SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Why is a Leader’s Style of Leadership Important?

“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one person.”

Voltaire, 18th Century French philosopher and essayist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leadership Style Affects the Organization

"Leaders who are arrogant, dictatorial in their approach, emotionally volatile and who adopt a bullying style under stress often leave a trail of bruised people. By resisting input from others, ordering people around and making staff fell stupid and unintelligent, leaders set themselves and their organizations up for failure."

Karen M. Dyer"Relational Leadership"School Administrator, Nov. 2001

Williams proposed that poor leaders can cause a school’s culture to become toxic and unproductive.

Williams, B. T. (2001). Ethical leadership in schools servicing African American children and youth. Teacher Education and Special Education, 24, 38-47.

A leadership style provides a leader with a focus that directs all actions and words.

A lack of leadership style leads to uncertainty or inconsistency of behavior which is confusing to followers

History of Leadership Styles for Educational Leaders

Autocratic Bureaucratic Scientific Democratic Laissez-faire Situational Relational Collaborative Human Resources Transactional Transformational Constructivist Moral/Spiritual

Yamasaki asserted that rigid hierarchical structures could no longer provide adequate leadership in an era of information technology and continuously changing organizations.

Yamasaki, E. (1999). Understanding managerial leadership as more than an oxymoron. New Directions for Community Colleges, 105, 67-73.

Sewell declared that the traditional top down managerial style is no longer effective in the 21st century education system.

Sewell, S. C. (2003). Leadership: Do you manage or lead? The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 69, 54-55.

Although it is recognized that schools and school leaders’ leadership styles have undergone drastic change, it is difficult to predict which leadership style would best serve public school leaders. Taylor surmised that after decades of research to find the best or most effective leadership style that no style had emerged as the best in all situations.

Taylor, T. A. (2002). Examination of leadership practices of principals identified as servant leaders. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63 (05), 1661A. (UMI No. 3052221)

Jennings reviewed the literature on educational leadership, and she found that servant leadership could fill a new role in schools:

In many cases, shared leadership among leadership teams in the school help all stakeholders to be involved in the leadership of the school. Still, the principal is the designated leader of the school. His or her leadership philosophy, beliefs, and values are evident in the school climate, the students and staff who populate the school, and the perceived success of the school. The servant leadership model supports this shift in leadership ideology by focusing on the enrichment of the community and the growing of leaders from within the community.

Jennings, D. B. (2002). Those who would lead must first serve: The praxis of servant leadership by public school principals. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63 (04), 1207A. (UMI No. 3049171)

Servant Leadership is……

Servant leadership is considered some to be more of a life-style than a

leadership style

Laub took servant leadership beyond a simple definition of leadership style when he stated, “Servant leadership is more than a style of leadership. It is a different way of thinking about the purpose of leadership, the true role of a leader, and the potential of those being led.” Laub also stated, “Servant leadership is an understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader.”

Laub, J. A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the servant organizational leadership assessment (sola) instrument. Dissertation Abstracts International, 60 (02), 308A. (UMI No. 9921922)

Burkhardt and Spears stated that “While the term ‘servant-leadership’ was first coined in 1970, it is clearly a belief whose roots stretch back through thousands of years of both religious and humanistic teachings.” Servant leadership has existed since Jesus of Nazareth said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28a).

Burkhardt, J. C., & Spears, L. C. (2000). Servant leadership and philanthropic institutions. Voices of Servant Leadership Series, Booklet 4. Indianapolis: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

Covey clarified the role of a servant leader by stating that servant leaders ensure the growth of other servant leaders by stating, “You don’t just serve. You do it in a way that makes them independent of you, and capable and desirous of serving other people.”

Covey, S. R. (2002). Servant-leadership and community leadership in the twenty-first century. In L. C. Spears & M. Lawrence (Eds.), Focus on leadership: Servant leadership for the 21st century (pp. 27-33). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Wheatley found servant leadership to be a promising leadership style. She conjectured that a leader acts courageously when he or she demonstrates faith in people; and without this faith, a leader cannot be a servant. A servant leader gives people resources, a sense of direction, and a sense of power; and has tremendous faith that people will be successful. Wheatley stated high hopes for servant leadership: Servant leadership is not just an interesting idea, but something fundamental and vital for the world, and now this is the world that truly needs it….It moves from being a body of work to being a movement…how we are going to move this into the world. I think that will require more acts of courage, more clarity, more saying this has to change now. I am hoping that it will change now.

