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Five Necessary Attitudes of a Servant Leader Larry W. Boone, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John’s University, NY boonel@stjohns.edu

Sanya Makhani, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John’s University, NY sanyamakhani@gmail.com

Executive Summary

Since the “servant leadership” concept was introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, this style has been adopted by many successful leaders in a variety of contexts. Is the servant leadership style right for you? This article helps to answer that question for many leaders who may be interested in “serving others first,” or in “serving rather than being served,” by exploring whether or not a leader has the necessary attitudes to implement this leadership style. According to the authors, servant leadership can be a highly effective style for influencing a group toward the achievement of organizational goals if a leader possesses or can readily adopt the following attitudes: 1) believing that visioning isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything, 2) listening is hard work requiring a major investment of personal time and effort – and it is worth every ounce of energy expended, 3) my job involves being a talent scout and committing to my staff’s success, 4) it is good to give away my power, and 5) I am a community builder.

Introduction

Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of organizational goals. Of course, the contingency approach dominates the extensive literature on leadership. The appropriate leadership style depends upon the situation. Some contexts call for autocratic leadership, some for participative

or consultative approaches, and still others call for transformational leadership-and so on. One of the most intriguing leadership approaches receiving a great deal of current attention regarding implementation effectiveness and its fit within contingency theory involves the servant leadership concept.

The term “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 essay “The Servant as a Leader.” Greenleaf spent his forty year career at AT&T working in the fields of management, research, development, and education. When describing servant leadership in his essay, he states, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first…” According to Greenleaf servant leaders intend to help followers “grow healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants” (Greenleaf, 1977:13-14).

Let’s look at one example of a servant leadership approach. Suppose a CEO is faced with the difficult situation of necessary cutbacks and/or layoffs in tough economic times. An autocratic leader might issue a directive to all personnel explaining that a decision has been made to reduce operations and staffing levels by 10%, and that implementation would be immediate. The CEO may assume that employees would

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understand and accept this course of action based on his/her formal authority to implement such decisions and well-established corporate objectives of maximizing shareholder return, profitability, and efficiency.

A servant leader, on the other hand, might address the tough economic times and the need for change by communicating a compelling vision of how the firm will look and feel after the challenge has been addressed, attempting to build community by stressing that everyone is in this together, including the CEO, stating that the yet-to- be-determined courses of action will be true to the well-established corporate values of shareholder return, profitability, and loyalty to employees, and might solicit suggestions from departments and/or individual workers. Each approach may produce desired results, but significant differences may be realized in terms of implementation time, total expense, organizational morale, employee motivation, and ability to retain/attract key organizational skills.

This article will review some basic leadership concepts; explore the servant leadership style through its treatment in the literature over the past few decades, including discussion of many characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of servant leaders; and, through review of the ideas of several best-selling leadership authors, attempt to identify the most important attitudes that fit well with the servant leadership approach in an attempt to aid the reader in concluding whether or not servant leadership may be a viable option for inclusion within their personal leadership style.

Leadership: Skills, Behaviors, and Attitudes

Leadership is not comprised of a single characteristic or trait. It is not, as some may incorrectly assume, the hard-to-def ine attribute of “charisma.” Rather, leadership consists of a large set of well-recognized skills, behaviors, and attitudes. Skills and behaviors can be learned, then honed through practice. A few.

among many, commonly recognized leadership skills and behaviors include establishing credibility or trustworthiness, managing time productively, being proactive, empowering others to act, and networking (Boone and Peborde, 2008).

Servant leaders…recognize the empowerment of their people as an important goal.

Attitudes, on the other hand, are determinants of behavior. They are linked commonly with personality, perception, feelings, and motivation. An attitude is a mental state of readiness learned and organized through experience. Exerting specific influence on a person’s response to other people, objects, and situations, attitudes provide the emotional basis of one’s interpersonal relations and identification with others. Therefore, attitudes relate directly to one’s comfort and willingness to apply specific leadership styles. As previously stated, the major purpose of this article is to identify and examine five important attitudes that fit well with the servant leadership approach. If one possesses or can willingly adopt these attitudes, servant leadership may be an effective style to influence others toward achieving organizational goals.

