What are the 7 traits of servant leadership?

Meet needs without being asked, of course. Express gratitude for the opportunity to serve. You will serve people best when you are committed to listening carefully to them and understanding what they say. To improve your listening skills, give people your full attention, watch their body language, avoid interrupting them before they finish speaking, and give feedback on what they say.

Self-awareness is the ability to look at yourself, think deeply about your emotions and behaviour, and consider how they affect the people around you and align with your values.

servant leaders

use persuasion - rather than their authority - to encourage people to take action. They also try to build consensus in groups, so that everyone supports decisions. According to Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that a "differentiated work culture is important for business success".

In addition, 86% of employees who describe their company as having a strong culture feel valued by senior management (via CultureIQ).

Servant leadership

is a business principle that requires a leader to be more about serving than leading. Of course, the boss will still act in a leadership role, but will prioritise the needs of their employees over their own for 100 percent of the time. Pros and cons of servant leadership.

The most important characteristic of being a servant leader, according to Greenleaf, is to make serving rather than leading the top priority. According to Ginny Boyum, Greenleaf proposed that servant leaders must serve first, make the needs of others their top priority, and find success and power in the growth of others; in short, a servant can only become a leader if a leader remains a servant. In simpler terms, servant leaders should seek to be servants first, to attend to the needs of all those around them, to ensure the growth of future leaders. These traits indicate that one is a servant leader because, in general, they make those they serve healthier and wiser, guiding others towards self-improvement.

Over time, the served are driven to also possess the traits of a servant leader, continuing the spread of the leadership style. A servant leader is a confidant. These leaders act as sounding boards for important decisions. Because servant leaders are encouraging by nature and want the best for others, people turn to them again and again.

Servant leaders have an intuitive ability to predict what is likely to happen in the future, based on the past and present. Servant leadership practices appear to have an effect on employee's lives outside of the organisations they are affiliated with. Similarly, researcher Akuchie explored the religious and spiritual articulations of the servant leadership construct. The leader who wishes to also be a servant leader must broaden his or her thinking to encompass broader conceptual thinking.

For new entrepreneurs, this may seem daunting, especially if they are more familiar with traditional leadership styles. A true servant leader addresses both failures by first modelling a vision for the organisation and then inspiring a team to share that vision. It takes work to break some of the patterns that propelled many of these executives into leadership positions, and that work has enabled these leaders to live by their values and find a greater purpose in their journey. This awareness causes the servant leader to seek to identify some means of building community among those who work in a given institution.

This is especially true in servant leadership, as creating a happy culture conducive to cooperation and unified achievement is a top priority in this regard. Numerous researchers and leadership experts have created scales and dimensions to differentiate levels of servant leadership practices, as well as to assess servant leadership behaviours. However, traditional leadership can also produce non-inclusive teams, as it does not focus on the well-being of the people in the team. Humility is a common trait in servant leaders, and shows your employees that you are "one of them".

Jason Klingler
Jason Klingler

Passionate beer expert. Professional musicaholic. Incurable communicator. Evil food specialist. Passionate food junkie. Devoted music fan.