Wheatley, M. (2002). The servant leader- from hero to host. Voices of Servant Leadership Series, Booklet 7. Indianapolis: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

Page realized that the construct of servant leadership needed to be operationalized. He stated the importance of understanding practices of servant leaders, “Servant leadership begins with an attitude of serving others and then adds practices and structures to make this happen.” He also stated that “Getting people to serve others and the group’s well-being rather than selfish ambition is crucial in a servant-led organization.”

Page, D. (2004). Experiential learning for servant leadership. Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. Regent University School of Leadership Studies, Virginia Beach, VA.

"Have you ever noticed that no one comes into your office to bring you things? They come seeking something. They want your time, your energy, your permission, your wisdom or your resources. They come to you out of the need to dip their bucket in your well and to drink from your spring and that is how it should be. That is the role of leader - to serve others.”

Paul D. Houston"Refilling the Well: School Superintendents as Leaders"School Administrator, Sept. 2000

"When asked by the minister how he liked his job as superintendent, Smith responded that he enjoyed his role in spite of the many demands and pressures. The minister then told him: 'Never forget that you are a spiritual servant in your role as superintendent. You can have as much or more positive impact on the spiritual lives of others as those of us in the clergy'.”

Without a spiritual side, a leader lacks depth in understanding human motives and can destroy organizations and innocent lives.”

"Leadership without spirit promotes schools with low teacher morale, disturbing numbers of school dropouts, unethical student accountability reporting, school violence and alarming failure rates.”

John R. Hoyle"The Highest Form of Leadership: How We Can Help Tomorrow's Leaders Catch the Spirit"School Administrator, Sept. 2002

"Service brings us joy…In service, we discover profound happiness."

Margaret J. Wheatley"Spirituality in Turbulent Times: Leadership Dilemmas Can Only Be Answered Through Spiritual and

Philosophical Traditions"School Administrator, Sept. 2002

"What are your values? To be a leader you must know who you are and what you stand for. Great school leaders have a moral compass based on honesty, fairness and respect for others that gives them the moral authority to succeed. If you believe in the value of every child and your actions support that belief, you will have the courage to deal with opportunities you'd just as soon not come your way."

Benjamin O. Canada"What Kind of Leader Are You?"School Administrator, Sept. 2000

"If the leader always asks, 'What is best for the students?' - he or she is leading by serving the students before considering personal needs and desires.“

"Servant leaders are primarily motivated by a desire to serve and to 'see life as a mission, not as a career.' The have a passion for their work, seeing it as a kind of calling. They understand and accept that they have a responsibility to others, and they see their gifts and endeavors as contributing to a larger whole, much greater than themselves.“

Ramona M. Wis"The Conductor as Servant-Leader"Music Educators Journal, Nov. 2002

"Leading is giving. It is serving. Leadership is an ethic - a gift to oneself to a common cause, a higher calling…it is offering one's spirit. When their gifts are genuine and the spirit is right, their giving transforms a school or school district from a mere place of work to a shared way of life."

Frederick J. Stokley"What it Means To Be a Spiritual Leader"School Administrator, Sept. 2002

"Great leaders are those who can respond from the higher levels of spirit. They understand that their followers yearn for freedom, love and spiritual worth. Therefore they respond with creativity, vision and a sense of unity…Great leaders are in touch with every level of human experience."

Deepak Chopra"The Soul of Leadership"School Administrator, September 2002

"Many pathways point to effective leadership. But some qualities are consistent across effective leaders…focus…passion…wisdom…courage…integrity.“

"The most important responsibility of school leaders is not to answer every question fully or make every decision correctly. They, of course, need to track budgets, comply with mandates and keep the buses running. But as leaders they serve a deeper, more powerful and more durable role when they are models and catalysts for such values as excellence, caring, justice and faith."

