Servant Leader

 

million) results.  But what kind of leadership is best? A recent article suggested that nice guys finish last.  Aggressive, brash, and powerful leaders are idolized in movies and seen as very successful. 

We recently talked about being a "servant leader" in my leadership class.  Servant leadership was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf.  Servant leaders give priority attention to the needs of their colleagues and those they serve.  Often seen as humble stewards of their organizations resources. Servant leaders tries to help others solve their problems and develop. The highest priority of a servant leader is to encourage, support, and enable those they lead to unfold their full potential and abilities.  Being a great servant leader is hard because it is not just what you do, it is who you are. Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher and now Colleen Barrett are examples of servant leadership.  They see themselves as supporting the employees and giving great customer service to their own employees.  A dissatisfied flier will not fly with Southwest again, while a dissatisfied employee will not deliver required performance. 

Being a servant leader is very important to me.  One of my role models was the perfect servant leader. Christ had all power but he spend his time serving others.  It is hard to be a great servant leader because as you get better, as you get more power, the temptation to lead for leadings sake becomes greater and greater. 

In my teaching role, I need to realize that I am in front of a class, with a demand upon their time and attention, because I am supposed to be helping them.  I am there for them.  I am not there for my own reasons, and my own gratification.  Sometimes, I feel like my professors in college are only there because it is part of their job.  They don't really want to help us learn, they just have to clearly define the benchmark, then hand out the marks. 

The more I learn about servant leadership, the more I see how it would solve many of the problems today.  Bad bosses, would become good bosses.  Corrupt politicians would actually start serving the people who elected them. And I would become a better teacher and leader.