Servant Leadership as The Best Leadership Philosophy

In the past decades, there has been a surge in different styles and theories of leadership in businesses, governments, organizations, and the military. Servant leadership is one of the newest, and arguably the best leadership philosophy to date. The main priority of a leader is to serve rather than lead. Servant leadership is the most beneficial leadership philosophy as it motivates and inspires one’s subordinates through the leader’s altruistic service.

Servant leadership has a relatively short history. The term “servant leader” was first coined in 1970 in an essay by Robert Greenleaf. In this essay, Greenleaf examines the question of whether or not the roles of the servant and of the leader can exist at the same time in one person. Throughout the essay, Greenleaf comes to the conclusion that it is possible for someone to be both a leader and a servant at the same time whilst still being productive. One of the main premises that Greenleaf holds throughout the essay is that in order for one to become a leader, they must first become the servant and then they must remain a servant as the leader. Essentially what this means is that servant leaders must care for those around them first, serving them, before the servant leader is allowed to care for themselves. Greenleaf created a formula for this mentality. The first part of the formula is the altruistic aspect in which he says that in order to be the leader you must serve. The second facet of this formula is the personal aspect where one is the leader because they serve. This aspect is ingrained in the leader’s own ambitions and motivations. This comes with their desire to serve and develop their subordinates. The servant leader is able to mature their subordinates through their leadership, Greenleaf states that through servant leadership, it is possible for the leader’s subordinates to “become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants” (Greenleaf 1970, p. 6). By putting others before one’s self, and serving them first, a servant leader is able to inspire their subordinates to greatness.

A main aspect of servant leadership, as defined by Robert Greenleaf, is altruism. While servant leadership is a rather new philosophy, altruism is not. Altruism essentially is a belief or practice of selflessness in concern for the wellbeing for others, often incorporating high moral obligations, as well as strong feelings of empathy and sympathy (Konstan 2014). The term altruism first appeared in the early 1800s in writings by philosopher Auguste Compte; but this was not the origin of altruism. Altruistic beliefs date back to Aristotle as well as the creation of many religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, etcetera. There is even a common altruistic fable about Abraham Lincoln often covered in ethics lectures. As one can see, altruism extremely widespread and exists in almost everything with a conscience so it would make sense to apply this moral belief to leadership. Applying altruistic leadership and servant leadership behaviors, such as selflessness or self-sacrifice has been found to increase the cohesion between leaders and subordinates. Research has shown that, “followers tend to perceive selfless behaviors as a sign for the sincerity of their leaders' group-oriented intentions. Specifically, these selfless acts contribute to followers' trust in the leader and their conviction in their leader's concern for the common good…previous research has [also] found a positive relationship between leaders' selfless behaviors and followers' perceptions of leaders' focus on the collective” (Schuh, Zhang, & Tian 2012, p. 632). This study proves that the altruistic behaviors which are exhibited in one who practices servant leadership, have a very positive correlation to the attitudes of their subordinates. Another study found that servant leaders are dedicated to the development and wellbeing of people and that the “altruism, simplicity, and consciousness is a servant leader’s characteristic” (Choudhary, Akhtar, & Zaheer 2012, p. 435). Altruism is a deeply ingrained driving factor in the success and effectiveness of servant leadership.

In conclusion, there us an abundance of research that supports the effectiveness of servant leadership. These studies show just how much of an effect servant leadership can have on an organization as well as its employees. Servant leadership’s deep-rooted beginnings in the philosophical study of altruism act as a guide for how the servant leader must act. While not used everywhere, the servant leadership style of management is beginning to be accepted and used in a wider array of fields. As more organizations begin to implement servant leadership as their management philosophy and more research and studies go into it, there is a good possibility for this theory to evolve and improve from when it was originally theorized by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. One thing is for certain though, servant leadership is currently the best leadership theory available today; and there is no doubt that it will continue to rise above the rest as research continues, and time goes on.  

Works Cited

Choudhary, Ali Iftikhar, et al. “Impact of Transformational and Servant Leadership on Organizational Performance: A Comparative Analysis.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 116, no. 2, July 2012, pp. 433–440., doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1470-8.

Greenleaf, Robert K. “The Servant as Leader.” pp. 1–28.

Konstan, David. “Altruism.” The Johns Hopkins University Press, vol. 130, 2014, pp. 1–17.

Schuh, Sebastian C., et al. “For the Good or the Bad? Interactive Effects of Transformational Leadership with Moral and Authoritarian Leadership Behaviors.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 116, no. 3, 2012, pp. 629–640., doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1486-0.