Lee G. Bolman and Terrance E. Deal"Leading with Soul and Spirit"School Administrator, Feb. 2002

"Concepts of servant leadership is not likely to be valued in male-dominated institutions or professions…In our culture 'serving others' is for loser, it is low-level stuff. Yet serving others is a basic principle around which women's lives are organized; it is far from such for men." (Hampel quoting Miller)

"Servant leadership is practiced by serving others, but its ultimate purpose is to place oneself, and others for whom one has responsibility, in the service of ideals.“

Thomas J. SergiovanniMoral LeadershipJossey-Bass, San Francisco (1992)

"I am equally inspired by people I know who work in the church at great personal sacrifice - missionaries who face health problems, humble educators who labor for years without accolade or tangible reward, teachers who patiently do what needs to be done for as long as it takes without their efforts even being noticed by most. Their servanthood leads the way. Their example motivates and encourages others."

Carolyn Sims"Sergiovanni, Synodical Schools, and Servant Leadership"Lutheran Education, Winter 2002

History of Servant Leadership Theory

Robert K. Greenleaf (The Father of Modern Servant Leadership) Greenleaf is widely recognized as the one who coined the term, servant leadership.

Greenleaf spent 40 years at AT&T as a manager of research, development and education. Upon retirement, Greenleaf spent the next 25 years in a pursuit of creating a better, more caring society. Greenleaf remarked that he had great concern for leadership in America, “the outlook for better leadership in our leadership-poor society is not encouraging.” Greenleaf founded the Center for Applied Ethics in 1964 which was renamed the Robert K. Greenleaf Center in 1985 (www.greenleaf.org)

Greenleaf stated in his 1970 ground-breaking essay for servant leadership entitled, The Servant as Leader, “The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” Blanchard (1999) agreed with Greenleaf that servant leaders are first servants before they become leaders when he stated, “Strong natural servants…will assume leadership only if they see it as a way in which they can serve.”

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.Blanchard, K. (1999). The heart of a leader. Colorado Springs, CO: Honor Books.

History of Servant Leadership Theory

Larry C. SpearsSpears became CEO of the Greenleaf Center shortly before Greenleaf’s death on September 29, 1990. Spears defined servant leadership as a leadership style based upon teamwork, sense of community, participative decision-making, strong ethical and caring behavior, and concern for growth of people.

Spears, L. C. (1996). Reflections on Robert K. Greenleaf and servant leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 17, 33-35.

Ten Characteristics of Servant LeadershipSpears (1996)

1. Listening – Servant leaders’ communication skills are enhanced through a deep commitment to listening intently to the followers. Servant leaders seek to identify and clarify the will of the group. Receptive listening and reflection are essential to the growth of a servant leader.

2. Empathy – Servant leaders strive to understand and empathize with others. They accept and recognize followers for their unique spirits; and they assume others have good intentions, even if they disagree with behavior or performance.

3. Healing – Servant leaders are adept at healing others as well as themselves. They help make others whole by facilitating the healing of broken spirits. Servant leaders share with followers the search for wholeness.

4. Awareness – Servant leaders exhibit a general awareness of what is happening in the organization. They possess a keen sense of self-awareness and an understanding of issues involving ethics and values. Servant leaders are often described as disturbers and awakeners.

5. Persuasion – Servant leaders employ persuasion rather than position authority when making decisions within the organization. They prefer to convince rather than coerce followers. Servant leaders are very effective with building consensus within the group.

6. Conceptualization – Servant leaders do not deal only with short-term goals and thinking. They are able to stretch their thinking to encompass broader-based conceptual thinking. Servant leaders can nurture the abilities of others to “dream great dreams” and to think beyond day-to-day realities.

7. Foresight – Servant leaders are capable of understanding lessons from the past, seeing the realities of the present, and predicting likely consequences of decisions. They are adept at intuitive thinking.

8. Stewardship – Servant leaders are dedicated to holding their institutions in trust for the greater good of society. They are committed to serving the needs of others.

