoming a successful servant leader needs to be done extremely efficiently and effectively. I would personally adopt the understated communication methods and attributes to train and develop effective servant leaders in my organization. Getting the group involved - The success of a team or a group is a direct variant of its involvement in performing a task. Training can become a waste of time and resource unless the leader or the trainer has the ability to keep the group focused on the training. Accordingly starting the training with a question and allowing the group to answer is an effective way to have the group contribute and understand concepts. Needless to say, the quality of the discussion or training is more important than the time spent on training. As a team player and as a future servant leader I believe every person in the group is required understand this philosophy. When we say quality, we stress on speaking the truth with compassion. Letting the group hear what they want to would produce negative results. Telling them what they need to hear and in a way they would necessarily hear is an effective communication strategy that one must use to develop future servant leaders. As winning the group's concentration is the prime focus for a servant leader, listener centered communication is imperative for a servant leader. By listener centered we mean the focus of the topic of discussion should be inclined towards the listener and not towards self. A servant leader's first goal is to listen and not be listened. For this purpose, the servant leader of the group leader needs to be extremely clear on the content of his speech or the topic of discussion. A well prepared and researched topic would be ideal in this context to grab the attention of the listener. If the topic is general in nature, chance of distortion is relatively lesser. If the topic under discussion is specific, technical or functional in nature, the message passed on or conveyed must be de-complicated and made simple. Simpler messages are easy to receive and retain rather than complicated jargons. This also lays emphasis on the use of simple language that can be easily understood by the group. In certain cases, irrespective of how effective the speaker maybe, chances of the topic chosen being extremely boring is possible. In these cases, it is important that, a "lighter side of life" approach is adopted to make sure the group stays focused. An ideal option might be to pass smart, funny and humorous comments without hurting the sentiments of the group. This action not only holds the group become a little lighter on their head but also refreshes their mind of any preoccupied thoughts and grab their attention. Feedback & sharing credit- The most important and critical aspect of becoming a future servant leader is to be receptive and open to thoughts, comments and suggestions. Accordingly, it is important to pay attention and listen to feedback received from the group. The best way to ensure that the group has heard and received the thoughts shared by the servant leader is to take feedback from them. It is also extremely important that people are acknowledged for work done. It is imperative that a good work done not only requires an acknowledgement but also sharing credits for the results achieved. Employees are praised and recognized adequately for their work done under the servant leadership model. The characteristics mentioned above are only inclusive and not exhaustive. The concept of servant leadership is based on team work which emphasizes on group efforts rather than individual contribution which is inline with the concept of relational leadership. Servant leaders are committed to investing time and efforts in shaping and grooming the lives of their peers or employees so that they may be in a position to contribute fully and extensively towards the organizational cause. In a servant-led organization, employees want to be consulted and included in the decision making process of the organization rather than the management deciding for the employees and the latter following instructions. A servant leader plays a very important role in shaping and grooming his group and future servant leaders. It needs to be driven into future servant leaders that becoming a servant leader would mean a compromise in a gambit of areas which may involve giving up on personal comfort for the larger cause of development of the team or the group. Servant leadership begins with the art and the desire of changing one-self. Once this process is initiated it spreads and it becomes much easier to manage and establish the concept at an organizational or an institutional level. Becoming a servant leader is essentially within our hearts and cannot be imposed upon. It needs to be felt and nurtured from within one's one self. A succession leader could be chosen but a succession servant leader cannot be chosen. The qualities of a servant leader need to come within one-self and grow over time into a leadership capability and not be inflicted upon. References Frick D. M (2004). "Robert K. Greenleaf: A Life of Servant Leadership". Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Greenleaf .R (2002). "Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness", Mahwah: Paulist Press. Greenleaf .R (2003). "The Servant-Leader Within: A Transformative Path". Mahwah: Paulist Press. Spears .L, Lawrence .M & Blanchard .K (2001). "Focus on Leadership: Servant-Leadership for the Twenty-First Century". Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Read More