Collective Knowledge about Servant Leadership

Your Group's Assignment:  When you have completed your reading and web search, collectively respond to the questions below in preparation to "teach" your concept with your original "home group."

Using This Wiki

1. Select a recorder.
2. Recorder will enter in the space below the group's collective knowledge in each category. While the recorder is entering text into the wiki, group members stand behind, providing input!
3. To add text, click on the "Edit Page" button at the top left. You will be prompted to enter a password. The password is the name of our program. You will also be asked to enter your name so we can know who edited the page.
4. After you have logged in with a password and your first name, insert your cursor where you want to begin typing, and begin!
5. Don't forget to click the "Save" button at the bottom of your screen occasionally!

NOTE: Feel free to delete these instructions once you have read them!

Define the Theory

The servant leader is a servant first.  He or she serves the people he or she leads, which implies that they are an end in themselves rather than a means to an organizational purpose.  Servant leaders wish to serve and take care of others' high priority needs first and follows virtuous constructs to create a better society.

Proponents

Greenleaf, Patterson, Covey, Deal, Wheatley, Peck, Blanchard, Sergiovani, Chanakya, Jesus 

What are the outcomes?  When might this leadership style be used?

Outcomes include a community built on trust and meeting the needs of those who are overseen.  This community fosters competent, empowered members interacting in a calming peaceful environment where mistakes are acknowledged openly without defensive posturing.  Risk taking is an effective means for learning. 

This style might be used in approaching a bond issue, in staff development, mentoring and lunch duty.

What are the critical skills an administrator would need to be able to demonstrate this leadership style?

Selflessness, having a calling, nurtures the spirit, empathy, understanding others' perspectives, listening, ask good questions that make people think, awareness, growth, community building, persuasion, willing to give up control, ability to communicate in a nonthreatening manner, good judgement.