Necessity of Listening Intently to Make Effective Decisions

As I slowly but surely come to the end of this course on Servant leadership I have become exposed to a lot more when it comes to what it truly means to be one. In John Burkardt and Larry C. Spears’s article on ‘Servant Leadership and Philanthropic Intuitions’ they outline certain characteristics that are essential in playing the role of a servant leader. One of the most important characteristics in my opinion is the ability to listen. I have come to terms with the fact that thinking of one’s self as knowledgeable and as such not taking into consideration the exact needs of the people we are meant to serve, does not solve problems any quicker. The people who are part of or affected mostly by the problem could also lead to the solution, so there’s the need to have patience and set an atmosphere for them to express themselves freely. The article speaks about the necessity of listening intently as well as reflectively in order to make effective decisions.
I have also been learning more and more about how to put my servant leadership plans into action. Social marketing is one of the things I have been exposed to and have developed a keen interest in. Marketing, in general is the art of buying and selling goods and services at a profit. According to Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman article ‘Social Marketing; An approach to planned social change’ it describes it as a trade phenomenon. Social marketing would then be the combination of the attempt to make an impact on society by bringing about positive change and the use of marketing tools and concepts to achieve that impact. One of the main differences between social marketing and business marketing which stood out to me as I read the Kotler-Zaltman article was the fact that social marketing is built upon the core beliefs values of the market while business marketing is only based on the superficial opinions and preferences. To me, this means that a lot more research would be put into social marketing since this is