There are several distinct governance styles that you can leverage in any leadership workplace. A strong team whose members are personally and professionally fulfilled and produce high-quality work to help your organization thrive can be built using servant leadership.
Who is a servant leader?
With servant leadership, you prioritize the development and well-being of your team to put their needs first. According to this concept, the leader is at the service of his or her employees rather than the other way around.
This style of governance believes that team members perform better and more effectively when they feel both personally and professionally fulfilled. Collaboration and worker happiness are crucial ideas in servant leadership. This approach to leadership can be used in any sector, although nonprofit organizations seem to like it best.
To help you become a better leader, consider these 7 values of effective leadership:
Active Listening
Effective servant leaders don’t just talk; they also listen to their team. They allow each member adequate time to speak before paying close attention to what is said and, eventually, what is not said.
They give people their full attention, pay attention to their colleagues’ nonverbal cues, refrain from interrupting them when they are speaking, and offer helpful criticism. Servant leaders identify areas for improvement by soliciting observations and opinions from the entire team.
Compassion
Effective servant leaders have a personal interest in their team. They recognize that the success of their professional lives is influenced by the degree of satisfaction of their team members in their personal lives.
They respect the opinions of others and approach situations with an open mind. Therefore, servant leaders make it a point to show their team members that they care about them and do their best to help them when they have personal problems.
Recovery
Effective servant leaders recognize the value of resolving problems before moving on to new goals and organizations. For example, an argument within the team may have resulted in a decline in your team’s performance in the previous quarter. The team must first be able to move past their grievances and reach a consensus in order to tackle the new challenges of this quarter. Servant leaders ensure their team has the skills, resources, and support to do their job well.
Self-Awareness
Being self-aware of yourself and your team is a trait of effective servant leaders. Self-awareness is the ability to observe oneself, think deeply about one’s feelings and actions, and consider how one’s actions influence others around them.
Self-aware servant leaders accept and learn from their own shortcomings. It is crucial for leaders to understand the individual strengths and limitations of their teams in order to foster growth and learning.
Influence
Team members are guided and persuaded by effective servant leaders. A servant leader explains why a course of action is best, as opposed to an authoritarian leader who simply tells the team what to do. He or she strives to build consensus within the team as a whole.
Facilitation
Effective servant leaders can convey larger goals and explain why they are vital to their employees by thinking beyond minor tasks. They help their team understand their tasks and motivation while keeping an eye on the long-term goals of the company.
Stewardship
Effective servant leaders recognize and understand the importance of their duties. They let their team know that they preserve and protect the trust placed in them for the job.
They put in a lot of effort, arrive on time, and are reliable stewards of their entity’s resources and goals. They set an example by acting the way they would like to see others act.
