Did you know Servant Leadership is a defined theory of Leadership? Do you think that is a main style of leadership for you? In the article “Servant Leadership: A Philosophical Foundation for Professionalism in Physical Therapy, Meryl Roth Gersh commented that Greenleaf proposed “people bestow leadership on those people identified as servants first, those who have made a conscious choice to place others’ needs as their highest priority” (2006, p. 13). Roth Gersh also commented that Servant Leadership traits include caring, hard work, dedication, warmth, openness, and a positive attitude (2006, p. 14).
In defining Servant Leadership, Greenleaf noted qualities such as listening deeply to understand, keeping an open mind, dealing well with ambiguity and complexity, sharing challenges and asking for input, sharing clear goals and giving direction, serving, helping and teaching first, choosing words carefully, using insight and intuition and having a sense of the whole (Barr and Dowding, 2019, p. 76).
Barr, J., & Dowding, L. (2019). Leadership in health care (4th ed.). SAGE Publishing
Roth Gersh, M. (2006). Servant-Leadership: A Philosopical foundation for professionalism in physical therapy. Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 20(2), 12-16