9. Commitment to the Growth of People – Servant leaders believe in the intrinsic value of people beyond their tangible contributions as workers. They feel responsible for nurturing the personal, professional and spiritual growth of employees.

10. Building Community – Servant leaders are dedicated to rebuilding the sense of community that has been lost with the shift to large institutions.

Other researchers have followed Greenleaf and Spears in supporting servant leadership as a viable style of leadership. Burkhardt and Spears stated: Public interest in the philosophy and practice of servant leadership is now higher than ever before. Many books and articles on servant-leadership have appeared in the 1990s, and dozens of organizations have begun to incorporate servant-leadership internally. Servant leadership has slowly-but-surely gained thousands of practitioners over the past thirty years.

Burkhardt, J. C., & Spears, L. C. (2000). Servant leadership and philanthropic institutions. Voices of Servant Leadership Series, Booklet 4. Indianapolis: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

Seven Virtuous Constructs of Servant LeadershipPatterson (2003)

Patterson, K. A. (2003). Servant leadership: A theoretical model. Servant Leadership Roundtable. Regent University School

of Leadership Studies, Virginia Beach, VA.

1. Agapao Love – Love is the cornerstone of the servant leader-follower relationship. Servant leaders see followers as whole persons with different gifts and talents. They are able to focus on followers first, then on their talents and how those talents benefit the organization.

2. Humility – Servant leaders are able to keep their accomplishments and talents in perspective. They focus on others rather than themselves. Servant leaders have an authentic desire to help others, and they search for ways to serve others through staying in touch with their followers.

3. Altruism – Servant leaders help others just for the sake of helping. They have an unselfish concern for others which often involves personal sacrifice. Servant leaders’ behaviors are directed toward the benefit of others even when those behaviors are against their own personal interests.

4. Vision – Servant leaders have a vision for their individual followers. They help others to see the big picture by enabling them to develop a clear sense of purpose and direction. Servant leaders develop within others the mission to serve and encourage followers to become more than they thought possible.

5. Trust – Servant leaders develop trust through demonstrating integrity and concern for others. They create open environments where everyone has a voice and they work collaboratively.

6. Empowerment – Servant leaders empower others with the best interest of those being served in mind. They teach and develop people as leaders through shared decision-making and shared responsibility. Servant leaders make it a priority to grow new servant leaders.

7. Service – Servant leaders choose the interests of others over self-interests. They see leadership as a calling - a life mission. Servant leaders accept the responsibility for serving others; and they are committed to an authentic, personal involvement with followers through the giving or their time, energy, care, and compassion.

Page and Wong’s Servant Leadership Traits

Page and Wong created the earliest servant leadership survey, the Self-Assessment of Servant Leadership Profile (SASLP). Through a study of the literature, they first generated a list of 200 descriptors of servant leadership. By eliminating redundant descriptors and combining items, they were able to reduce the descriptors to 100 items. They then classified the descriptors into 12 categories: Integrity, Humility, Servanthood, Caring for Others, Empowering Others, Developing Others, Visioning, Goal-Setting, Leading, Modeling, Team-Building, and Shared Decision-Making.

Page, D., & Wong, T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. In S. Adjibolosoo (Ed.), The human factor in shaping the course of history and development (pp. 1-28). Oxford: University Press of America.

Page and Wong performed a factor analysis on their original SASLP and created the SLPR. The SLPR consists of 62 items employing a Likert scale of (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree. These 62 items are grouped into 7 factors.

Page, D., & Wong, T.P. (2003). Servant leadership: An opponent-process model and the revised servant leadership profile. Servant Leadership Roundtable. Regent University School of Leadership Studies, Virginia Beach, VA.

Page and Wong’s 7 Servant Leadership Traits

1. Empowering and Developing Others

2. Vulnerability/Humility

3. Serving Others

4. Open, Participatory Leadership

5. Visionary Leadership

6. Courageous Leadership (Integrity/Authenticity)

7. Inspiring Leadership

Spears’ 10 Characteristics of Servant Leaders (1996)

Patterson’s 7 Virtuous Constructs of Servant Leadership (2003)

Page & Wong’s 7 Factors of Servant Leadership (2003)

•Commitment to Growth of People

•Empowering and Developing Others

•Empathy•Humility •Vulnerability/Humility

•Healing•Stewardship

•Agapao Love•Service

•Serving Others

•Listening•Building Community

•Open, Participatory Leadership

•Conceptualization•Foresight

•Vision •Visionary Leadership

•Awareness•Altruism •Courageous Leadership

(Integrity/Authenticity)

•Persuasion•Trust •Inspiring Leadership

Why Servant Leadership?

