Introduction
Servant leadership is one of the popular leadership theories that can be applied in different organizations to increase their effectiveness, improve the general performance of employees, and enhance the relationships between leaders and their followers. This paper studies servant leadership, explicitly comparing and contrasting its traits with the major traits of a leader as outlined in the Good-to-Great book series. Additionally, the paper discusses the implementation of servant leadership within a police organization, describing the required cultural changes, analyzing benefits and pitfalls, and outlining a brief plan of implementing the change necessary to apply the ideas of servant leadership in a police organization. The final section of the paper incorporates a Christian worldview to understand how it correlates with the principles of servant leadership. Overall, the servant leadership paradigm is similar in many respects to the major traits of a leader, following the corresponding concepts while viewing leadership from a unique new perspective.
Overview of the Leadership Concept
Leadership is a complex phenomenon with no precise definition, making it a situational, dependent, and ever-changing concept. Antonakis et al. (2018) state that due to “the complex nature of leadership, a specific and widely accepted definition of leadership does not exist and might never be found” (p. 5). There is a high chance that these words explain why there are many different leadership theories that prove to be effective in particular contexts. However, leadership is not just a concept overviewing how people in authority treat their followers and lead them to success: it is a much more complex phenomenon explaining the history of the entire human civilization. Bass believes that the studies of the world’s history always aim to understand leaders’ thinking ways: what they did to achieve their goals, how they did it, and why they ruled their followers the way they did (as cited in Antonakis et al., 2018, p. 3). In other words, although leadership itself is difficult to define, a general definition of a leader is easier to find – leaders are people who shape the world, determining its development.
Comparison and Contrast of Major Leader’s Traits and Servant Leadership
This research paper aims to specifically compare and contrast the major traits of a leader with those of servant leadership, first describing the principles that make a successful leader as per the “Good to great” book series. The first major trait of a successful leader, as outlined in the books, is referred to as “level 5 leadership” (Collins, 2011, p. 12). This concept suggests that a humble, quiet, reserved, and self-effacing leader can achieve greater results and lead their company to greatness more effectively compared to high-profile leaders with flashy and publicity-seeking personalities. An interesting point in this concept is that researchers who wrote the books did not expect such findings, making them another proof that the study of leadership is a complicated process that may not always lead to definitive conclusions. Nevertheless, the level 5 leadership trait does not correlate with any characteristic of a servant leader.
The following principle described is associated with getting the right people to achieve results before setting a particular vision for an organization and establishing a corresponding strategy. According to Collins (2011), great leaders first got “the right people in the right seats – and then they figured out how to drive it” (p. 13). That principle illustrates the value that great leaders see in their followers, prioritizing people as the determining factor of any organization’s success. This concept correlates with many characteristics of a servant leader, including listening, empathy, conceptualization, stewardship, and commitment to the growth of people (Boone, 2018). Servant leaders set goals that nobody is capable of achieving alone, which is why they put much effort into the thorough selection of followers, building trustful and open relationships with them and helping them develop personally and professionally to contribute to common goals.
The next good-to-great concept is the so-called Stockdale Paradox, implying that a leader must face brutal facts but never lose faith. Collins (2011) claims that leaders “must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties” (p. 13). A leader should confront even the worst reality with discipline, seeking a path to overcome all the challenges. That principle is inherent to servant leadership, as well, especially in terms of the concepts of healing and awareness (Boone, 2018). The former implies that followers might deal with emotional damage, having a broken spirit, and challenges they may face during their professional activity can make it even more difficult to deal with those issues. One of servant leaders’ priorities is to help their followers through difficulties: leaders must teach people never to surrender and share their confidence with followers. The principle of awareness, in turn, implies that servant leaders should be aware of the environmental conditions, whatever they are, and understand various issues, observing them from a holistic perspective. These principles help servant leaders to embrace the Stockdale Paradox.
