Critique of Leadership as by Russel & Stone
Among the many leadership categories or styles, the Servant leadership is becoming a popular and effective style, with applications in majority of the organizational process. This leadership style and importantly its various attributes or features is the focus of the article, by Robert F. Russell and A. Gregory Stone titled, A review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. In this article, the authors by analysing the servant leadership literature with the intent to develop a preliminary theoretical framework list out attributes or traits, which will be exhibited by servant leader. According to Russel and Stone, Servant leadership takes place when leaders assume the position of servant in their relationships with fellow workers. Self-interest will be kept aside, focusing mainly on the needs of others. So, this paper focusing on the opinions of Russell and Stone regarding some of the Servant leadership features, will examine and test them using the opinions of other writers on leadership
Communication
Effective and constant communication between the leader and the employees will only help the employees to work as a team and help them in coordinating and concluding the given work successfully. So, optimal communication initiated by the leader is a key attribute or feature of servant leadership. As stated by Shockley-Zalabak (2008) strategic organizational communication is a communication processes during which the leader and the employees come up with “organizational messages”, which are mainly guided by organizational objectives. So, only if this communication is carried out by the leader, then there will be organisational success. According to Russel and Stone, it is the servant leader who should initiate the communication process and because of that he/she can elicit more and strong feedbacks from the employees (actually employees will not be confident to initiate the communication process first). This aspect will surely lead to good relationship between the leader and the employees, and this was validated by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. “Good two-way communication can help to build the psychological contract, in which employees feel valued by their employer, and the employer values (and is seen to value) employees’ contributions” (cipd). This was further accepted by Nyland and Heenan (2005), who stated that Leaders by implementing various strategies can establish a streamlined, interactive, responsive and restriction free communication system inside an organization.
Honesty and integrity
Another important feature servant leadership is the exhibition of honesty and integrity by the leader. That is, the leader without exhibiting any biases, immorality, etc should function in an ethical manner and take apt decisions, thereby validating to the employees that his/her honesty and integrity cannot be questioned. Russel and Stone, using the point of Clawson (1999, pp. 46-9) maintains that the moral foundation of effective leadership is the key, with leader needing to show integrity honesty during challenging and potentially self-damaging circumstances. Collins (2007) diversifies this perspective of Russel and Stone by stating that leaders can be honest and sincere while dealing with lazy, self-seeking, troublemaking employees. In those cases, servant leader should show decisiveness and remove them from the organization. These types of employees could be obstacles in the growth, and if the leaders weeds out these individuals, the organization could be on the success path.” They got the right people on the bus, moved the wrong people off, ushered the right people to the right seats – and then they figured out where to drive it” (Collins 2007). Successful leaders will always recognize the fact that excess freedom would be a bane to the organization, so discipline with sincerity should be implemented thoroughly. “Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate non performing individuals in important jobs” (Drucker). Thus, both these authors, although discuss leader’s honesty in line with Russel and Stone, they take different perspectives of how the leader can exhibit his/her honesty and sincerity.
Modeling
A good leadership trait, that, should be exhibited by servant leaders in the initial stages is, they should live and work as an example or model for others to follow. Russel and Stone using Covey’s (1990) words points out how modelling is the foundation for leader influence and how leaders act as a optimal, positive and motivating ‘model’ through personal example and dedicated execution. This need to being an example for the employees was validated by Kotler (1996), who stated that Leadership will mainly be exhibited as an example because behaviour from important people like leader in consistent with the vision, overwhelms other forms of communication. This trait is one of the important for the leader to imbue, because it will motivate the workers to give cent percent and make the organization’s functioning effective. Fullan brings out another perspective of this feature of servant leadership by stating that setting personal examples can allow the leader to point out the faults in his/her workers and correct them. “Leading in a culture of change means creating a culture: (not just a structure) of change” (Fullan, 2001). So, a good leader or good servant leader will always be around to set a good example and teach the subordinates the right way to do things. This role of leader has been pointed out in the very early times with Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese military general and philosopher pointing this. “A leader leads by example not by Force.” (Tzu)
Pioneering
An effective lfeature of Servant leadership is to take the role of the pioneer, and try new approaches and also encourage new approaches from their subordinates. According to Russel and Stone, Servant leaders must be pioneers and as stated by Ulrich (1996) pioneers are the ones who will take risks, create new paths, shape new approaches to old problems, and have strong values and beliefs that drive their actions. Marzano et. al (2001) provides a different perspective to the pioneering role of the leader by stating that leader should learn new approaches and technologies by travelling to various conventions and other trade fairs, where new technological innovations were displayed. It gave them new perspectives about the industry, fair idea about the market, organization’s competitors, how the market’s and product’s future will be, etc. Based on this study, the leader will be able to implement pioneering approaches in the work facility. Thus, as stated by Bass & Avolio (1994) the leader is expected to challenge followers with high achievements; talk positive about the future and value the task at present. Followers should show strong will, not being reluctant but ready to act through motivation. (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Thus, the author provides new perspective, or provides an extension of what Russell and Stone regarding the pioneering role of the Servant leaders.
