Essay: Servant leadership in organisations

300 movie is directed by Zack Snyder in 2006, and it talks about a state of war exists in 480 B.C. between Persia, led by King Xerxes, and Greece. At the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas (Gerard Butler), king of the Greek city, state of Sparta, leads his badly outnumbered warriors against the massive Persian army. I chose this movie because it clearly shows the importance of leadership and how it can lead to success if practiced well, as the leader Leonidas, who leads 300 Spartans into battle against the Persian helps to pursue success and triumph. In the movie, I found that leadership is having a set of skills and methods in order to succeed, and that what the leader Leonidas did in order to succeed, but  I would like to clearly focus on servant leadership aspect. let’s start with the climax or the highest point that led to a change – I noticed the King Leonidas standing alone in the front of the Spartans who have created a dome out of spears at the Hot Gates. On the other side, we see King Xerxes sitting on the high throne with thousands of Persian army in front of him. A team feels secured when a leader is with them and among them, supporting and motivating them. The sight here, the Spartan King leading and being with the army shows a sense of humbleness, a sense of servant leadership in spite of the fact the Spartan army was losing the war. For a perfect leader, the team will give their best – as we saw Stelios – a young, spirited and highly skilled Spartan soldier saying “It’s an honor to die at your (King Leonidas) side” and King Leonidas responding back “It’s an honor to have lived at yours” at the final scene.
At the beginning, I would like to talk briefly on the importance of leadership aspect in the organizations. Leadership is specifically identified as a key element of service firm success due to the importance of cooperation, learning, and customer relations in this environment (Douglas & Fredendall, 2004; Gupta, et al., 2005; Moreno, Morales, & Montes, 2005; Politis, 2003). Leadership is a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to “lead” or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Gupta et al (2005) state that the more competitive nature of the service industry requires more time and effort to be committed to leadership activities. To maintain a competitive results, an organization must be able to adapt and change in order to improve processes―and it was proposed that the growth in service firms and the demonstrated relationships between employee fulfillment and motivation, customer satisfaction and corporate performance.
Servant leadership is a philosophy and a set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and creates a more caring environment. Servant leadership maintains goal of the leader is to serve, and it’s mainly worked as “how to put your people before yourself”. According to Laub (1999) and Parolini (2005), organizations that can create a healthy, servant-minded culture will maximize the skills of both their workforce and leadership, servant leaders are influential in a non-traditional manner that allows more freedom for followers to exercise their own abilities (Russell & Stone, 2002), consistent with the qualities in the employee fulfillment and satisfaction.
There is difference from traditional leadership where the leader’s main focus is the thriving of their company or organizations, and a servant leader shares power, puts the needs of the employees first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Compared to other leadership styles where the ultimate goal is the well-being of the organization, a servant- leader is genuinely concerned with serving followers (Greenleaf, 1977), as is also indicated by Stone, Russell, and Patterson (2004). This person-oriented attitude makes way for safe and strong relationships within the organization and the employees. Furthermore, as Greenleaf (1998) puts it this way, servants that are chosen to be leaders are greatly supported by their employees because they have committed themselves and are reliable. In this way an atmosphere is created that encourages followers to become the very best they can
Servant leadership converted the norms, which puts the customer service associates as a main priority. Instead of the people working to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people. Moreover, the servant leader has many attributes which works toward building a learning organization where individuals are encouraged to grow and be of unique value. There is yet to be strong agreement in defining or providing a framework for servant leadership. There are various key characteristics have been identified to provide a strong indication of how a servant leader should function. Servant leadership is demonstrated through empowerment and the development of people; by expressing humility, authenticity, interpersonal acceptance, supporting and  providing direction. As Leadership begins from within a character of what kind of people we are (Bender, 1997. In servant-leadership, there is a fundamental commitment to serving others with integrity and humility. It is placed at the core of the circles according to the servant leadership model because everything else a leader does flows from this inner reality which is,  followers demand it and leaders must live it and go for it.
On the other hand, there are other characteristics of a poor servant leadership; for example, servant leadership is most interesting if it means that managers should literally serve, or be a servant to, their subordinates, and this position is considered as the group’s servant.  Moreover, The truth is that while managers fire employees who aren’t performing, no servant can fire his master. It is not the manager’s job to serve the needs of employees anyway. Employees should be encouraged to think of themselves as self-employed suppliers of services. Instead of waiting for managers to tell them what to do or look after them, employees should strive to keep abreast of their boss’s changing needs, just as they would if they really were independent contractors and their boss were their customers. Finally, another problem with servant leadership is that it may make employees less motivated, and they then produce poorer results over time. Servant leaders are inclined to step in and fix problems when they occur, and this may include finishing a task that an employee failed to complete because they will totally depend on the servant leader.
Now, as a student, let’s look at the servant leadership from different lenses. it’s very important to know how servant leadership is being applied in the educational fields and its effectiveness and relationship between the students and instructors. Greenleaf states that it is his hope that the disadvantaged, following education in service leadership, will “return to their roots and become leaders of the disadvantaged”. He further discusses the in our children is a responsibility that not only benefits our schools, but our communities as a whole. Greenleaf’s research on servant leadership encourages us to focus on the needs of these type of leadership rather than attempting to motivate them to produce greater results. Servant teaching is about putting a comfortable method of teaching aside and learning from the students which teaching methodologies work best for them. J. Martin Hays found that “students with servant teachers were more empowered, confident, and invested.” Richard Bowman described the teacher as servant leader: Servant leadership as an idea or theme has a lineage as old as the scriptures. Yet, the principles that ground servant leadership as a universal ethics: humility, honesty, trust, empathy, healing, community, and service. On the other hand, servant leadership in the classroom speaks to the human to be known, to care, and to be cared for in pursuit of the common good. At its core, servant leadership involves creating and sustaining faculty-student relationships around a shared sense of purpose and accountability for a better education. Among the ten characteristics of servant leadership developed by Greenleaf continue to be the foundation for scholars investigating its utility and effectiveness in the classroom. Modern researchers have demonstrated that servant-leadership principles positively influence the learning environment. The practice of servant leadership in a learning community creates a supportive, respectful, and demanding environment, which is conducive to cultivating learners with a growth mindset.
In conclusion, Servant leadership is the opposite of power leadership, in which leaders use authority for personal ends and to manipulate others. Servant leadership gives a sense of ownership to work. It enables those being led to share responsibility and feel a sense of ownership for their work which in turn increases dedication and a sense of pride in one’s own work. Productivity should increase and the benefits of this approach will then be felt by all of the members of the group. Trust and respect between the workers and the leader should also increase as a result of this approach to leadership. Servant leadership allows for a diversity of approaches to leadership which cause flexibility in responding to different or changing circumstances, so servant leadership encourages stronger bonds within a group as a sense of fulfilment increases.