The Hedgehog concept is the next major trait of a leader. According to it, a leader must transcend the so-called “curse of competence” (Collins, 2011, p. 13). It means that one is not always the best in the world in their core business, even if they have been doing it for years or even decades, and being not the best in one’s core business does not allow them to form a great company’s basis. This principle relates more to understanding the way the world works rather than to specific actions a leader must take to be successful, and the concept does not correlate with any characteristics of a servant leader.
Another major leader’s trait is a culture of discipline, and it is a complex concept since many organizations have both culture and discipline, but few of them have a culture of discipline. Collins (2011) states that having disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action in a company allows its leader to achieve its goals without setting a specific hierarchy and bureaucracy and utilizing excessive controls. A great company’s performance is achieved through the combination of a culture of discipline and entrepreneurship ethics. This concept is close to the principles of persuasion and stewardship inherent in servant leadership (Boone, 2018). They suggest that servant leaders build effective consensus with their followers and emphasize openness and trust instead of utilizing control to make the followers do what they want them to do. Overall, the correlation between these traits can be explained by the fact that establishing a solid culture of discipline can help servant leaders reach their goals in accordance with the principles that guide them.
The following major leader’s trait refers to technology accelerators, meaning that effective leaders apply a different way of thinking when considering the role of technologies in their business. Successful leaders select and utilize technologies carefully, but they never use them as the primary method to ignite transformation within the organization (Collins, 2011). Although this concept does not correlate with servant leadership directly, it is still applicable since servant leaders’ traits suggest that they utilize a specific set of principles, none of which makes them prioritize technology. All the traits of servant leadership described by Boone (2018) imply that the leaders focus on their followers, specifically on their growth and satisfaction. Therefore, technology is not the root of the organization’s success, which correlates with both servant leadership and the major traits of a leader.
Finally, the last major trait of a leader refers to the so-called flywheel and the doom loop, meaning that leaders who engage in organizational revolutions, launch significant change programs, and wrench restructurings cannot succeed in forming a great company. Grand programs and miracle moments can transfer an organization to another level horizontally, but they cannot change it vertically. Collins (2011) claims that the path to greatness is associated with “relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond” (p. 14). Evidently, servant leadership utilizes the same strategy, emphasizing the importance of careful and thorough efforts aimed at building a great organization through its enhancement, not transformation.
Bringing Servant Leadership to a Police Organization
The second part of this paper refers to bringing the notion of servant leadership to a police organization. The major principles of leadership discussed in the previous sections are supposed to establish the culture of greatness in any organization, including the police force. There is a significant challenge in the path: it is challenging for law enforcement to sustain “the types of changes that can make a police or sheriff’s department great” (Wexler et al., 2007). However, the application of servant leadership may change the situation. Servant leadership can help release officers’ potential and manage their aspirations, and it has the potential to enhance law enforcement’s engagement with significant societal changes (Martin et al., 2018; Russel et al., 2018). In other words, bringing the notion of servant leadership to a police organization can launch the process of its slow restructuring through servant values applied to officers’ mindsets as soon as they enter the force.
Cultural Changes Required to Bring Servant Leadership to Police
A successful adaptation of servant leadership within a police organization will require a cultural change in terms of providing services to the community, although the primary police mission – to protect citizens – will stay the same. According to Meese and Ortmeier (2009), the conditions and requirements of the modern world force police organizations to utilize community policing methods instead of traditional ones. Therefore, the force will have to seek ways to improve the relationships between police agencies and communities. That goal completely correlates with the principles of servant leadership, and cultural changes are required to implement it in a police organization successfully.
Benefits and Pitfalls of Servant Leadership
Servant leadership in law enforcement has both benefits and pitfalls. On the one hand, the paradigm of servant leadership “could be a bridge to rebuilding the police/community relationship” (Bowman, 2021, p. 8). As discussed previously, rebuilding that relationship is the primary goal of law enforcement nowadays, favoring servant leadership as the most appropriate leadership form for a police organization. On the other hand, current conditions require the force to incorporate and utilize more technology, which is not the focus of servant leadership (Meese & Ortmeier, 2009). There is a high chance that the implementation of servant leadership within a police organization will only be successful if a hybrid of two or more different leadership forms is applied. Otherwise, the police force might confront many challenges while trying to follow its mission, rebuild the relationship between the police and community, and simultaneously incorporate a new leadership form.