Appreciation of others
Even though, giving financial rewards will raise the motivational level, it is not the only motivating factor. Appreciation or praising can motivate the employees equal to the financial rewards and in a way retains the employees. This feature is clearly visible in Servant leaders as pointed by Russel and Stone. According to them, they will visibly appreciate, value, encourage, and care for their constituents and importantly cherish the joy of seeing others succeed (Baggett, 1997, p. 31). Russel and Stone further discuss this role of the Servant leaders by using Kouzes and Posner (1993) to state that the leaders will inspire hope and courage in others by living out their convictions, facilitating positive images, and by giving love and encouragement. This role of appreciation and how it can be make the employees motivated same way or even more than the financial rewards was stated by Budd. “Praising staff had the same motivational kick as a 1 per cent pay rise.” (Budd, 2008). In any organization, the leader or manager needs to give appreciation for the staffs, if they complete the given work successfully. Appreciatory words will do a world of good for these staffs’ confidence and it will surely motivate them to ‘elevate’ their functioning further and sticking them to the organization.
Listening
Apart from communicating and directing the employees, the Servant leader will also be a good listener. Russel and Stone point out this key feature by stating that “listening is a critical way leaders demonstrate respect and appreciation of others”. Other thinkers like Miller (1995) expand this feature by stating that not only the leader listen to feedbacks, but should also listen to the critical views from the employees. One of the most difficult aspects, a leader could face in managing an organization, but which will be an important aspect if practiced, is to stay open to criticism and even encourage it. Because, when one is occupied with managing a big organization with lot of decisions, goals, pressures, workers etc, etc, the leader as sometimes tend to overlook the mistakes or blunders they have committed, leading to quite big problems. In that case, as Nanus (1989) states they should be open and listen to critical views from the subordinates, then only the organization can correct itself for their better future. So, leaders for their part without any complex should keep their mind open and should listen to constructive views from the subordinates.
Encouragement
Failure will be part of every one’s life and the employees will be no exception to it. So, one of the most important traits of servant leadership is that, leaders will support the staff during failures and positively encourage them. Russel and Stone brings out this perspective of leadership by stating that servant leaders believe in and encourage the people they lead. This view was validated by Pollard (1996) who stated that the positive leadership trait is to support the employees, when they failed in some important assignment, by giving him/her encouragement and confidence, and importantly giving him/her the second chance to correct this mistake. If this step was carried out , the employee could come out triumphs and importantly will not commit such mistakes in the future. This way the employees will have an unquestionable acceptance of the leader by followers, followers’ trust in the leader’s beliefs, affection for the leader, willing obedience to the leader (Conger and Kanungo, 1987).
Empowerment
Effective leaders will always involve the workers to play an active part in all the important processes, including the decision making process, thereby empowering them. Empowerment is a key part of Servant leadership and this was discussed by Russel and Stone, who stated “empowerment involves the process of entrusting others – it is to invest with power or to authorize”. This empowerment can be maximally made during the decision making process. Decisions are made to achieve a specific outcome, and in the case of a business organisation, such an outcome is intended to be in line with the purpose and business of the organisation (Sitkin). Carlzon (1989) supporting Russel and Stone brings the empowerment perspective by stating that sheer number of decisions made with the aid of the employees will empower them, thereby conveying these decisions throughout the company. In opposite to Russel and Stone’s views, Shiller (1990) state that empowerment processes may not turn out well, either because the factors that were considered when the decisions were made were wrong or have changed, or including overt interference of the leader. That is, even while allowing them to contribute their inputs to the process, the leaders should not meddle. “The best executive is the one who has… self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” (Roosevelt).
Teaching
When the organisation does not perform up to expected levels, and in other cases wanted to expand and diversify its operations, the leaders need to learn new levels of management as well as teach the employees new organisational processes. This key trait of Servant leadership was pointed out by Russel and Stone, who states that part of the leader’s role in maintaining a learning organization is serving as a teacher. This perspective of learning organisation was validated by Senge (1990, p.3) who stated, “Organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire…and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” Pedler as part of this reason only adopted the term “company” rather than “organisation”, which they consider impersonal. According to him, the word company embraces ideas surrounding collective approaches to life “in company” with others to explore how best to work together. (Kelleher 2002). According to Pedler (1991, p.1), A learning organisation is an organisation in which leader facilitates the learning or teaching of all of its members and continuously transforms itself in order to meet its strategic goals.
Delegation
Effective Servant leader is one who is able to delegate all the work aptly to the employees, making them participate and optimally increase the productivity. Russel and Stone point out this trait by stating that delegating responsibility will nurture participatory leadership from the employees. This delegation part of the leadership was further validated by other thinkers. Delegation of work by the leader is a significant aspect if we look at the work regimes within the present day organizations and management hierarchies. (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). This was further supported by Fineman & Gabriel (1996), who state that sound delegation will ensure better productivity from the employees as they will work with clear goals.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is clear that Russell and Stone’s views on Servant Leadership has been validated by some authors, experts and thinkers, while others had different views. A competent servant leader can actualize an apt working environment for the employees, according to the needs to the situation. A leader consciously or unconsciously adapts servant leadership according to the processes or situations
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