Transformational Leadership vs Servant Leadership: Which one is More Relevant? Leadership is undeniably a major factor in organizational success. There are various leadership styles discussed by experts and practitioners.
Transformational leadership and servant leadership are two popular leadership styles, at least in recent times. There are two main things that both styles focus on: individual development and achieving organizational goals. However, both have their own characteristics.
Transformational Leadership vs Servant Leadership: Which one is More Relevant?
Acting Beyond Ability
Transformational leadership occurs when a leader’s behaviour influences followers and inspires them to act beyond their perceived capabilities. Transformational leadership inspires people to achieve unexpected or extraordinary results. Transformational leaders know how to encourage, inspire and motivate employees to work in ways that create meaningful change. The result is employees who are engaged and empowered to innovate and help shape the future success of the organization.
There are four main elements of transformational leadership, namely individualized consideration, inspiring motivation, idealized influence, and intellectual stimulation. Individualized consideration means that the leader cares about the aspirations, development, and needs of his or her followers on an individual basis. Through inspirational motivation, a transformational leader is able to create a compelling vision, and then share it with employees to ignite their passion. Idealized influence means a leader serves as a role model. While through intellectual stimulus, leaders question prevailing assumptions, take risks, and solicit input and ideas from team members. They are not afraid to fail, and instead foster a safe environment for discussion, creativity, and voicing multiple perspectives.
Through transformative leadership, organizations are better prepared for challenges, performance improves, and employee potential develops. While ideal, this style is not suitable for all situations. As the name implies, this style is suitable if the company does require significant and continuous change. If, on the other hand, the company does not really need change (for example, because it is in the middle of a stable environment), this style is not suitable. If forced, employees will get tired and experience stress.
Prioritizing the Needs of Others
What about servant leadership? A servant leader always gives attention to the needs of others, especially team members, before he or she considers their own needs. A servant leader recognizes the perspectives of others, gives them the support needed to fulfil their work and personal goals, involves them in decisions as appropriate, and builds a sense of community within the team.
According to Larry C. Spears, former president of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, there are 10 fundamental characteristics that characterize a servant leader:listening, empathizing, healing, persuasion, awareness, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth, and building community.
By putting team interests before personal interests, servant leaders are able to create job satisfaction, build mutual trust, minimize conflict, and create a healthy work culture. While this may sound ideal, over-involving team members can slow down decision-making (when in an urgent situation, decisions need to be made quickly). Also, being too centered on meeting the needs of team members can make leaders less concerned with strategic goals.
Neither is Suitable
So, which approach is relevant? Keep in mind that no single leadership style is suitable for every situation. In other words, there is no best leadership style, but there is also no worst leadership style. The same principle applies to transformational and servant leadership.
A transformative leadership style is appropriate when the organization needs transformation. Transformation is not just change. Transformation is an essential change in the organization. What is changed is strategic, i.e. the structure, culture, and grand strategy of the organization. This kind of change has a broad, long-term impact, and in its implementation requires a lot of resources.
Meanwhile, servant leadership is suitable for organizations that focus on the welfare of members. This might includes non-profit organizations. However, this does not mean that companies cannot implement it.
In fact, many visionary leaders do not hesitate to put the interests of their team or members ahead of individual interests. A concrete example is the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. She showed her empathy immediately after the Christchurch mosque shooting in 2019. She showed servant leadership towards the victims. She went directly to the field, providing encouragement and comfort. Her actions have been praised.
When New Zealand was hit by Covid-19, Ardern was able to communicate well with her people. She was also quick and decisive in making decisions and was able to unite the community in facing the crisis. Beyond the crisis, she also has a clear vision on many issues, such as sustainability and climate change.
What does this mean? A leader can be a transformative servant.
Transformational Leadership vs Servant Leadership: Which one is More Relevant?
Category: Leadership
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