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Fundamental Principles and Qualities of Servant Leadership

Servant leadership transcends just a style of leadership to entail a life philosophy. Eva et al. (2019) and Sturm (2009) define servant leadership as transformation model of leadership that focuses on empowering organizational members to act both as leaders and servants within the work setting of mutual collaboration, trust, and respect. This paper describes the fundamental principles associated with servant leadership and two qualities of servant leaders. The paper also explains how the two qualities of servant leaders support interprofessional communication in the provision of patient care.

Fundamental Principles of Servant Leadership

Pre-modern conceptions of servant leadership can be traced back to the era early Christianity and ancient Chinese writings (Savel & Munro, 2017). In this era, the common belief about good leadership was that a leader needed to begin from being a servant. The contemporary servant leadership concept was established in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf (Savel & Munro, 2017). Greenfield argued that the starting point for a servant leader is being a servant, which is then followed by an aspiration to lead (Savel & Munro, 2017). In relation to this, the six fundamental principles associated with servant leadership are valuing people, developing people, building community, displaying authenticity, providing leadership, and sharing leadership. Valuing people entails serving, believing, and non-judgmental listening to other people (Aij & Rapsaniotis, 2017). Developing individuals is associated with the provision of growth, learning, affirmation, and encouragement, whereas building community involves the establishment of robust personal and collaborative relationships (Aij & Rapsaniotis, 2017). Displaying authenticity entails being accountable, open, and ready to learn from other people, while providing leadership is associated with overseeing the future, adopting initiative, and developing goals (Aij & Rapsaniotis, 2017). Sharing leadership concerns facilitating, as well as sharing power.

Two Qualities of Servant Leadership

Dittrich (2019) emphasize persuasion and listening as two of the essential qualities for servant leaders. Persuasion serves as a subtle technique or method of permitting others to acknowledge that their perspective is unified with others’ outlooks through a common objective or cause. Deason et al. (2015) consider persuasion imperative to the integration of the personal views of followers with the leaders’ visions until all team members share a collective or common perspective. Listening happens to be among the most essential qualities of servant leadership owing to its significance in all aspects of excellence. Good leaders are not only listeners, but also hearers of what is being communicated by followers. According to Deason et al. (2015), effective listening requires leaders’ authentic presence as well as cognitive comprehension of others’ needs.  Followers often feel respected and valued when their concerns and inputs are well received by leaders.

How Qualities of Servant Leadership Support Interprofessional Communication in the Provision of Patient Care

Servant leadership qualities of listening and persuasion can support interprofessional communication during the delivery of patient care in different ways. When it comes to the quality of listening, a servant leader’s ability to grant all interprofessional team members all his or her attention and focus when they are talking without interrupting them can enhance team members’ sense of belonging and encourage them to provide beneficial opinions concerning care delivery (Deason et al., 2015). When leaders listen effectively to their team members, they can manage to create a setting where individuals generate better ideas for improving patient care. Such an undertaking also enables the leader to identify critical issues that impact team’s ability to provide quality patient care and embrace necessary corrective actions (Deason et al., 2015). In relation to the quality of persuasion, a leaders’ ability to employ persuasion in building consensus may improve interpersonal communication by creating an environment where followers willingly embrace opposing views once they perceive sense in such opinions. Deason et al. (2015) assert that the quality persuasion ensures that issues of coercion are replaced by reason, thereby improving interpersonal communication and contributing to better patient care.

Conclusion

Servant leadership is a life philosophy as it is driven by a robust need to serve others. This form of leadership is essential for success in healthcare as its qualities of listening and persuasion support interpersonal communications, which in improves patient care. As such, there is a significant need for all healthcare leaders to aspire to become servant leaders.