This document compares servant leadership styles between Jesus Christ and modern concepts. It finds that while there are similarities in priorities like serving followers, modern servant leadership is missing key components like witnessing one's faith and transforming society. An effective leadership model incorporates Jesus' leadership qualities like maintaining integrity, inspiring service to a higher purpose, and cultivating disciples to transform people and society.
2. Jesus Christ as Servant Leader
Vs. Greenleaf's Servant Leader
• What is servant leadership
• What are the similarities between Jesus’s
and the apostils leadership and modern
servant leadership
• What are the differences between
Jesus’s and the apostils leadership and
modern servant leadership
3. Servant Leadership (SL)
• Servant leadership (SL)is where the leader places more focus on the
follower’s needs and desires in order to serve the follower first. The
leader adjusts their attitudes and behaviors to be in focus with their
followers. According to Patterson , “Servant leadership is a virtuous
theory” (Patterson 2003, p. 2). A virtue is a characteristic of moral
excellence that a person exemplifies within their internal self that is
reflected in their actions.
• [Servant leadership] begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to
lead…. The difference manifests itself in the are taken by the servant-
first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being
served. The best test…. is: do those served grow as persons; do they,
while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous,
more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on
the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or , at least, will they
not be further deprived? (Greenleaf, 1970 p.15)
4. Similarities
• Right identity – seeing oneself as a servant
• Right method – relating to others in a positive
manner
• Right impact – inspiring others to serve a higher
purpose
• Right Motivation- Serving God by serving others
5. 1.Similarities
10 CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Listening
Empathy
Healing
Awareness
Persuasion
Conceptualization
Foresight
Stewardship
Commitment to the growth of people
Building community (Spears 2010, p.25).
6 Pillars of Character
Trustworthiness
Respect
Responsibility
Fairness
Caring
Citizenship (Spears 2010, p.25).
6. Differences
1. Right character – maintaining integrity and authenticity (Davey,
Wong 2007 p. 7-8).
2. Witness based leadership- leaders participating in the suffering
of Christ 1 Peter 5:9
1. By removing witnessing from SL we introduce leadership from a
worldly perspective lacking Christ's humanity (Niewold 2007, p.
126).
3. SL of today reduces faith to ethics, neglecting the holy spirit
within us.
1. Reducing faith to ethics helps dis-form society rather than
transforming society to the Christian faith
7. Conclusion
• Servant leadership is similar to Christ’s and the Apostil’s leadership
styles. Greenleaf’s Servant leadership is missing a few key
components. An effective means of leadership is to incorporate all these
aspects into Servant leadership.
• Witness publically where our leadership style and love comes from
• Right motivation- serving God by serving others
• Right identity – seeing oneself as a servant
• Right method – relating to others in a positive manner
• Right impact – inspiring others to serve a higher purpose
• Right character – maintaining integrity and authenticity (Davey, Wong
2007 p. 7-8)
• Transform Society by transforming people into disciples.
8. REFERENCES
Davey, M.A., & Wong Ph.. (2007). Best Practices in Servant Leadership. School of
Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University, Servant
Leadership Research Roundtable(July 2007), 1–15.
Greenleaf, R.K. (1970). The Servant as leader. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf
Center for Servant Leadership
Niewold, PH.D., J. (2007). Beyond Servant Leadership. Journal of biblical
perspectives in leadership, Vol 1(2), 118–134. Retrieved from
http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications /jbpl/ vol1no2/
JBPLVol1No2_Niewold.pdf
Patterson, K. (2003). Servant Leadership: A Theoretical Model. School of
Leadership Studies Regent University, Servant Leadership Research Roundtable,
1–10. Retrieved from http://www.regent.edu /acad/ global
/publications/sl_proceedings/2003/patterson_servant leadership.pdf
Spears, L. (2010). The Understanding and Practice of Servant- Leadership. The
Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 25-30, 1(1), 1–8. Retrieved from
http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol1_iss1/Spears_Final.pdf
