Reference no: EM132089527

Compare and contrast servant leadership with authentic leadership

Servant leader and authentic leader have a lot of characteristics overlap with each other. They both take the initiative without being asked. Both have the same component of self-awareness, they have an ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Both leaders should be able to put themselves in other’s person’s position and have ability to understand how people’s emotional affects their needs. Empathy is another one that both leaders have in common, with empathy, they will appreciate what their follower is going through. They should be able to walk with them through the process, and not just telling them what to do. An important one is they’re both very good listeners, they want to create trustworthy relationships by understanding their goals and needs. They should be able to listen to the followers concerns and address it right away. They both lead because they wanted to from their heart rather than desire for any status or reward.

Servant leader is the one who wants to serve first, they put their people first. They focus more on their follower’s interest, they want to fulfill the follower’s desires, needs and goals. The way a servant leader approach any problems are the same, doesn’t matter on the change of the situation. This leadership style always has a feeling that they need to listen, empathy and persuasion even during the crisis time. We talked about persuasive in class, and it is so easy to become manipulative, there’s a fine line between those two. They want to influence other people to become a better servant leader. I feel like altruism is the main component of the leadership process, they focus on people’s emotions and show empathy too much, that’s making them less appropriate as a guide. Sometimes, a leader needs to be tough and able to adjust to changes.

Authentic leadership is about genuine and real, they want to be themselves and not just follow any other people’s style. Unlike servant leadership, they can always adapt their style to face with any situations. Also, they can be though if they feel like they needed to be. They focus on building honest relationship their followers and lead first. They are responsible to societal demands for genuine, trustworthy and good leadership. Because of that, I think they will be better at guiding their followers. These leaders help to provide an answer to people who are searching for good leadership, authentic leader shows people how to become an effective leader in any different situations. Authentic values and behavior can be developed into leaders over time.