What differentiates servant leadership from other styles of leadership is the primary focus on the follower first. Most styles of leadership direct their focus first on a mission and second on empowering followers to achieve that mission. Servant leadership directs its focus first on the ability of the individuals to succeed and then on the success of the mission. Servant leaders help their followers to grow and succeed, which in turn aids in accomplishing the organizational mission. The perception of a servant leader should be one of a courageous steward who holds people accountable for their own good. Servant leaders are those individuals who develop and empower others to reach their highest potential. This speaks directly to the individual potential of the followers rather than the organization. Servant leadership assumes that if the followers are maximizing their potential, it will directly translate to the potential of the organization and its overall performance. When servant leadership is applied correctly and with proper intentions, an authentic and natural form of reciprocity takes place between the leader and follower, which in turn increases workforce engagement and improves organizational performance (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018).<\/p>\n

Servant leadership includes ten characteristics- listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth of people, and building community (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). Communication begins with listening. A servant leader hears what others are saying through both verbal and nonverbal communication and reflect upon what they hear to lead a group to its full potential. Having empathy or understanding and sharing the feelings of followers allow servant leaders to be placed in a position at the level of those followers. Servant leaders are further able to identify the characteristics hat make each individual unique and provide them with the ability to understand how best to support and lead their followers to achieve success in the mission, in this case how the staff nurses respond to their patients\u2019 needs. While the leaders may not always accept the performance or actions of followers, the leader always accept each follower as an individual.<\/p>\n

When the servant nurse leader displays a genuine interest in the team and further support through meeting the needs of the team, the quality of care increases within the organization (Thomas, 2018). Listening and empathy displayed by the servant nurse leader to their patients provides for interprofessional communication as the nurse will include the patient and family to identify the patient needs, make decisions regarding the patient\u2019s care, solve problems together, and evaluate the planned treatment.<\/p>\n

As a Nurse Manager, I employed servant leadership especially during the annual employee evaluation process. The employee evaluation process simply stated only evaluates if the individual is meeting the expectations of the organization. It lacks personal development features. I created a format that tasked each nurse to assess areas of strengths and opportunities. Then together we discussed strategies to develop those areas. For example, a nurse with two years of experience felt she was not \u2018experienced\u2019 enough to consider growth in the department when viewed alongside nurses with more years of experience. A goal we set together was to attend a preceptor course to then begin first mentoring nursing students and later to precept new hire nurses to the department.<\/p>\n

A servant leader is a skilled communicator, a compassionate collaborator, a system thinker, and someone who leads with moral authority. Nursing practice and the vocation of nursing lends itself to the servant leadership model through its dedication of service.<\/p>\n