Specific applications of many leadership styles, including servant leadership, can be quite challenging to identify and differentiate. Before introducing the attitudes compatible to servant leadership, typical characteristics and attributes of this style will be identified through a review of their treatment in the literature. This should aid the reader’s understanding of what servant leadership looks like, sounds like, and feels like.

Review of the Literature

Kent M. Keith, CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, addresses the basis of

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servant leadership: “It means that ‘servant’ is a fundamental, essential, continuing characteristic of a servant-lea der. If we are going to be servant-leaders, we need to start by being servants. That must be our true nature. That must be who we really are” (Keith, 2010). The main motivating factor for servant leaders is to serve first, and this is what distinguishes it from other forms of leadership. The leader’s attitude is that “I am the leader, therefore I serve” rather than “I am the leader, therefore I lead” (Sendjaya and Sarros, 2002). Servant leaders operate differently than other leaders. Their approach helps create a positive environment in the organization, adding to workers’ job satisfaction and commitment to the organization (Jaramillo et al., 2009).

As a servant leader one does not force people to follow but walks among them and moves in a direction that can unite all in a common vision.

When Greenleaf first introduced the servant leadership concept, religious groups readily identified with the approach, recognizing the core principles of service and community development as scriptural values as well as recognizing, of course, that Jesus served as the best example of servant leadership. Many non-religious not-for-profit organizations also embraced the servant leadership style due to its emphasis on service and the development of purposeful, passionate communities within organizational ranks. Many business leaders, though, found it challenging, even puzzling, to develop the skills and, most importantly, the attitudes of servant leadership. However, as numerous scholars began writing about servant leadership, and as leaders slowly explored the advantages of serving their employees rather than directing them, this new leadership style began to permeate mainstream management techniques even within the business arena (Kelly, 2010).

Transforming from conventional leader to servant leader is not a simple task. It requires a conscious effort to change one’s way of thinking, acting, and reacting. According to Autry (2001), it is important to realize that servant leadership is not a spiritual concept, but a way of “Being.” The five most important ways of Being are to be authentic, vulnerable, accepting, present, and useful – making it easier for leaders to develop an attitude of service.

A vital prerequisite to servant leadership is credibility, which is the foundation of leadership. People must believe in their leaders and know that they are worthy of trust. To build credibility leaders must be honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). Leaders who put their organization and people before themselves and don’t lead from the top are true servant leaders. They listen, have empathy, help people heal, know the value of learning, possess foresight, are persuasive and flexible, lead with a vision, work hard to gain trust, are passionate about helping their people progress and reach their potential, and work hard to build a community within their organization (Burrell and Grizzell, 2010). These skills, behaviors, and attitudes set leaders apart as servants who recognize the empowerment of their people as an important goal.

Servant leaders have a vision for the future. They communicate the desired direction of the organization with regard to its mission, values, and beliefs. Servant leaders break down this vision into small attainable goals that accumulate to their inspiring “big picture,” maintaining the progress of people and the organization at its core (Vinod and Sudhakar, 2011).

The servant leadership style has been compared to other leadership approaches such as charismatic and transformational leadership as well as leader-member exchange, but what differentiates servant leadership is the moral objective of serving others (Mayer et al..

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2008; Barbuto and Wheeler, 2006; Graham, 1991). Discussing the effectiveness of servant leadership. Smith et al. (2004) argue that a servant leadership style is better suited for a more static business environment that has a stable external context, not for dynamic fast paced environments. However, Searle and Barbuto (2011) propose that the adoption of servant leadership adds to the ethical, moral behavior in any organization in any environment as it supports positive behavior on both micro-and macro-levels.

An early criticism of the servant leadership concept as a philosophical theory involved sparse empirical research to advocate its effectiveness in an organizational setting. Servant leadership “lacks sufficient scientific evidence to justify its widespread acceptance at this point in time” (Russell and Stone, 2002). Since then a number of models have been developed to test the effectiveness of servant leadership. Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) developed and validated a scale for measuring servant leadership behavior identifying five dimensions: 1) altruistic calling; 2) emotional healing; 3) wisdom; 4) persuasive mapping; and 5) organizational stewardship. Their results indicated servant leadership can produce increases in subordinates’ organizational commitment, community citizenship behavior, and in-role performance.