Implementation Plan for Bringing Servant Leadership to Policing
The changes required to successfully implement the servant leadership philosophy in policing correlate with its main principles. Firstly, a leader must build solid and trustful relationships with police officers, applying the principles of listening, empathy, and others. A police organization cannot perform its mission effectively when an appropriate leader-follower relationship is not established within the force. Achieving that would require a servant leader to turn the relationship based on command and control into one based on openness and understanding. Secondly, the leader must utilize that relationship to incorporate new values and vision, creating a shared identity and unifying the members of the police organization to follow their common mission together. Once it is achieved, the performance of the force will significantly increase. Finally, a servant leader should conceptualize their vision to establish the way the police organization should further develop while protecting citizens and building improved relationships with communities. These steps may appear simple, but they actually imply a significant amount of work required to achieve the necessary changes and the successful implementation of servant leadership in a police organization.
Servant Leadership as per the Christian Worldview
The final part of this research paper incorporates a Christian worldview, discussing the servant leadership paradigm from the Biblical point of view. The primary correlation between the Holy Bible and the servant leadership philosophy is associated with love since researchers define servant leadership as love in action (Tran et al., 2020). The sacred text of Christianity, in turn, emphasizes the importance of love and illustrates its power, outlining the main principles related to it, such as protection, trust, service, patience, and selflessness (The Holy Bible: King James Version, 2004, Cor. 1-13). As it can be traced throughout the contents of this research paper, these principles are close to the philosophy of servant leadership since it is built on the same concepts. Interpersonal relationships and human-to-human exchange represent the basis of servant leadership and are highly important for the Christian worldview at the same time.
Conclusion
Overall, it appears that many of the major traits of a leader are similar to the primary principles described by the philosophy of servant leadership, which means that this paradigm accurately follows the overall concepts of leadership, adapting them to the situational needs of a particular leader and providing a new unique perspective simultaneously. Nevertheless, when applied properly, servant leadership can be highly effective in various organizations. The case of a police organization represents a perfect example: servant leadership is appropriate for law enforcement and possesses many benefits for officers. It can also contribute to the current goal of law enforcement to rebuild itself and establish solid relationships between police and the community.
References
Antonakis, J., Cianciolo, A. T., & Sternberg, R. J. (2018). Leadership: Past, present, and future. In J. Antonakis & D. V. Day (Eds.), The nature of leadership (pp. 3–26). SAGE.
Boone, L. W. (2018). Servant leadership: Attitudes, skills, and behaviours. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Bowman, A. D. (2021). Servant leadership: Propositions for improving police/community relationships. International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science, 2(10), 8-20.
Collins, J. (2011). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t. HarperCollins.
Martin, H. C., Rogers, C., Samuel, A. J., & Rowling, M. (2017). Serving from the top: Police leadership for the twenty-first century. International Journal of Emergency Services, 6(3), 209-219. Web.
Meese, E., & Ortmeier, P. J. (2009). Leadership, ethics, and policing: Challenges for the 21st century. Prentice Hall.
Russell, E. J., Broomé, R., & Russell, J. (2018). Servant leadership and the wellbeing of police officers: A case study. Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice, 5(2), 5.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2004). Hendrickson Publishers.
Tran, D. Q., Song, J., Spears, L. C., & Ferch, S. R. (Eds.). (2020). Servant-leadership and forgiveness: How leaders help heal the heart of the world. (2020). State University of New York Press.
Wexler, C., Wycoff, M. A., & Fischer, C. (2007). “Good to great” policing: Application of business management in the public sector. Police Executive Research Forum.