Servant Leadership & Management Styles

Table of Content

Introduction3

Servant Leadership and Board Management5

Stewardship6

Conceptualization6

Listening6

Foresight7

The Test of Servant-Leadership7

Servant Leadership and Non Profit Boards7

Robert Greenleaf's Theory of Servant Leadership8

Relevance of the Study10

Literature Review15

Power Over Versus Power With15

Myth of Power over: Power and Interdependence within Organizations15

Theories Congruent To Servant Leadership31

Transformational Leadership31

Background31

Concept Components32

Criticisms of Servant Leadership33

Servant Leadership as a Soft Approach34

Servant Leadership and Goal Conflict34

References36

Servant Leadership & Management Styles

Introduction

Two authors in their book, Transforming Public and Non-Profit Organization, assert that non-profit agencies, including boards of directors, have historically focused on leader centered management which is based on the assumption that change emanates from the CEO, Executive Director or Chairman of the Board (Kee and Newcomer, 2008). Although, there are strengths in leader center leadership, including improved productivity and efficient decision making, the philosophy also creates greater distance between the central leader and his or her followers. Those organizations or board of directors that follow a leader centered approach also face the danger that the leader may have an unclear vision for the agency. It is not always the Executive Director or Board Chair who has the “pulse” of the organization, “it is often mid level managers and frontline employees who a full understanding of the organization, its clients, and why a change effort may be necessary”

It also appears that non-profit leaders are reactive rather than proactive these same leaders are driven from a glass is always empty perspective. Our own board chairman admitted that is very easy to become caught up in what is not possible rather than what is possible. He asserted that, that is easy to become focused on the lack of resources, the overwhelming complexities of poverty, the economic challenges, and operational barriers inherent in a non-profit organization rather than the opportunities or possibilities.

In my fifteen years of non-profit experience, I cannot remember a time that is more fraught with challenges, yet, at the same time, there are remarkable opportunities within communities which are thirsting for community change. Christiano Sosa, the grants officer representing the Denver Foundation, recently said to me during a site visit, “non-profit organizations which are led by visionary and opportunistic staff and boards of directors are receiving the largest grants in the community and generating the most impressive outcomes with clients.”

The authors of Stories of Transformative Leadership in the Human Services, Why the Glass is Always Full writes, “the most difficult task is reframing how we live and work in our lives and to see the glass as always full. It is to believe we are worth the struggle it will take each and every day to remain op to interpreting the world as rich in possibility and promise” (Burghart &Tolliver,2011). The authors ask leaders of human service agencies, including board members, staff, and volunteer to shift their perspective from pessimism which drains one's capacity for service to optimism which inspires followers to take action.

The following analysis is a result of the experiences in the non-profit sector in Colorado. These remarkable changes were witnessed by non-profit organizations which ...