Liden et al. (2008) developed a multi- dimensional measure of servant leadership by identifying nine dimensions:

1. Emotional healing – the act of showing sensitivity to others’ personal concerns;

2. Creating value for the community – a conscious, genuine concern for helping the community;

3. Conceptual skills – possessing the knowledge of the organization and tasks at hand so as to be in a position to effectively support and assist others, especially immediate followers;

4. Empowering – encouraging and facilitating others, especially immediate followers, in identifying and solving problems, as well as determining when and how to complete work tasks;

5. Helping subordinates grow and succeed – demonstrating genuine concern for others’ career growth and development by providing support and mentoring;

6. Putting subordinates first – using actions and words to make it clear to others (especially immediate followers) that satisfying their work needs is a priority. (Supervisors who practice this principle will often break from their own work to assist subordinates with problems they are facing with their assigned duties);

7. Behaving ethically – interacting openly, fairly and honestly with others;

8. Relationships – the act of making a genuine effort to know, understand, and support others in the organization, with an emphasis on building long-term relationships with immediate followers; and

9. Servanthood – a way of being marked by one’s self-categorization and desire to be characterized by others as someone who serves others first, even when self-sacrifice is required.

Additional empirical work on servant leadership has been carried out (Russell and Stone, 2002; Neubert, Kacmar, Carlson, Chonko, and Roberts, 2008; Sendjaya et al., 2008). Additionally, it is interesting to note that when describing his level-5 leadership concept and the qualities of a “Good to Great” leader, Collins (2001) observes, “Self-efficacy, quiet, reserved, even shy – these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” These level-5 leader qualities relate well to those of a servant leader.

It is evident that effective organizational leadership is enhanced by developing a clear understanding and thorough adoption of

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service qualities. When compared to other leadership styles, servant leadership can be seen to involve similar skills and behaviors. However, servant leadership requires a particular set of attitudes towards one’s colleagues. The leader sees him/herself not at the top of the pyramid, but in a position within the pyramid. As a servant leader one does not force people to follow but walks among them and moves in a direction that can unite all in a common vision. A servant leader listens and comprehends, refraining from the constant issuance of orders.

Servant leadership is not just a management style but also a set of attitudes that need to be developed by leaders who choose to adopt it. There is a certain frame of mind that must exist for a leader to act as a servant and be successful at managing the organization and people who depend upon him/her. From vast practice and abundant research it is evident that effective leaders must master a very wide set of skills, behaviors, and attitudes. The encouraging news is that leadership skills, behaviors, and attitudes are learnable and adoptable (Maxwell, 2007; Drucker, 2006; Kouzes and Posner, 2002).

The purpose of this paper then is to identify and explore five important attitudes that an individual needs to adopt in order to become an effective servant leader:

1) visioning isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything;

2) listening is hard work requiring a major investment of personal time and effort – and it is worth every ounce of energy expended;

3) my job involves being a talent scout and committing to my staff’s success;

4) it is good to give away my power; and

5) I am a community builder.

Attitude #1: “Visioning isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything.”

David McAllister-Wilson, 2004:56

Kelly writes that both Robert Greenleaf and Steven Covey (1998) recognize that the goal of servant leadership is to institutionalize the virtue of serving others first, not serving oneself. This can only be accomplished, Greenleaf and Covey contend, “if the leader ‘leads’ with a compelling vision, sets clear behavioral expectations, and serves as an authentic practitioner of the values proclaimed” (2010:10). First and foremost, servant leaders lead through their vision, their mental picture and oral description of what tomorrow will be like. Their vision gives focus to human energy. It expresses high ideals and values. A servant leader’s vision inspires both the leader and his/her followers to act and to accomplish (Kouzes and Posner, 2002).

Visions incorporate hopes, dreams, and aspirations. They are ambitious and optimistic. “Vision isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything” (McAllister- Wilson, 2004:56). Visions are sometimes leaps of faith. McAllister-Wilson describes visions as “necessarily hyperbolic, unrealistic, and irresponsible. They express goals that have a rainbow quality” (2004:58). To practice visioning effectively one must learn to aim high and allow for wind and elevation.

A vision is a good story. Among many valuable suggestions for developing a leader’s teachable point of view, Tichy (1997) proposes that a leader must be capable of communicating three kinds of stories to his/her constituents:

1) Who I A m ” stories that relate one’s own personal values and experiences in order to reveal oneself to followers and earn their trust;

2) “Who We Are” stories that provide a sense of group identity, either through common

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experiences or mission; and

3) a “Future Story” that describes where the group is going, why the group must (or must not) change, and how they will get there. A “Future Story” is a vision, an organizational story that hasn’t happened yet.

