To extend our understanding of servant leadership to the modern workplace, we asked business leaders from around the world what they thought about the real-life practice of servant leadership.
Dan Bolton from Riskalyze sees servant leaders as coaches or architects who understand success in terms of the organization as a whole.
“Being a servant leader is a shift in thinking from “me” to “us”. You want the organization to continue successfully, even after you have left. When employees notice that their leader is prioritizing the needs of others above their own, studies have shown that those employees are directly influenced and end up serving customers at a higher level. ”
Ketan Kapoor of Mettl believes its the responsibility of a servant leader to expand the team’s view of the importance of their work.
“Servant leadership is about making the team see how the difference made by collective action is always bigger in impact than that made by an individual. Furthermore, they instill a greater sense of duty and dedication in people, helping them strive for going beyond the call of work. The attributes or leadership traits which make them different from the other task-oriented or result-oriented kinds of leaders are they share the power with everyone.”
Nate Masterson of Maple Holistics states that humility is key to successful servant leadership, where the manager appreciates that there is more than one solution to a problem.
“A servant leader appreciates that their opinion is not necessarily the right one, let alone the only one. Someone who values everybody’s contributions and can mold themselves accordingly has the quality of a servant leader. Servant leaders interact with their teams with empathy and openness. This leads to organizational effectiveness and cohesiveness throughout the workplace. There’s no fear instilled, which leaves room for employees to pitch new, creative ideas that can benefit the company.”
Kamyar Shah, Remote COO, thinks that the primary benefit derived from servant leadership is its ability to nurture fledgling leaders on the team.
“Servant leadership’s main advantage to other styles of leadership lays within its basic tenor that allows for personal growth of individual team members: creating more leaders instead of followers. This, in turn, benefits both the team members as well as the business entity. ”
Amanda Ponzar of Community Health Charities emphasizes that a servant leader must share the workload with their team, as well as the accolades when the work is done.
“The servant leader protects and defends the team. The servant leader isn’t out golfing while the team is sweating. The servant leader works alongside the team, and ensures the job gets done and everyone receives credit and reward for their hard work. The servant leader rejoices in helping others and seeks for ways to encourage and support them.”
J.R. Duren of HighYa Reviews likes to think of a servant leader as someone who gauges their own success by the success of their employees and team members.
“We tend to think of our workplace merit in terms of how good we’ve become when, in fact, a servant leader judges his or her accomplishments by how good his or her employees have become. An author I once read called this concept downward mobility — instead of moving up a ladder, you’re moving down to help others up.”