Teachers are servant leaders themselves, and they prefer to follow other servant leaders.

According to Greenleaf, servant leaders want to be led by servant leaders. He stated, “Those who choose to follow this principle (servant leadership) will not casually accept the authority of existing institutions. Rather, they will freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants”

How thoroughly has

servant leadership

been studied?

Studies of Servant Leadership in Business, Government, Religion and Higher Education

Qualities of Servant Leaders P. Walker (1997)

Crowder Community College: flattened organizational structure, whole person approach toward students, ethical leadership, trust and servant leadership by example.

Foster (2000) Barriers to Servant Leadership in Business (180

barriers / 28 categories): self-serving personal agendas, limited communication, lack of empowerment, etc.

Contee-Borders (2002) Freedom Motors’ 12 Themes: Frequent

communication, building trusting relationships, being connected to people, etc.

Bryant (2003) Managers in Government: 80% of government

officials interviewed believed they possess the servant leadership qualities of vision, trust, empowerment, and service.

Studies of Servant Leadership in Business, Government, Religion and Higher Education

Job Satisfaction and Servant Leadership Laub (1999)

828 people from 41 organizations: The more strongly respondents perceive that servant leadership exists in their organization, the higher is their job satisfaction level.

Thompson (2002) 170 church-related college personnel: significant positive correlation between employees’ perceptions of organizational servant leadership characteristics and their level of job satisfaction.

Drury (2004) 225 employees mid-west non-traditional college: strong positive correlation between servant leadership and satisfaction.

Studies of Servant Leadership in Pk-12 Public Education

Qualities Taylor-Gillham (1998)

Interviewed twelve well-known Servant Leaders in education and described educational servant leadership qualities using Spears’ 10 s.l. characteristics

Wheaton (1999) Interviewed staff members from each of six school districts in

Washington State: compared perceptions of effective qualities with servant leadership qualities - Found little correlation with effectiveness and servant leadership

Lubin (2001) phone interviews with eighteen selected visionary school

leaders: found behaviors described were congruent with 9 of 10 servant leader characteristics

Jennings (2002) Narrative stories of the five practicing school principals

and compared results to Greenleaf’s taxonomy of servant leadership – wrote very little on specific actions principals take to operationalize their servant leader

beliefs L. Walker (2003)

Interviewed Illinois public school superintendents recognized as Superintendent of the Year between 1991 and 2003: identified 15 characteristics similar to s.l.: calling, love, listening, empathy, etc.

Studies of Servant Leadership in Pk-12 Public Education

Academic Success Herbst (2003)

Relationship between the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and the degree of servant leadership exhibited at 24 high schools in Florida. He found that schools with greater practices of servant leadership achieve at a higher rate than schools with lower degrees of servant leadership practice. Strong positive correlations were found between levels of servant leadership in school and the areas of 9th grade math achievement, 10th grade math achievement, annual gains in reading, annual gains in math, gains in lowest quartile, and achievement scores for African American students.

Lambert (2004) FCAT scores and servant leadership surveys from seven middle schools and

one high school in Florida to measure relationships between the constructs of servant leadership and student achievement. Lambert found a significant relationship between servant leadership and student achievement on the 2004 FCAT Sum Score. She also found a strong relationship between servant leadership and positive school climate.

Studies of Servant Leadership in Pk-12 Public Education

Job Satisfaction Girard (2000)

Found a positive correlation between a superintendent’s self-perception of servant leadership and job satisfaction and a strong positive correlation between the principals’ perceptions of the superintendents’ servant leadership and their own job satisfaction.

Miears (2004) Collected data from teachers of 15 different Texas high

schools in the Region X Educational Service Center area which demonstrated a strong relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction.