Where do visions come from? Often they emanate from followers themselves. Kouzes and Posner (2004) write that leaders know what inspires their constituents because they spend time listening to constituents’ needs and desires. (See Attitude #2 – Listening.) Leaders listen deeply with their ears, eyes, and hearts, not just to followers’ words but to their emotions. They know how to enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations that can be shaped into a unified purpose. Effective servant leaders apply what they hear from constituents to formulate an appealing vision that demonstrates how individual’s personal needs can be met while serving the common good of the organization and/or the constituents served by the organization.

Leaders know what inspires their constituents because they spend time listening to constituents’ needs and desires.

Through listening and assimilation, leaders identify their followers’ common themes (also concerns, desires, and dreams), then serve as the unifying force for their organizations by expressing these themes as a vision for a better tomorrow. They develop the vision, the “big picture,” through effective listening. “Like a carpenter working with a fine piece of wood, there is a grain to every group, and an effective leader reads the grain” (McAllister-Wilson, 2004:63). Of course, leaders also must be motivated personally by the vision. Therefore, they may infuse the “big picture” with their own personal desires to which they can commit

and from which they can derive personal pride.

A vision then may meld the best of what constituents desire and what the servant leader wants to achieve. Consider this vivid image: As spokespersons for their organizations, “leaders hold up a mirror and reflect back to their constituents what they most desire” (Kouzes and Posner, 2004:18). In this way servant leaders know that the secret to winning the support of numerous followers is to lead them (at least in part) where they already want to go. The servant leader assimilates the collective vision, then empowers constituents to achieve it.

Visions are often described as fulfilling the role of the North Star. They provide a constant bearing as leader and followers are buffeted by the day-to-day challenges of achieving something new. Not only do visions energize but they help leaders and followers stay focused on their desired direction.

Visions can also serve as very useful recruiting tools. A well-communicated vision will aid in attracting those who share the values and aspirations expressed in the vision. Attracted followers are strong “fits” for the community the servant leader is seeking to build (see Attitude #5 – Community Building). Conversely, those who do not share the vision’s expressed values and aspirations will realize that this is not the purpose that will help them fulfill their personal passion – and in the long run, decisions not to join a team can be just as important as decisions to join.

Without doubt, visioning requires courage. It involves communicating an ennobling picture of a better tomorrow without necessarily knowing how the vision will be achieved. Servant leaders rely on themselves and their team members to supply the strategies and talents, as well as accumulate the resources necessary for achieving the vision. Leaving ample opportunities for others to contribute creates an environment for empowerment, and that is a vital element of servant leadership.

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But it also creates risk. What if we cannot identify effective strategies, raise sufficient resources, and the like? We may fail! Imagine leaping off a cliff while counting on others to construct a safe landing pad while you are falling. That’s how many people interpret visioning.

The possibility of failure prevents many would- be leaders from establishing an energizing vision with organizational reach. Servant leaders take the risk. However, they don’t see themselves as falling off a cliff. Rather they see themselves building a team to enact a promising future that will better serve the common good.

Consider what many managers (not leaders) frequently do. They carefully plan a future that is incrementally better than today. They devise prudently a series of sequential steps that will lead to their future. Before they begin, they know what they will do, where they will attain the resources, and how success will be achieved. In other words, they play it safe, avoiding much chance of failure. In many instances this may be effective management, but it is not leadership. Servant leaders possess courage: they risk failure, they provide leadership that will take followers to places they have never been before (Kouzes and Posner, 2004).

That is not to say that servant leaders take wild chances when they establish visions. In his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (2007), Maxwell introduces his Law of Navigation. In Maxwell’s law, good leaders (navigators) assess potential costs before making commitments. Not only do they investigate measurable costs such as finances, talent, and resources, but they also examine intangibles such as timing, momentum, organizational culture, and the like. They gather information from many sources, listening to members of their own management team, other people in

their organization, and leaders from other organizations. Maxwell goes on to say that one who navigates for others must have a positive attitude. “You’ve got to have faith that you can take your people all the way. If you can’t confidently make the trip in your mind, you’re not going to be able to take it in real life.” (2007:41)

The first step on a servant leader’s success journey involves expressing a vision that will unify, energize, attract, and guide followers to what everyone can recognize will be a better tomorrow. The vision itself can be a single word, a slogan, a paragraph, or a page. Passion matters, not length. An effective servant leader realizes that “visioning isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything.” Servant leadership starts by expressing how you and your followers will serve others in a meaningful way.

