Servant Leadership Philosophy and Its Link With Leadership Theory
It has been pointed out on the Businessballs information website that there is a difference between a leadership philosophy (e.g. “Servant leadership” or “ethical leadership”) and a leadership theory (e.g. functional and situational leadership theories). The former is a values-based view of how leaders should act whereas the latter is usually a way of teaching leaders how to be more effective.
For decades, the older leadership theories (e.g. traits, behavioral/styles, situational and functional) did not explicitly support or address the philosophy of servant leadership. However, this changed with the emergence of Integrated Psychological leadership theory – as represented by James Scouller’s Three Levels of Leadership model (2011). Scouller’s model – which attempts to integrate the older theories while addressing their limitations by focusing on the leader’s psychology – emphasizes the idea that leaders should care as much about their followers’ needs as their own and view leadership as an act of service. Thus, the link between the philosophy of servant leadership and modern leadership theory has strengthened in the 21st century.
Read more about this topic: Servant Leadership
Famous quotes containing the words servant, leadership, philosophy, link and/or theory:
“He who doesn’t know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master; the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable to enjoy others’ successes, and such a person should never be entrusted with public affairs.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“This I do know and can say to you: Our country is in more danger now than at any time since the Declaration of Independence. We don’t dare follow the Lindberghs, Wheelers and Nyes, casting suspicion, sowing discord around the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt. We don’t want revolution among ourselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“That the world is a divine game and beyond good and evil:Min this the Vedanta philosophy and Heraclitus are my predecessors.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The lifelong process of caregiving, is the ultimate link between caregivers of all ages. You and I are not just in a phase we will outgrow. This is life—birth, death, and everything in between.... The care continuum is the cycle of life turning full circle in each of our lives. And what we learn when we spoon-feed our babies will echo in our ears as we feed our parents. The point is not to be done. The point is to be ready to do again.”
—Paula C. Lowe (20th century)
“In the theory of gender I began from zero. There is no masculine power or privilege I did not covet. But slowly, step by step, decade by decade, I was forced to acknowledge that even a woman of abnormal will cannot escape her hormonal identity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)