Characteristics of servant leadership The servant leadership theory consists often key characteristics. These characteristics are; listening intently, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. (Miller, Skirting, Dallas & Stevens, 201 2) Why servant leadership? My concept of leadership is someone who is able to influence their followers through inspiration, empower them to realize their undiscovered true potential, and bring meaning to their life.
In addition, I believe that a leader needs to be able to listen to their follower’s need in order to put the will of the group above their own will n the group. I strongly uphold the need for empathy in my leadership concept, because I believe that a leader must be able to put themselves in their follower’s shoes and perceive things through the eyes of their followers in order to gain understanding from deferent perspectives and to empower the followers to bring out their passion and thus bring forward their fullest potential in making a meaningful work.
As mentioned by a successful leader – Fred A. Mansard, ” The ultimate leader Is one who Is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her In knowledge and ability. Therefore, I find Servant Leadership as the most suitable framework for my leadership plan. Ill. Diagnosis of Strength and Weaknesses strengths and weaknesses I am using the information from two personality tests; Carl Junk’s and Isabel Briggs Emery’s Typology Test and a standardized emotional intelligent (E’) test.
Self Assessments Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Emery’s Typology Test Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Emery’s Typology Test is a psychometric assessment designed to measure the preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions based on their psychological preference. The aim of this test is to help people to have a better understanding of themselves, by understanding their strengths, weaknesses, possible career preferences and their preferred approach when interacting with others. This test puts one into four letter categories, where each letter stands for a specific personality type. Briggs, Myers, 1998) After undertaking this typology test, I was classified under INFO (Introvert, intuitive, Feeling, Judging) typology. The figure below shows my results of the Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs-Myers’ Typology Test: Introvert (56%) Moderate preference over Extroversion intuitive (12%) light preference over Sensing Feeling (50%) Moderate preference over Thinking Judging (11%) Slight preference over Perceiving Firstly, introversion displays a characteristic that is reserved and highly private.
This goes in line with my personal characteristic as I look within for meaning and understanding. Secondly, intuition indicates an emphasis on abstract ideas and focusing on the meaning of the bigger picture rather than solid details. Feeling focuses mainly on personal concerns and emotional perception rather than the logical and objective facts. Judging describes about the need to have control by landing, organizing and making decisions as soon as possible because of Infers’ deep attention on the future.
INFO type is described as having the strengths of being determined and passionate, altruistic, decisive, insightful, creative, inspiring and convincing. Dry. Dramatists stated that INFO leadership style is quiet and influencing. INFO leaders often lead by inspiring and motivating people with their ideals, working hard to gain the cooperation of others rather than demanding it. In a business context, INFO leaders also tend to genuinely care about the people and how happy they are with their Job. Dramatists, 2009).
This describes the traits considered as strengths of the INFO type: that of being warm, altruistic and passionate. The main motive for every work done is not focused centrally on gaining personal benefit but for the greater good of the broader society; to find value and purpose for with people and how it links to humanity. (Heists, Butt, 1996) These are the strengths I believe I possess in myself and these characteristics go in line with the framework of servant leadership as explained previously.
However, the very strong need to have a cause for every work done can serve as a weakness for INFO. This is because it can become difficult to maintain the drive and energy to complete works when I am not able to derive any deeper purpose or relate the objective of the work to a worthy goal. The complexity INFO is further seen with the tendency to be idealistic. When objectives are not in line with a meaningful goal, INFO will incline to grow restless and denominated overtime. This will affect the effort and end result.
The result may deviate from the targeted aim which becomes a conflict with the need for perfection. These weaknesses are worsen with the reserved nature of INFO which may trigger unexpressed internal conflicts. Emotional Intelligent Test (E’) Emotional Intelligent test, on the other hand is a psychological test which allow an individual to identify their social skills that facilitate their interpersonal behavior. It identifies one’s capacity for goal-oriented adaptive behavior. It focuses on the aspects of intelligence that govern self-knowledge and social adaptation.
Below are the results that I have attained from this self-assessment: Strengths Potential Strength Weaknesses – doing well in the area of emotional understanding – chose good forms of resolution for others conflict situations on the test empathetic – socially insightful – driven towards self-development – healthy approach in resolving conflict situations – doing reasonably well in the area of emotional identification, perception, and expression – act in accordance with your values – lacking in self-motivation – not very assertive – need to strengthen self-esteem These strengths indicate that I possess some of the traits that are needed to display the characteristics of a good servant-leader. ‘V.
Industry-specific Issues Looking into the Hospitality industry, specifically Airlines, I will use Singapore Airlines s a basis of my evaluation. The extent of superior service is paramount for it to establish itself. In order to deliver the standard of service the company has set for itself, it requires highly passionate and motivated employees. One of the elements that contribute to the success of Singapore Airlines is its human resource that highly regards contribution of creative ideas in which rewards are later given. (Sings, 1984) To be passionate, to inspire and to encourage innovation are strengths found in Infers that match with the traits of Servant Leaders who encourages and motivates the lowers to making a meaningful and effective work efforts.
V. Person-specific Issues Gender, age and culture are important aspects to be considered in shaping one’s leadership development. Being someone coming from Asia, the idea of women becoming a leader will face cultural constraints. In the context of organization, becoming a female leader will be more challenging than the male counterpart because there is a strong notion whereby men are born to lead and women to follow or serve and men hold the leadership positions. (Carry, Eagle, 1999). This is still present in the traditional Asian culture. Even to the eyes of the followers, the figure that is seen to be capable of leading goes to male gender.