Attitude #2: Listening is hard work requiring a major investment of personal time and effort – and it is worth every ounce of energy expended.

Maxwell offers another irrefutable law of leadership: the Law of Addition. He observes that we add value to others when we know and relate to what others value. How do we know what others value? We listen. “Inexperienced leaders are quick to lead before knowing anything about the people they intend to lead. But mature leaders listen, learn, and then lead” (2007:55).

By asking questions and giving others the opportunity to relate their “Who I A m ” and “Who We Are” stories as well as attending to the emotions accompanying these stories, servant leaders can identify their followers’ dreams and aspirations. Listening allows the servant leader to sense the purpose in others, enhancing the leader’s ability to implement Attitude #1 and incorporate their followers’ hopes and desires into a compelling vision that gives voice to followers’ feelings. Kouzes

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and Posner state, “Leaders find the common thread that weaves the fabric of human needs into a colorful tapestry. They develop a deep understanding of collective yearnings; they seek out the brewing consensus among those they would lead” (2002:149-150).

Servant leaders are present – that is, available to their constituents. They “walk the shop,” engaging in informal conversations in order to know and be known by followers. Servant leaders ask open-ended questions about work-related and personal issues to draw out constituents’ opinions and attitudes. As mentioned previously, they listen deeply with their ears, eyes, and hearts (Kouzes and Posner, 2002) to glean the emotional content of their followers’ conversations so they can align the organization’s vision with the professional and personal goals of constituents.

Of course, when the number of followers is too large to permit informal conversations with all, attitude and/or opinion surveys can be utilized as supplemental listening mechanisms. They can help canvass large numbers of followers efficiently and effectively – and help the servant leader perceive changes in dreams and desires over time.

Effective servant leaders are willing to adhere to the 2:1 ratio of questions to commands often suggested by trainers during listening skill development sessions. That is, when auditing their personal behaviors, it is apparent that servant leaders ask two questions for every direct order or instruction they deliver to their followers.

Perhaps the most significant direct effects of listening involve: 1) building trust between the servant leader and followers, and 2) increasing the self-esteem of followers. When a leader listens intently to followers’ ideas he/ she demonstrates respect for their opinions, helping to develop a bond of trust. And trust is a foundation block of the leader-follower relationship. Also, when a leader listens.

followers conclude their ideas are important, helping to raise their self-esteem and its related outcomes such as higher job satisfaction, productivity, and organizational commitment. More directly, listening can inform servant leaders of their followers’ experiences and lead to adapting such experiences to enhance organizational innovation.

Servant leaders maintain a very strong commitment to listening. They share the understanding that listening is very hard work which demands a considerable investment of their personal time and cognitive effort, and they share the attitude that the numerous positive outcomes of listening to one’s followers are worth every ounce of energy expended..

Attitude #3: My job involves being a talent scout and committing to my staff’s success.

Often people do not see in themselves what someone else sees in them. Effective servant leaders share a common attitude that “everyone is great at something” and it is their responsibility to help followers realize how they can apply whatever special talent(s) they can offer toward achievement of the organization’s vision. This can be a powerful approach to human resource development. Followers’ organizational contributions are not limited by their formal organizational role or by their specific job description but are enabled by their special talent to take the organization toward its vision via a new, perhaps unplanned, direction. Servant leaders see themselves as talent scouts. They believe that everyone has a unique contribution to offer, and it is their job to recognize it (even if the follower does not), and direct it toward vision achievement.

The support of a servant leader can make a difference in the careers and lives of their followers. Servant leaders let followers know they will be working with them to help them grow. “Over time, as you’re overseeing (your)

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task, I will watch you and call character and competency issues into the conversation. At the same time, I will encourage you, and I promise you I will do everything to develop you. If I sense there is something in you I can’t develop, I will find other people who can and I will bring them into play in your life. I will make sure that your gift is fanned into flame so it becomes strong and vibrant and serves others well” (Ortberg, 2004:95). Followers, in turn, come to believe in their leaders and trust their intentions to help them develop skills that will lead to improvements in their organizational positions as well as their contributions to the organization’s vision.

