What is the most desirable quality needed for people in power? The answer is leadership. But the quest does not stop here. Leadership is not just bad or good. It is a bit more complicated.
There are numerous styles of leadership that experts have categorized. They all have their benefits and drawbacks. However, there are eight common leadership styles—Transactional Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Autocratic Leadership, Bureaucratic Leadership, Laissez-Faire Leadership, Charismatic Leadership.
Before we go further, let us answer the fundamental question— who is a leader?
A leader is somebody who can inspire people to believe in his vision and motivate them to work towards achieving it. A leader is not someone who sits at the pinnacle of any organization, it is someone who can lead, make decisions, and take responsibility for the outcomes.
In this article, we will talk about servant leadership qualities. This style of functioning is quite popular nowadays as it emphasizes on the human touch. Their motto is to serve first and lead second. They channel their energies into finding ways and means to help others. They are natural leaders but are not overly focused on making that point.
The idea of servant leadership was floated by Robert Greenleaf in his essay The Servant as Leader, in 1970. A servant leader always asks, what can I do to help you out with your problem? They do not think twice about going out of their way to find a solution.
They focus on elevating and developing the people who follow them. This approach boosts morale and leads to a high level of trust, resulting in better employee performance and a more positive company culture.
Greenleaf and his fellow believers identified five traits of servant leaders.
Moral Love
It means having a deep caring for your fellow employees. A servant leader puts the employee before profit, believing happy workers lead to better work and finally more productivity and profits.
Humility
Humility should not be confused with a willingness to be trodden over. It means keeping one’s ego in check and letting other people’s opinions matter. They are willing to take diverse inputs and use data and facts to make decisions. They share the success of an organization and take responsibility when things do not go according to plan.
Altruism
Servant leaders prioritize their people as well as the needs of the community that they are operating in. They’re also willing to share the rewards by sharing a generous portion of the company’s profits as a bonus with the employees.
Vision
A leader needs to have a clear vision of the future. A good servant leader is also able to get everyone inside the organization aligned with that same direction.
Trust
Servant leaders inspire trust as they put their needs below that of their colleagues and workers. They have a strong moral and ethical compass. Such people inspire trust within and outside the organization.
To be a good servant leader can be challenging. Constantly pushing your own needs and priorities to the backburner isn’t something that comes as second nature for most of us.
But for some, being a humble, down-to-earth leader is second nature, and they are very comfortable in their skin.