Servant Leadership: An Examination of Public School Principals’ Perceptions of Servant Leadership as a Successful

Leadership Style

Research Design

This mixed-method study utilized the sequential, explanatory design to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data to examine servant leadership and public school principals by first analyzing quantitative data and then following up with gathering qualitative data in a second distinct phase.

Procedures

Participants in the StudyTwo groups of Texas public school principals were contacted to participate in the study.

The first group consisted of 113 principals who were selected as their region service center’s nominee for 2004-05 and 2005-06 Principal of the Year by the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA) and the Texas Association for Secondary School Principals (TASSP).

The second group consisted of 113 principals who were not nominated for Principal of the Year. To improve validity, these principals were matched with principals from the first group using the following criteria: from a school in the same Texas Education Agency (TEA) Education Service Center Region, similar campus size and grade level configuration, and similar community size.

The quantitative portion of the study collected data in an attempt to answer the following questions:

1. Are public school principals who are publicly recognized as successful school principals more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders than principals not publicly recognized for their success?

2. Do self-perceptions of servant leadership differ among public school principals in regard to their gender, ethnicity, and school level?

3. What specific servant leadership actions do public school principals employ to promote success in their schools?

4. How do public school principals develop their own servant leadership traits?

Results

Quantitative Results Surveys

Two-hundred twenty-six surveys were sent out. After several attempts, 12 of the nominees for Principal of the Year (POY) could not be located, thus dropping the number of Principal of the Year nominees from 113 to 101. The addition of the 101 matched principals brought the number of possible participants to 202. Of the 202 participants eligible to participate, 142 responded generating a 70.3 % response rate.

Quantitative Results

Principals selected as POY are not more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders as those principals not selected

Female principals are more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders than male principals

Elementary principals are more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders than secondary principals

Female principals at the elementary level are more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders than female principals at secondary levels

African American principals are more likely to perceive themselves as servant leaders than Anglo or Hispanic principals

Humility and service to others were the two servant leader traits rated lowest by all principals’ self perceptions

The qualitative portion of this study was a phenomenological study utilizing a narrative inquiry to examine the importance of servant leadership actions to the success of public school principals.

Qualitative Data Collection

Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured personal interviews with selected principals. Questions for the interviews were created using Page and Wong’s (2003) Seven Factors of Servant Leadership. Twenty-two probing questions for the seven factors were developed for use during the interviews.

Twelve public school principals were asked to participate in the semi-structured personal interview process. The elementary and secondary principal with the highest self-perception of servant leadership, as recorded by SLPR, from each of six pre-determined regions in Texas were selected for personal interviews. The six regions in Texas were comprised of the following geographical areas: North Texas (ESC Regions 9-11), South Texas (ESC Regions 1-2, and 20), East Texas (ESC Regions 6-8), West Texas (ESC Regions 14-19), Central Texas (ESC Regions 12-13) and South East Texas (ESC Regions 3-5).

The personal interviews were conducted in the twelve principals’ schools across the State of Texas during November and December 2006. The principal interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim onto a data processing document. The responses were then coded and analyzed for servant leadership qualities and actions.

How do principals utilize servant leadership?

7 Servant Leadership Traits 1. Empowering and Developing Others2. Vulnerability/Humility3. Serving Others4. Open, Participatory Leadership5. Visionary Leadership6. Courageous Leadership (Integrity/Authenticity)7. Inspiring Leadership

A study of the qualitative data yielded 25 general actions and 60 specific actions that principals take to act upon their servant leadership beliefs.

Empowering and Developing Others

Servant leader principals get to know their people on a personal level so they can match their abilities and interests to delegated tasks.

Servant leader principals use a team approach to delegating tasks by assigning responsibilities to all staff members and holding them accountable.

Servant leader principals approach shared decision-making through the formal establishment of teams and committees. through utilizing participative decision-making processes and activities

which allow others to initiate ideas. Servant leader principals build trust with their people so they will not

fear or shy away from participating in shared decision-making activities. Servant leader principals encourage shared decision-making through

promoting collaboration among all school community members.