Strong leaders stand apart because they assess the abilities of others and assist them in capturing the best of those abilities. “Exemplary leaders can, figuratively speaking, bring others to life. These leaders significantly improve others’ performance quite dramatically because they care deeply for their constituents and have an abiding faith in their capacities. Constituents are able to respond positively to these expectations not only because they have the abilities; they also respond because leaders are more nurturing, supporting, and encouraging toward people whom they believe” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:282-283).

Of course, scouting and facilitating followers’ talents has a payoff for the organization’s long term success as well. Maxwell offers his Law of Reproduction: “It takes a leader to raise up a leader.” Focusing on the growth of others and helping them develop their skills is what helps develop the next generation of organizational leaders. “It takes one to know one, show one, and grow one” (Maxwell, 1998:141). According to Ortberg (2004), some of the most powerful words a leader can offer to a follower are, “I am committed to your success.”

In Gung Ho! Blanchard and Bowles (1997) point to the animal kingdom to demonstrate the power of encouragement through their

Gift of the Goose concept. As wild geese fly thousands of miles annually, they cheer each other every step of the way by honking encouragement to one another. “A leader who cheers those around him, offering specific praise for things done right, is a leader who will win the hearts of others and see great things accomplished” (Blanchard, 2004:115).

“… mature leaders listen, learn, and then lead.”

Greenleaf purports that servant leaders are motivated by the intention of serving others and are committed to develop their followers. When leaders work toward building character and competence among their followers, they add to their own credibility as well as the credibility of their team members (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). By directing followers’ special talents toward accomplishing the organization’s vision, servant leaders create a collaborative and effective team environment by utilizing everyone’s strengths.

An important prerequisite to developing followers’ talents is trust. Liden (2008) points out that the servant leadership style contributes to trust building with employees, customers, and communities. Ortberg (2004:89) concludes, “We have to learn to put the same trust in other people that we put in ourselves and then release them to do the work … Trust is the foundational element of any good leader, and it has to be earned. You have to lay a foundation of trust before people can individually do their best.” Leaders can earn trust by working hard to recognize each follower’s special talent, helping them see how it can be applied toward achieving the vision, and committing to the success of each follower. When this is accomplished, the leader’s credibility increases, each follower’s contribution grows, and the organization thrives.

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Attitude #4: It is good to give away my power.

Many people are motivated to attain positions of leadership because they seek the legitimate authority associated with a leader’s position. They conclude that formal authority within their organization will allow them to issue commands, implement their ideas, allocate resources and rewards, and, generally, make things happen. Servant leaders, however, are motivated by their desire to serve others and view leadership as the best way to achieve this service objective. It is a paradox of servant leadership that those probably least motivated by the legitimate power base frequently find themselves building more referent and goodwill power as they give away their power to their constituents through delegation, empowerment, and the practice of subsidiarity.

“Leaders accept and act on the paradox of power: you become more powerful when you give your own power away. Long before empowerment was written into the popular vocabulary, exemplary leaders understood how important it was that their constituents felt strong, capable, and efficacious. Constituents who feel weak, incompetent, and insignificant consistently underperform, they want to flee the organization, and they’re ripe for disenchantment, even revolution” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:251).

Maxwell (1998) underscores this attitude through his Law of Empowerment, stating, “Only secure leaders give power to others.” He explains that leaders who give power away to others make themselves indispensable by making themselves dispensable. By giving their followers power, leaders are empowering followers to reach their potential. Maxwell goes on to state, “When a leader can’t or won’t empower others, he creates barriers within the organization that people cannot overcome. If the barriers remain long enough, then the people give up, or they move to another organization where they can maximize

their potential.” For servant leaders, giving away power contributes to their goal of facilitating others in growing to their maximum potential.

some of the most powerful words a leader can offer to a follower are, “I am committed to your success.”

Good leaders give away power by applying the organizing principle of subsidiarity. They believe that matters ought to be decided and dispatched by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized competent authority and that higher level leaders should maintain a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at the local level. Therefore, servant leaders tend to pass along as much decision-making authority and control as possible to the organizational level closest to those whose needs are being served.

