Leadership and Culture

The constant shifting on leadership philosophies has brought us to servant leadership. With people changing their leadership styles every couple of years we become nothing more than dust in the wind. So, is servant leadership a significant change from existing leadership styles or just a slight modification?

Participatory leadership is a style of management where decisions are made with the most feasible amount of participation from those who are affected by the decisions. Participative leadership, as servant-leadership, incorporates the leader’s ability to “include, discuss, take ideas, look for ways to help people come on board, and celebrate every success that comes along”

Good leaders carry qualities of the servant leader, the ethical leader, and the situational leader. Servant leaders place more focus on personal and professional development of the stakeholders and followers. This quality is an important element in situational and ethical leaders as well. The highest value of servant leadership has to be the culture established within the organization.

An effective situational leader adjusts to the leadership demands of the situation and then hopefully a culture of people looking out for other people will be ready to step up when they are needed and most importantly, take responsibility for their actions. “A good leader develops the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self motivated rather than dependant on others for direction and guidance” ” (Hersey, p.91).