by Kristal Mcvicar

Created on: June 03, 2008   Last Updated: January 20, 2011

First introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in nineteen-seventy in his book "The Servant As Leader", the concept of Servant Leadership is slowly taking root in the corporate world. Based on the precept that serving employees is more effective than dictating, punishing or rewarding, servant leadership is gaining wide acceptance and being implemented in more and more organizations.

The desire of the servant manager is to serve the employees in any way possible to help them become better people, more confident, more autonomous, more productive and happier within their work environment with an end result of a more productive team with employees now wanting to be servant leaders as well.

In practicing servant leadership, the servant leader (who was once considered a supervisor or manager) sincerely devotes his (her) energies towards meeting the needs of the followers (employees) by encouraging their strengths and helping them overcome their shortcomings. In doing so, they become more productive and happier within their work environment and are more likely to remain devoted and loyal to their company.

The environment created within a workforce employing the philosophies of servant leadership becomes one of higher productivity, less stress, less absences and sick leave taken and an overall feeling of contentment within the workforce.

Employees feel more valued, the relationship becomes more of a partnership as opposed to a dictatorship and the company is more successful.

This concept is not without its critics. Many of those critics have denounced this form of leadership using the excuse that the leaders must serve the board of directors or owners of companies, not the employees. That argument however, has not proven to be a good one when compared to the success of the companies employing this method.

Starbucks is one such company. Not only have they become hugely successful without ever advertising,they have created a warm and inviting atmosphere for customers and a
happy environment for their employees.

Created through a merger of competitve coffee outlets in Seattle, their superior product and empowered employees have made them a household name. Their success and growth, in large part through their adoption of servant leadership as a corporate philosophy, has been enviable to say the least.

When working in partnership with your employees who are concurrently working in partnership with the customer, the flow of information to those making the overall decisions flows unimpeded and creates more success and a better customer experience than would be achieved without that flow.

Perhaps "Servant Leadership" with one day infiltrate the heavy and restrictive walls that tightly encase our politicians so we may one day return to a time when those governing were truly public servants, there to serve the public not their own personal agenda fuelled by ego and a sense of superiority.

Servant Leadership, if adopted more often, has the potential of truly revolutionizing the corporate (and political)world as we know it today!

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