“Creating a climate in which people are fully engaged and feel in control of their own lives is at the heart of strengthening others. People must have the latitude to make decisions based on what they believe should be done. They must work in an environment that both develops their abilities to perform a task or complete an assignment and builds a sense of self-confidence. They must hold themselves personally accountable for results as well as feel ownership for their achievements” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:250). Giving away power to followers may be challenging for many leaders, but a true servant leader doesn’t lead from the top and does not hesitate to give power away to his or her followers.

Leaders who give their power away do not blindly agree with the decisions and opinions of their followers. Giving power away does not mean letting the inmates run the prison (Blanchard, 2004), which is an often- encountered misrepresentation of servant leadership. Rather, it is about accepting the

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views of others and giving them the ability to practice power. A servant leader applies the law of acceptance which, as described by Autry (2001:17), “does not imply that you (the leader) accept everyone’s ideas without critical analysis, discussion and judgment – only that you accept ideas as valid for discussion and review, and that you focus on the ideas themselves, not on the person who presented them.” Giving followers the opportunity to express their ideas makes them feel like they are in control and have a say in organizational decisions, bolstering job satisfaction as well as team and organizational success.

Servant leaders fulfill the roles of coaches and facilitators by moving from “in control to giving control away” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:251). A servant leader walks with his/her followers and helps them realize their true potential. Fulfilling the coach’s role, the servant leader learns to trust each follower with the work that they are doing. Leaders are willing to delegate their authority while maintaining their organizational responsibility, standing on the sidelines helping followers achieve their best results. “A wise leader strengthens people by giving power away. Leaders place constituents, not themselves, at the center. Leaders use their power in service of others, not in service of themselves” (Ortberg, 2004:90).

…create a collaborative and effective team environment by utilizing everyone’s strengths.

Referring to servant leaders’ desire to serve others’ interest and not their own, Blanchard warns that power holders have to learn to be servant leaders and not self-serving leaders. Humility is the key to a servant leader’s heart and approach. Servant leaders “don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less” (2004:105).

Related closely to their practice of humility, servant leaders adopt the attitude that they

need not be right all the time. They know and act on the concept that other people have good ideas, too. Further, servant leaders demonstrate their humility by admitting their mistakes. In a work environment characterized by trust, leaders and followers are open to feedback, admit their mistakes, and work together to pursue continuous service improvements (Ortberg, 2004). By including others in decision-making and creative endeavors, by knowing they need not be right all the time, and by admitting mistakes when appropriate, servant leaders build trust with followers, facilitate followers’ effectiveness, and enhance their own influence over the long term. In other words, they grow stronger by giving away their power.

Attitude #5: / am a community builder.

Servant leaders recognize that their success derives from the attitude that they are leading an organizational effort to develop a productive community. They strive to build a community centered around members’ shared values and vision and through their collaborative decision-making and action- taking. Kouzes and Posner discuss this concept in terms of the leader-constituent relationship: “Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It’s the quality of this relationship that matters most when we are engaged in getting extraordinary things done. A leader- constituent relationship that’s characterized by fear and distrust will never, ever produce anything of lasting value. A relationship characterized by mutual respect and confidence will overcome the greatest adversities and leave a legacy of significance” (2007:24). Drucker points out that organizations are built on trust, and trust develops from effective relationships between executives and followers. “Taking responsibility for relationships is an absolute necessity. It is a duty” (2005:108).

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To build community successfully, it is imperative to select the right people. For a servant leader it is vital to know who to retain or recruit, extricate, and develop. Collins explains that “Good to Great” leaders “… first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats” (2001:13). Strong communities are built around people who share the values of the organization, are passionate about and motivated by the vision, and whose strengths match the organization’s execution needs (or who can be trained to develop such skills through additional organizational investment).

Drucker discusses the importance of looking for people’s strengths. Developing the attitude to ask “What can a man do?” instead of “What can he not do?” helps a leader to see strengths clearly and direct those strengths toward the common vision. “In every area of effectiveness within an organization, one feeds the opportunities and starves the problems. Nowhere is this more important than in respect to people. The effective executive looks upon people including himself as an opportunity … The task of an executive is not to change human beings. Rather, as the Bible tells us in the parable of the Talents, the task is to multiply performance capacity of the whole by putting to use whatever strength, whatever health, whatever aspiration there is in individuals” (Drucker, 2006:98-99).

