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When Servant Leadership Fails: Risks Lurking for a Servant Leader

In spite of their good intentions, servant leaders may fail

By thepavsalfordPublished about a year ago Updated 9 months ago 3 min read
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When a servant leader fails to identify the subordinates’ real needs

According to the definition of servant leadership, a servant leader is supposed to serve the needs of his or her subordinates.

However, a certain problem seems to arise when attempting to identify those needs.

For instance, a servant leader may assume that he or she knows what the needs of his or her subordinates are beforehand, without even caring to ask those people about their needs.

Therefore, a servant leader, to his or her great disbelief, may end up causing a problem rather than benefiting his or her people and the overall organization.

As a matter of fact, people working with such a servant leader may have completely different needs from those that he or she believes that they have.

In the most extreme cases, this can result in those people adopting a negative attitude towards anything proposed by the servant leader, and resisting and rejecting his or her leadership style, regardless of his or her benevolent motives and approach.

When a servant leader fails to make an impact in a profit-seeking organization

Through the years, the majority of prominent servant leaders have led people and organizations with profit not being their primary motive.

In fact, servant leadership has literally nothing to do with pressing people to make a profit for the organizations that they work for.

Although there have been quite a few servant leaders who were highly recognized and respected members of society, there is great doubt whether those leaders would be able to implement their servant leadership style in the context of a business aimed at making a profit.

More often than not, a servant leadership style is better can be better applied to a cause rather than a profit-oriented organization.

For example, a servant leader would make a perfect religious leader, as it has proved time and again in the past.

If, however, the same servant leader was placed in charge of a corporation operating in a highly competitive, dog-eat-dog environment, servant leadership would perhaps not prove to be equally effective.

In this case, a servant leader would either have to change his or her style, in order to meet the corporation’s demands and expectations to produce profit, or quit.

When a servant leader is taken advantage of

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that, on many occasions, a servant leader acts literally like a “servant”.

This type of servant behavior, however, may be considered a weakness.

As a result, superiors, colleagues, and even subordinates may see this as an opportunity to take advantage of a servant leader’s good-intentioned approach to leadership.

In this way, a servant leader’s belief that, by serving the needs of others, he or she can achieve organizational goals more easily and smoothly, will prove to be groundless, and his or her power will finally become a dead letter.

Subsequently, there can be people working with a servant leader who will even question his or her position and authority, perhaps considering themselves to be more suitable leaders than him or her, especially if they can apply a more dynamic and authoritarian leadership style than can yield fast results, as opposed to the servant leader’s soft and easygoing approach.

As an effect, a servant leader will essentially lose his or her authority, since he or she will no longer be the actual person in charge, but another person within the organization will emerge as an informal leader, based on the latter’s ability and cunning to sideline a servant leader.

Sources and further reading:

The Problem with Servant Leadership (and How to Lead Instead)

The Hidden Pitfalls Of Servant Leadership

When servant leadership fails: The importance of aligning values

Problems With the Servant Leadership Model

The Dark Side of Servant Leadership

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About the Creator

thepavsalford

Hi,

I have written articles for various websites, such as Helium, Hubpages, Medium, and many more.

Currently, I work as a translator. I have studied Tourism Management at college.

See you around on Vocal Media!

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