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Your ever so humble public servant 

I once worked for a boss who was fond of telling people he felt privileged to be a Director of social services. Echoing that same ever so humble sentiment. Had the term been prevalent at the time he would probably have seen himself as a servant leader. He wasn’t. 

Servant Leadership sounds like a contradiction in terms. A servant is someone who does the bidding of others, a leader is some one who takes charge and tells others what to do. I don’t like what comes to mind when the word servant is used to describe a roll and relationship. It seems an old fashioned out of date word to describe an uneven relationship one in which an individual owes unquestioning obedience  to another, the servant is inferior to the master not just as an employee but as a person. But aside from the historic associations that go with the word servant how can a leader be in charge but take their,”orders” from those they are in charge of? 

 Is this really paternal leadership, doing what the leader thinks is in the best interests of those they are in charge of? Can you really share power and put the needs of employees before those of profit or the organisation? What happens when employees don’t speak with one voice?

Servant leadership is really about a style of leadership which is based on the belief that if you look after your employees they will look after the business  and if you empower your employees you will be encouraging creativity and innovation. Like wise if you value diversity of opinion, if you consult managers and employees doing the job you will make better decisions. And finally if you do all the above and have a philosophy of developing employees the organisation will benefit from low turnover rates . Being able to retain talented employees is a great advantage in a candidate market.

Of course people don’t always speak with one voice and sometime practises develop that are more for the convenience of staff than the needs of customers so the leader will make the final decision. 

Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk 

 

 

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