Emerging Leadership Theories

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Introduction

Leadership is a process whereby a person influences other persons in order to accomplish given objectives and give directions to an organization in a manner that is appealing and coherent with all. Leadership has a specific driving force that is aimed at achieving a common goal at the end of all undertakings of an organization.

In achieving a common goal, leaders make use of process leadership which is applicable to their knowledge and skills, and trait leadership, which influences actions that we take in life. Moreover, leadership has several theories that tend to elaborate much on what leadership entails. The main theories include servant, authentic, ethical and felt leadership theories, among others (Northouse, 2007).

Servant leadership and its characteristics

Servant leadership is a leadership style that puts emphasis on service provision by a leader. In addition, servant leadership is culminated from the desire to serve rather than to lead. In practicing servant leadership, a leader considers the need to serve in the first place, then the aspiration to lead follows. Servant leadership takes care of making sure that the needs of the people are the first and highest priority to any other priority.

Characteristics of servant leadership include listening to others. In order for a servant leader to help his people in identifying and clarifying their will, it is important that he/she listens to them receptively. Another characteristic of a servant leadership is exercising empathy whereby a servant leader strives to get to know people and empathize with them.

The next characteristic is awareness, thus, the leader should be aware of his/her general environment with special concern to self-awareness. Servant leadership also takes into account commitment to growth of others. Lastly, servant leadership emphasizes the concern of building a community and stewardship (Greenleaf, 2008).

Greenleaf’s perspective on servant leadership

According to Greenleaf, practicing servant leadership is applicable to two fronts, one of them is a natural feeling to serve others as a first priority, and then the conscious choice that brings the aspiration to lead. Moreover, he explains that the principal tenet of a leader in the servant leadership is to serve his followers.

In all this duty of serving others, the leader’s key role is to develop and support team members in achieving their potential to deliver their best. In addition, he considers servant leaders as humble stewards in developing their organization’s capabilities and resources (Greenleaf, 1977).

Authentic, ethical, and felt leadership theories

The other forms of leadership theories are authentic, ethical and felt leadership. Authentic leadership is a leadership style with a clear expression in which leaders strive to be true to themselves and are motivated by a larger purpose and ego. On the other hand, ethical leadership involves leading others with respect to their rights and dignities.

Ethical leadership revolves around leaders showing good character and having the right values. Felt leadership is a type of leadership that takes first interest in establishing the safety of people since it plays an integral part in the existence of an organization. In felt leadership, employees are aware of the effects that self-accountability has on their physical well-being (Nayab, 2010).

Intersection amongst these leadership theories

The main point where all these leadership theories intersect is that all the leadership styles have a genuine desire to serve others. The leaders tend to have pleasure in people’s empowerment and put organizational values in the first place. In addition, in all the leadership styles, leaders tend to lead from personal conviction at the expense of reward or status. Lastly, these leadership theories share the same similarity in that they pay much attention to developing people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses (Nayab, 2010).

Differences in perspective amongst the leadership theories

While all the leadership theories share most of the similarities, they are different in their approaches and styles of leadership. In a servant leadership, the leader tries to be right and serve to lead others. It is a form of normative style of leadership where the leaders are supposed to follow a set of laid characteristics.

On the other hand, authentic leaders strive to be real through influences of character rather than emulating set of characteristics. In ethical leadership, leaders tend to be people-oriented and employ the use of social power in serving the greater good of the people. Lastly, felt leadership focuses on establishing a safety culture, which is a core value before any other action is being taken (Northouse, 2007).

Inferences from the relationships amongst these leadership styles

The inferences that one can deduce from the relationships among these leadership styles are that in all the leadership styles the leaders have a genuine desire to help people. This is possible through serving, strengthening, and empowering people. Another inference is that all the leadership styles do not compromise on principles but are rather guided by values and qualities of compassion.

One attribute of servant leadership and its application

One attribute of servant leadership is conceptualization. This is the leader’s ability to think beyond day-to-day realities. An example of an organization where this attribute is applicable is a marketing organization. Its application is in terms of acquiring a good market niche; the organization needs to be at per with all daily occurrences. The impact of conceptualization on the marketing organization is that it enables the organization to have a wider scope of what the market requires (Greenleaf, 2008).

Servant leadership and theories of philosophy

Religions consider religious leaders to be people whose duties are to serve members of their religion. This fact is attributable to the context in the Bible where Jesus urges people to be messengers of the greater religion. In line with this, Jesus meant that his followers should be servants to the people that they lead.

On the other hand, philosophers view servant leadership as a value based on principle centered leadership. In addition, they view that a leader who has influence on values, manages by these values and visions and thus enhances economic performance through servant leadership. These approaches were vital in historical time when leaders faced scrutiny on their morals and values (Greenleaf, 2008).

Benefits and the limitations of existing theories of leadership

The benefits that are attributable to these leadership theories include improved performance and better decision making since there is a diversity of opinions. Other benefit is a customers’ satisfaction due to increased creativity in thoughts. There is an increased effectiveness as leaders shun old ways and self-confidence amongst the employees, as they feel engaged and feel free to share opinions.

On the other hand, limitation of these leadership styles is that leaders are humans hence cannot be given unrealistic expectations. Another limitation is the notion that leaders can do everything, thus making it a challenge on leaders to deliver to the expectations (Northouse, 2007).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is worth noting that leadership theories are best applicable to management since they give a leeway of how to give the best output. In order for one to be a good leader, there are certain things he/she must know about people and organization that they are to lead. Good leaders engage themselves in continuous work and study in order to improve their skills.

References

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.

Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). Center for Servant Leadership: What is Servant Leadership?. Web.

Nayab, N. (2010). Servant Leadership vs. Authentic Leadership: What are the Differences?Brighthub. Web.

Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice. New Delhe, London: Sage Publications, Inc.

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