Servant Leadership is about principles and ethics-based leadership. For an organization to achieve the desired goal of high performance and employee engagement, ethical decision making in acts of service and leadership is critical. Servant leadership is the one leadership model that has both ethical and spiritual components. The desire to serve comes from a call— spirit first.

Servant leaders are characteristically self-reliant types who show commitment to organizational goals. Once an organization becomes people building, people are first.

Consequently, right actions to achieve distinguished excellence happen quickly. A premise of organization distinguished excellence is that a culture insistent upon justice and love will provide an innovative opportunity. How to accomplish this goal is to work from within existing organizations stimulating actions that increase the capacity to serve and perform as a servant.

The ten characteristics that define servant leaders are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, conceptualization, foresight, persuasion, stewardship, commitment to growth of people, and community building. Servant leaders transcend self-interest by serving others and empower and nurture their followers to grow both professional and personally. In the process followers often become servant leaders.

The servant leader is the best leader to take the organization through change. Servant leaders do not use organizational change as a reason to build their power or make changes based on personalities, factions, and competition between rivals. The most effective leaders seek to make a difference in the lives of other people and do not seek fame, wealth or power. Ironically, when they do make a difference they receive power, wealth, and fame and use them as a means to help others.

Service is a cornerstone of the servant leadership philosophy. The service model places service to others as a top priority. Serving others includes employees, customers, stakeholders and the community. Servant leaders continuously strive to be trustworthy, self-aware, humble, caring, visionary, empowering, relational, competent, good stewards, and community builders. A transforming leader seeks out potential motives in followers to satisfy their higher needs and engage the whole person as a follower. Servant leaders have a vision for the future and communicate the desired direction of the organization regarding its mission, values, and beliefs which are then classified into attainable goals that serve as inspiration for the bigger picture.

Servant leadership emphasizes serving people first, being a skilled communicator through listening, inviting feedback, collaboration, trust, empathy, systems thinking, and the ethical use of power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement.

Servant leaders inspire others and work diligently to better society. They achieve results for organizations by giving priority to the needs of their followers and to those whom they serve. A good leader knows the way, directs followers to identify serious problems to solve and provides the risk-taking paradigm for the organization to follow. Good leaders recognize and reward success, thus, people feel like they belong to an organization that cares. Consequently, work becomes intrinsically motivating and meaningful. Leaders transform a person through organizational cultures that foster growth such as teamwork.

Teamwork is analogous to the functioning family. The family in a servant leadership organization has a leader, The Primus, meaning the one who knows the way, fosters an environment of serving others needs first and stewardship of time, talent, and treasure and of the organization. Decisions are made ethically with other family members for the common good. The members of the family are empowered to become the best they can be and mentored to do good works within the family community and the greater community. The community is an extension of the family where alliances and partnerships are made to thrive and to build a better world.

The leaders and members act ethically, are interdependent and help one another in support ofthe goals and objectives of the family organization. The ideal family is profitable, sustainable, and innovative marked by high performance, The method for success is collaboration, cooperation, sharing and inspiring each other to work in teams to reach individual and organizational goals. The ideal family is happy, joyous, as the family members have grown to transcend their self-interests and foster well-being, egalitarianism, love and compassion among one another and the entire family organization. No one has absolute power as the leadership is shared by members of the family. The family creed is to serve and lead from the heart.

Empowering people with the best interest of those served in mind, is at the heart of servant leadership. In practical terms, empowerment is giving people the responsibility and authority for decisions that affect them. Servant leaders in all segments of society hold the key to influentially guiding themselves and the people they serve from an uncertain present into a more hopeful future.

What servant leaders do is develop quality relationships, build community, seek feedback in making decisions, reach consensus and focus on personal development of employees. They also demonstrate egalitarian relationships with employees, discover ways to help, participate in community service projects and give back to the community. The servant leader’s focus is to help people achieve their goals by coaching and mentoring individuals to do their best. The leader’s role is to coach and mentor individuals so that they can excel. By serving well a leader serves the employees and they, in turn, increase their commitment and quality of work, which serves customers well. The result is customers enjoy the service, value the company, and both the reputation and profits of the company soar.

Servant leadership can be an effective style to influence a group toward achieving organizational goals if a leader possesses or adopts these attitudes. First to believe that visioning is not everything, but is the beginning of everything, that listening is hard work requiring a large investment of personal time and effort and is worth it. The job is about being a talent scout committing to the staff’s success, knowing that giving away power is good, and knowing that one is a community builder. The servant leader is the best leader to take an organization through change. We know that change is constant. Organizations that practice servant leadership are Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and The Cleveland Clinic to name a few.