WEEk 1 DQ 2

Week 1 DQ 2

Response 1

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Re:Topic 1 DQ 2

Servant leadership is one style of leadership that looks at the good of the people that they are serving. Servant leadership is a model, which has been researched and applied in organizations for over 30 years (Grand Canyon University, 2013). This style of leadership is seen in health care and especially in nursing. Nursing is a career that is based on helping others and trying to do what is best always for the patient and society as a whole. The servant leadership model draws attention to the necessity for leaders to be attentive to the needs of others and is a model that enhances the personal growth of nurses, improves the quality of care, values teamwork, and promotes personal involvement and caring behavior (Huber, 2010).

There are many reasons why organizational groups are adopting this model. One reason is that this model of leadership is one that is aimed at a team approach with collaboration from everyone. The leader evaluates every person on the team’s strengths and weaknesses and uses them to the team’s advantage. The leader listens to concerns and takes advice from the members. The leader puts the community or patients first, and can readjust their strategies as needed. An example of this, is when a nursing leader is assigning nurses to specific patients in a department. Another reason is that it increases employee engagement and patient satisfaction. In 2008, Cleveland Clinic significantly increased employee engagement and overall patient satisfaction by “hardwiring” Servant Leadership into the culture (Schwantes, 2015). Servant leadership works well in many organizations throughout this country, and it works extremely well in nursing.

References

Grand Canyon University. (2013). Servant Leadership: Defining the Focus of Leadership. Received from https://lc-ugrad3.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.html?operation=home&classId=615ab301-1988-4dc1-81ed-630aa2829b9f#/learningPlatform/loudBooks/loudbooks.html?currentTopicname=Professional%20Responsibility%20and%20Stewardship&viewPage=current&operation=innerPage&topicMaterialId=564c6b01-38ee-4719-9097-21750546fb69&contentId=39ccd8eb-89c1-4ab3-9401-46f3eefb429f&

Huber, D. (2010). Leadership and Nursing Care Management (4th ed.). MO: Saunders Elsevier.

Schwantes, M. (2015). 10 Convincing Reasons Executives Must Consider Servant Leadership. Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.leadershipfromthecore.com/business-reasons-for-servant-leadership/

Response 2

Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.” (Center for Servant Leadership, 2017) The field of nursing encompasses this great characteristic while this is seen in the delivery of care to all patients. Nurses serve all regardless of their culture, religion and ethnicity. The principles within the oath we had taken during graduation had emphasized such.  One key term that comes to mind when discussing servant leadership is advocacy. Nurses are patient advocates while being an advocate for themselves as well. We become the driving force of healthcare while following the principles of servant leadership to provide optimal care. Many organizations are adapting this model due to its compassionate ideology of serving humanity without any barriers. Also, it encourages leaders to be leaders who not only focus on teamwork but to value it, while providing high quality care. (Huber, 2010) Another reason this is being implemented is due to its unique teaching of improving behavior towards anyone around you, and not just patients we take care of. This practice of Servant Leadership takes the individual far beyond what nursing teaching us, it teaches humans to be compassionate and be eager to help the people around us.

 

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. (2017). What is Servant Leadership? - Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. [online] Available at: https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017]. Huber, D. (2010). Leadership and Nursing Care Management (4th ed.). MO: Saunders Elsevier.

Response 3

A servant is defined as one that serves others, a public servant, especially: one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer. (Merriam-Webster, 2017). The servant leader puts the needs of the people first and foremost. According to Robert K. Greenleaf, the servant leader is a servant first. (Robert K. Greenleaf, 2017). If the people are at the core of the institution, it is more likely that staff will want to be productive and grow at a personal and collective unit. This phenomena will resonate and make the company expand and create profit for the business.

Furthermore, if one is a servant leader, he or she must be applying this technique because of the rewarding benefits of serving and helping people to begin with. The leader can easily choose to adopt an authoritarian method of managing the people, yet he or she chooses to be beneficent and reap the positive ramifications of being engaged with the employees. There will be less resistance to a servant leader opposed to one who berates or does not allow input from the staff. It offers the allowance to grow the population and build from the bottom up.

 

References:

Merriam-Webster, 2017. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Servant. Retrieved from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/servant

            Robert K. Greenleaf, 2017. Robert K. Greenleaf Center for servant leadership. Retrieved from: https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/