Understanding Servant Leadership According to Larry Spears and Russ Moley

Leadership is described as the state, position or action of heading an organization or a group of people. Leadership entails controlling, administration, ruling and governance of a group of individuals or organization. According to the introductory chapter as written by Larry C. Spears, servant leadership is a leadership situation in which a leader has previously served as a servant (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). The desire and ability to serve before engaging in leadership makes one a better leader as compared to those who become leaders first.

Although this description is correct, there is need to put in mind that leaders are born but not made. As such, some leaders might fail to conduct their leadership roles correctly due to lack of leadership skills rather than lack of good leadership models (Spears and Lawrence, 2002).

The author continues by stating that servant leadership focusses on serving others including customers, employees and the community. He states that servant leadership encourages a communal approach to issues and sharing of power during decision making situations.

He adds that servant leadership is a model that ensures that other people’s needs and priorities are met. Larry continues by stating that servant leadership is an institutional model that employs a group oriented design in decision making to enable for organizational and societal improvement (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). Although a group approach to decision making can help organization achieve better outputs, it can lead to delayed decision making due to disagreements. Apart from this, there is need to ensure that those involved in critical decision making are trusted and loyal members of the organization.

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Involvement of untrusted individuals in decision making can lead to exposure of an organization’s secrets and development goals (Spears and Lawrence, 2002).

Larry sites TDIndustries (TD) as a prosperous company mainly because they were the first companies to employ servant leadership as part of its organizational framework. He states that the company has constantly been ranked among the top ten best companies to work for in the United States on Fortune magazine. Greenleaf describes the roles of leadership as being a role model, path finding, alignment and empowerment. He states that leaders are supposed to set good examples for their colleagues and juniors by contributing in business activities, showing integrity and diligence (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). Apart from that, he states that leaders are supposed to be path finders and help their organization achieve its vision, mission, goals and targets. He then adds that servant leaders are supposed to realign organizations activities and plans to ensure that they achieve the set goals and objectives. He then states that servant leaders are supposed to empower people and ensure that they are able to achieve the set goals (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). The empowerment is also supposed to help employees develop and improve their talents and skills. This explanation of the major roles of leaders is correct and aptly covers all the major functionalities of leaders. Apart from the roles of leaders, Greenleaf states that leaders are supposed to be good listeners and seek to understand others before seeking to be understood (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). He states that understanding others’ opinions, concerns and interests helps leaders make more informed decisions and create a win-win situation in which all people’s interests are considered. This explanation is correct because good listening skills help leaders to gather others’ views and opinions, which is essential for good decision making.

According to Russ S Moxley, leaders are supposed to inspire, motivate, lead, give vision, give strategy and determine the required direction for the achievement of goals and objectives (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). He continues by stating that although leadership is thought of as an individual’s activity, it entails a lot of things that one person cannot achieve singly. He argues that the increasing diversity in the workforce structure requires that a leader combines all interests and agendas of stakeholders in order to succeed. He also states that the skills, energy and knowledge of one person is too limited to enable for everyday running of an organizations activities. He states that good leadership is built on partnership between two or more people in order to succeed. He argues that although one person is the source of the process of leadership, there is need to involve all people in the process of leadership. He states that involving other people in the process helps to amass skills, gifts, experience and energy of individuals, which is essential for successful leadership (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). He also adds that partnership helps in sharing tasks and responsibilities in a work setup hence increasing flexibility and efficiency. This argument is correct and is supposed to be employed in organizations. This is because organizations need varied skills and knowledge in all aspects of the economy in order to succeed, something that one individual cannot manage to provide Creation of servant leadership and the development of servant leaders is a critical question that has attracted attention from universities and organizations worldwide.

The major concerns on this issue is how servant leadership can be taught to individuals and identification of the major opportunities and activities that encourage creation of servant leadership (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). According to Hamilton and Beggs, the mechanisms that have been employed to encourage service leadership to date include creation of circular programs like servant leadership courses in institutions, creation of cocurricular programs in institutions and institutional programs like restructuring of vision and mission statement of organizations (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). This chapter clearly outlines the major concerns regarding the development of servant leadership and gives the main strategies already applied for the development of servant leadership. These arguments are coherent with previous research outcomes on the subject ad hence convey standardized information about the subject.

Warren Bennis argues that the only was one can embrace servant leadership is to be biased towards action rather than directing and guiding. He states that such people empower others to come out of their dugouts to engage in action. He also states that good leaders must have an inborn determination to achieve their set goals. He adds that such individuals have the ability to convert their vision and goals into action (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). This chapter aptly describes the qualities of a good servant leader. It clearly highlights all the needed qualities of good leaders and gives case study examples to show how previous servant leaders handled issues. This helps the reader to understand the content of the chapter and internalize associated concepts. According to Larner, the best companies to work for in America are those found in fortune’s top 100 companies. He argues that he believes that these companies focus on maintaining a long-term quality labor force through creation of development centered practices towards customers, employees and products.

The author also gives an example of the 2001 issue of the magazine, which listed servant-led companies as the first twenty companies on the list (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). This example helps readers to understand the concepts being passed across and emphasizes the importance of servant leadership to companies. Inclusion of this example in this chapter helps to explain that incorporation of servant leadership in an organization will help to boost its public image, reputation and the sales volume. This clearly shows that incorporation of servant leadership techniques in an organization is the start of company success and growth. The organizational awakening that is happening in the market today indicates that leadership models have shifted from the traditional hero-as-leader models to servant-as-leader models. Individuals are not only driven by prestige and financial rewards but rather the desire to improve a company’s vision and general world targets. McGee Cooper and Trammell urge companies to ensure that they pay attention to the changing models and trends (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). They argue that companies need to note the reducing number of employees and the varying expectations and values of current employees. Apart from that, they argue that servant leadership puts emphasis on the need and desire to serve others rather than having material rewards, power or prestige.

McGee-Cooper and Trammell add that servant leadership is important to companies because it enables for the use of all people’s skills, knowledge and wisdom in running daily activities of organizations rather than using top management’s skills and knowledge only (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). This chapter sets a clear understanding of the major drivers of servant leadership among servant leaders and the importance of servant leadership to organizations. The comparison of the characteristics of traditional versus servant leadership helps readers understand the difference between the two leadership models. It also helps potential servant leaders to understand the needed characteristics and activities to achieving servant leadership design.

According to Showkeir servant leaders are supposed to practice persuasive power which helps to create alternatives and opportunities through which individuals can build autonomy. Organizational power consists of five aspects including choice, accountability, business literacy, competence and access to resources (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). He argues that for businesses to succeed in keeping their customers satisfied in servant leadership, they must manage four major business demands; ensure that they are profitable through creation of value, improve reliability and quality, reduce cycle time and responses and giving unique but clear responses to customer and market feedback (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). This chapter clearly highlights the required type of power to use in service-centered leadership. It also mentions the major business demands that need to be controlled in such scenarios to increase productivity and profitability.

This information is essential to readers and prepares them to know the needed type of power and elements to control in business scenarios. In conclusion, it is evident that the book has a deep and dependable explanation of what servant leadership entails. It is also evident that application of servant leadership concepts in organizations helps to improve productivity and general management of customers, employees and stakeholders. The book also emphasizes that the group approach and partnership are essential for decision making and general business activities as compared to the sole proprietorship (Spears and Lawrence, 2002).

The major roles of a leader according to the book include role modeling, path finding, empowerment and alignment. Leaders have the responsibility of leading, motivating, inspiring, giving strategy and giving vision. In general, it is evident that servant leadership is the best leadership model for the twenty first century and needs to be used by companies and organizations (Spears and Lawrence, 2002).