The masculinity possessed becomes a symbol of strength and competency. (Scheme, 2001) Instructions led by female leaders are more likely to be followed because of the idea of obedience to authority rather than being influenced through inspiration. The gender-bias corporate culture becomes a huge obstacle in making use of servant-leadership framework as a female. This gender bias is still evident in many office settings of Japanese corporations whereby higher ranking positions are given mostly to male; ND in fact Japan seeing a near zero resemblance between women and managers. (Scheme, Mueller, 1992) Besides that, age also becomes an issue in determining the level of experience of a professional.
Younger age typically indicates limited exposure to the various real-life experiences and this may affect the extent of wisdom in making Judgments. The weaknesses based on the self-assessments are used to develop my leadership goals and the Michigan Leadership Competency Model serves as a tool to categorize the goals set and the timeshare for the plan. Time Frame Self-Developmental Goals Self-Management Conceptualization Servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams; not Just consumed by achieving operational goals. To develop characteristic and thinking process encompass broader-based conceptual thinking require discipline and practice.
Leading Others Influencing/Persuasion Servant leaders seek to persuade and convince others through inspiration rather than coerce compliance. This requires a level of confidence, personal drive and energy to be emulated to the followers. As represented in one of my weaknesses from the self-assessment, I lack in self-motivation, self-esteem and assertiveness. These characteristics need to be developed in order to gain enough personal power to lead and guide others. Innovation Creativity Creativity is one of the key characteristics of servant leaders. Also, the hospitality industry takes great importance in areas of innovation to stay competitive and relevant. This is a characteristic that continually needs to be fostered and developed.
Social Responsibility Ethically Social Servant Leadership highlights the importance of leading for the greater good for a deeper moral purpose. This emphasizes the need for moral awareness and ethical conducts when leading. This can be done by participating more in charitable or environmental causes which aim in improving social welfare of the broader society. Such participation allow exposure and knowledge-gaining. Evaluation by Multi-step Action Plan 1 year Completing Bachelor of Business Degree 3 years Employment in Airline as Flight Attendant to gain exposure to new experiences, industry (Innovation & Social Responsibility) 2 years Further study on Master of Hospitality Management to broaden conceptual thinking process.
This also help to gain self-esteem and improve on the ability to influence (Conceptualization & Influencing) Working in Management VI’. Industry Leader Input Previously I focused my goals only on the trait developments. This was difficult measure because characteristics can only be proven once Eve been put on the position to be a leader in a group. There was no tangible achievement to evaluate the success of my goal planning. Therefore, through his suggestion, I modified my goal timeshare by adding a multi-step action plan that cover the length of time to achieve each target. For example, the employment in an Airline industry will help me garner new experiences, perspective and practice discipline in work ethics.
Feedback on my work performance from supervisors can serve as a form of evaluation. Also, the attainment of higher qualification will allow me to gain broader and deeper knowledge on the industry through research. The exposure and experience may help me to develop a stronger leadership characteristic and further evaluation can be done through taking re-test for El. Workaround: 1 ,509 words (Excluding References, Pedicels, Headings & Tables) VIII. Appendices 1. Michigan Leadership Competency Model Leadership Assessment Report Scores range from 1 to 6, with 1 indicating that you rated yourself low on that impotency and 6 indicating that you rated yourself high.
Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses Ten Leadership Weaknesses: 2 Challenging the Status Quo 2 Personal Resiliency 2 Self Control 2 Stress Tolerance 2 Suspending Judgment 2 Time Management 2 Work/Life Balance 3 Adaptability 3 Developing External Contacts Ten Leadership Strengths: 5 Sensitivity to Situations 5 Servant Leadership 5 Service Orientation 5 Setting Goals for Others 5 Social Perceptiveness 5 Task-Relevant Knowledge 5 Valuing Diversity 5 Visioning 5 Work Ethic 5 Work-Place Ethics 2. Jung Typology INFO Functional Analysis: Introverted intuition Introverted intuitive, Infers enjoy a greater clarity of perception of inner, unconscious processes than all but their INTO cousins.
Just as SP types commune with the object and “live in the here and now” of the physical world, Infers readily grasp the hidden psychological stimuli behind the more observable dynamics of behavior and affect. Their amazing ability to deduce the inner workings of the mind, will and emotions of others gives Infers their reputation as prophets and seers. Unlike the confining, routings nature of introverted sensing, introverted intuition frees this type to act insightfully and spontaneously as unique solutions arise on an event by event basis. Extroverted Feeling Extroverted feeling, the auxiliary deciding function, expresses a range of emotion and opinions of, for and about people.
Infers, like many other FIG types, find themselves caught between the desire to express their wealth of feelings and moral conclusions about the actions and attitudes of others, and the awareness of the consequences of unbridled candor. Some vent the attending emotions in private, to trusted allies. Such confidants are chosen with care, for Infers are well aware of the treachery that an reside in the hearts of mortals. This particular combination of introverted intuition and extroverted feeling provides Infers with the raw material from which perceptive counselors are shaped. Introverted Thinking The Info’s thinking is introverted, turned toward the subject.
Perhaps it is when the Info’s thinking function is operative that he is most aloof. A comrade might surmise that such detachment signals a disillusionment, that she has also been found lacking by the sardonic eye of this one who plumbs the depths of the human spirit. Experience suggests that such distancing is merely an indication that the seer is hard t work and focusing energy into this less efficient tertiary function. Extroverted Sensing Infers are twice blessed with clarity of vision, both internal and external. Just as they possess inner vision which is drawn to the forms of the unconscious, they also have external sensing perception which readily takes hold of worldly objects.