Servant leaders’ stoke the fire of community through the common appeal of vision. “Leaders help people see that what they are doing is bigger than themselves, even, than the business. It’s something noble. It’s something that lifts their morale and motivational levels. When people go to bed at night they can sleep a little easier knowing that others are able to live a better life because of what they did that day” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:135-136).

Organizational effectiveness depends on the strength of the community that the leader

Servant leaders “don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less”

builds by choosing the right people for the right job. This relationship is addressed by Maxwell’s Law of the Inner Circle: “The potential of the leader – along with the potential of the whole organization – is determined by those closest to him” (1998:112). Building a community within an organization creates a cohesive network that is able to achieve success in any situation. Maxwell explains that the leader must bring together people with five qualities when including them into the inner circle: 1) potential value – those who raise up themselves; 2) positive value – those who raise morale in the organization; 3) personal value – those who raise up the leader; 4) production value – those who raise others; and 5) proven value-those who raise up people who raise up other people (1998:115-116).

Additionally, community building is supported by hosting and/or addressing organizational gatherings and taking time to celebrate successes. Gatherings, of course, may include a variety of functions such as formal meetings, annual events, milestone achievements, holiday celebrations, and the like. “Community may not be the stuff of ordinary organizations, but it is the stuff of great ones, ones with strong cultures. The best leaders know that every gathering is a chance to renew commitrnent. They never let pass an opportunity to make sure that everyone knows why they’re all there and how they’re going to act in service of that purpose” (Kouzes and Posner, 2007:311). Through the inevitable daily encounter of problems and distractions servant leaders keep members focused on shared values and vision by affirming publicly what unifies the community.

As mentioned previously, servant leaders know part of their job is to “walk the shop.” They make themselves visible where work is

Five Necessary Attitudes of a Servant Leader 95

being done, where clients’ needs are being served. They pay attention to be sure they observe followers doing the right things and doing things right, and they compliment workers on their successes, encouraging their hearts through verbal recognition to keep working toward the vision. Also, servant leaders take care to recognize both individual contributions and team achievements through rewards, awards, gifts, and “thank-you’s” of many types. Presenting a plaque, naming an employee-of-the-month, or honoring a retiree are opportunities to tell the stories of workers’ successes and to reinforce the community’s shared values and vision (Kouzes and Posner, 2002).

Communities require building and tending. Servant leaders are aware of their vital role in bringing together the right people who are energized to achieve great things through shared values and vision. They know also that without a leader’s reinforcement, organizational values diffuse and visions blur. Therefore, servant leaders recognize the role of gatherings and celebrations in maintaining community.

Conclusion

The servant leadership style has received increasing attention in recent years and can be a powerful approach for leaders. However, to implement this style genuinely and effectively, leaders should be sure that they either possess or can readily adopt certain attitudes that meld with successful application of servant leadership. Chief among these attitudes are those discussed in this paper:

1) visioning isn’t everything, but it’s the beginning of everything;

2) listening is hard work requiring a major investment of personal time and effort – and it is worth every ounce of energy expended;

3) my job involves being a talent scout and committing to my staff’s success;

4) it is good to give away my power; and

5) I am a community builder.

As discussed by Autry (2001), one of the natural extensions of servant leadership is strong corporate social responsibility and community service, modeled by the leader and practiced by numerous organization members. Certainly, there is some truth to the opinion, espoused by many, that a business’s only responsibility is making a profit, and that the general community is well-served by the firm’s creation of jobs, payment of taxes, and so forth. However, as expressed by Marian Wright Edelman, “Service is the rent we pay for living.”

Business organizations are part of complex economic, social, educational, healthcare, and political systems from which firms derive benefits of great value. In this context, good corporate citizenship is practiced by the effective servant leader who includes community volunteerism and involvement in his/her life as well as encourages and accommodates employees’ community volunteer efforts. In doing so, the servant leader’s organization gains a reputation for being a valuable and appreciated member of the community – and also benefits in the long run from increased skills and networks developed through such volunteer efforts.

When applying the servant leadership style, practitioners should be cognizant that visioning, listening, and community building can be quite time-consuming activities. While payoffs in effectiveness can be substantial, successful application of servant leadership may require a substantial amount of time. The servant leadership approach, like many other leadership styles, requires not only technical competence and a variety of interpersonal skills but also a great deal of patience, perseverance, and dedication.

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