In our last blog post, we saw that servant leadership is an outward-focused leadership style and explained seven key aspects of servant leadership. Today, we will look at some pros and cons of servant leadership. First, let’s look at the benefits.
Servant leadership works best when employees understand the tasks being asked of them, feel comfortable making decisions, and are capable of moving things forward.
Servant leadership can help followers to be more engaged and in turn, more productive and creative at work. It’s been shown to reduce turnover by giving followers a voice with their leader. Because servant leaders encourage and model serving, their followers are more likely to engage in acts of service, such as going the extra mile to help each other.
Servant leadership has some drawbacks, despite being an impactful and empowering leadership style.
First, a servant leadership style does not work well in situations where tasks are unclear and nebulous or in critical situations where decisions must be made authoritatively and quickly. Servant leaders give their team members significant empowerment to make decisions and determine how work gets done. However, if team members do not have enough information or confidence to take charge and move forward, then the results of servant leadership may be disappointing.
As a whole, servant leadership is a unique leadership style that is focused on growing and helping others. Under the right circumstances, it can be incredibly beneficial to organizations and teams
Chew on This:
Where do you want to see yourself employing a servant leadership style?