Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership is looking to the needs of others and seeing how you can help solve their problems and help promote their personal development.  The main focus of this theory is putting the emphasis on others, since only content and motivated people are able to reach their goals and fulfill expectations.  To achieve this, James Autry identifies 5 ways of being which are:
1) Be Authentic
2) Be Vulnerable
3) Be Accepting
4) Be Present
5) Be Useful

To "Be Authentic" means to, "be the same person in every circumstance.  Hold to the same values in whatever role you have... Being real."  It's first knowing yourself and then being yourself.  In order to be authentic we must reveal our true selves, including our emotions and how we feel.  As Autry puts it, "mentoring is also helping people to learn to be themselves.  You do that by honoring what is good and unique about those you are mentoring, not trying to bend them to your image."

Being Vulnerable is being honest with your feelings and open with your fears and doubts.  The three word phrase, "I was wrong", should be prevalent in the speaking repertoire of a servant leader to show that they admit mistakes openly.  Autry explains, "being vulnerable takes a great deal of courage because it means letting go of the old notions of control and that we must depend on others." Vulnerability also has an aspect of empathy as the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and view situations from another person's viewpoint.

The third component of the 5 ways of being is to Be Accepting.  This implies that you accept everyone's ideas as valid for discussion and review, and that you focus on the ideas themselves, not on the person who presented them.  It also means that you accept and embrace disagreement and conflict as a learning process.  Being accepting means to accept others without judgement.

Being present is to have your whole self available at all times and to be available to yourself and to others as you respond to problems and challenges of team members.

This brings us to our last principle, being useful.  To be a successful leader, you must use yourself as a resource for others.  This means to think of yourself as a tool to fulfill the needs of others and help them solve their problems and struggles.