Servant leader principals cultivate strong, positive relationships by getting to know people on a personal level. by appreciating and acknowledging people’s efforts. by personally modeling effective relationship-building behavior and verbalizing

expectations for others to do the same. through becoming personally involved with people and maintaining visibility and

accessibility. through facilitating social meetings and celebrations.

Servant leader principals contribute to the growth of people through promoting staff development opportunities for the campus staff. by listening to campus-wide needs and acting as a resource. on an individual level by getting to know staff members’ individual needs and acting as

a resource. by promoting professional dialogue among all staff to improve student learning. through the modeling of successful leadership qualities. by identifying potential servant leaders and focusing on building their leadership skills. through being aware of their emotional needs and providing opportunities for them

heal.

Vulnerability and Humility

Servant leader principals demonstrate vulnerability through willingness to compromise and not relying on

autocratic power. through admitting their own mistakes and allowing others to

make and learn from their mistakes. Servant leader principals demonstrate humility

through freely expressing their development of humility through a relationship with God and/or family.

through expressing self-awareness and sense of purpose. through praising others’ accomplishments. through expression of team membership as opposed to

personal accomplishments. through humble “self-talk” and through the absence of

boastful and self-promoting language.

Serving Others

Servant leader principals support stewardship of the community through a desire and sense of responsibility to open the school to

the community. by being active and present within the community. through expressing the philosophy of service to the community

through serving its children. Servant leader principals focus on the best interests of others

through promoting what is best for students as a bottom line. through the dedication of providing a valuable service to others.

Servant leader principals demonstrate selflessness and self-sacrifice

through extra personal time spent on the job even to the point of losing time with family.

by expressing a need for and striving to achieve a balance between their professional life and personal life.

Open, Participatory Leadership

Servant leader principals support good communication through employing conventional listening techniques such as eye-contact

and checking for understanding. through consciously and deliberately slowing down to listen. through promoting activities involving collaborative communication among

school stakeholders. Servant leader principals promote kindness, trust, honesty, and

openness through consistently modeling those behaviors in and out of professional

settings. through establishing high expectations and holding others accountable to

model those traits. Servant leader principals demonstrate genuine care for others

through a willingness to be present with others throughout the school setting.

through exhibiting a personal interest in people.

Inspiring Leadership

Servant leader principals promote others’ buy-in of vision and common goals

through collaborative vision, mission, and goal-setting activities. through repeated articulation of the vision, mission, and goals to all

stakeholders. through ensuring that focused dialogue activities occur among the school

community members. Servant leader principals get the best from others

through expressing high expectations. through recognizing their successes. through employing strategies to stimulate their desire to do their best.

Servant leader principals promote team spirit through total inclusion of all staff in activities. through celebrations and recognitions. through demonstrating consistency and fairness when dealing with school

community members. through articulating the importance of team philosophy.

Visionary Leadership

Servant leader principals demonstrate awareness of the big picture of education through articulating and modeling their desire for continuous learning.

Servant leader principals know what needs to be improved through listening to all school community members. by examining data.

Servant leader principals articulate a clear direction and purpose for the organization

through sharing their personal vision and mission with others. through constantly dialoging with stakeholders the direction and

purpose of the school. Servant leader principals develop a personal vision and mission

which focus on helping others. through the inspiration from God and/or family.

Courageous Leadership: Integrity and Authenticity

Servant leader principals honor promises and commitments

through the development of a strong internal drive to do so. through caution and an awareness of consequences

regarding promises to others that are not kept. Servant leader principals develop moral courage

through guidance from God and/or family. Servant leader principals depend on moral courage to

direct their sense of right and wrong, fairness, and consistency when making tough decisions.

Questions to Ask Ourselves

Teachers: How can I best serve my kids?

Principals: How can I best serve the servant leaders who serve my kids?

Support: How can I best serve the servant leaders who serve the servant leaders who serve my kids?

Next Study

Create surveys to gather data to answer the following questions:

What do public school teachers and staff think of servant leadership?

Which servant leader traits/actions do they believe to be most important?

How can principals utilize this information to improve their servant leadership?