Critical Review On Servant Leadership

In this reading, Larry Spears provides a clear understanding of what servant leadership is and how it came about. “The term servant-leadership was first coined by Greenleaf (1904– 1990) in a 1970 essay titled ‘The Servant as Leader.”’ (Spears, 2004, p. 7). Greenleaf’s story concludes that the central meaning “was that the great leader is first experienced as a servant to others, and that this simple fact is central to the leader’s greatness. True leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others” (Spears, 2004, p. 8). Specifically, “the great leader is first experienced as a servant to others” (Spears, 2004, p. 8). Furthermore, at its core, servant-leadership is a long-term, transformational approach to life
8). “Empathy: the servant-leader strives to understand and empathize with others” (Spears, 2004, p. 8). “Healing: one of the great strengths of servant-leadership is the potential for healing one’s self and others” (Spears, 2004, pp. 8-9). “Awareness: general awareness, and especially self-awareness, strengthens the servant-leader” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). “Persuasion: another characteristic of servant-leaders is a primary reliance on persuasion rather than positional authority in making decisions within an organization” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). “Conceptualization: servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to ‘dream great dreams.’ The ability to look at a problem (or an organization) from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). “Foresight: foresight is a characteristic that enables the servant-leader to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision for the future” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). “Stewardship: Peter Block has defined stewardship as ‘holding something in trust for another’” (Spears, 2004, p.