The challenges and opportunities facing science and society today are demanding a new form of leadership that will better serve people, organizations, disciplines or vocations, the community and society. There are many different models of leadership which are being explored by leaders, disciplines or vocations, and organizations. However, servant leadership is emerging as a model which has the potential to add value to people, organizations, disciplines or vocations, the community and society while at the same time ensuring the success of organizations, disciplines or vocations, and their stakeholders. Leaders can select a model such as servant leadership as the core while integrating aspects of other models to craft they own model of leadership.

Creating a Personal Model of Leadership: A process

There are a few models of leadership that have become leading practices in organizations today. Organizations often develop or select models of leadership which reflect their vocation, culture and set of values. Leaders and individuals within these organizations often adapt these models building in aspects that reflect their personal values and previous experience. As human beings we tend to modify our personal model of leadership over time based on (1) the values we develop from our life experiences, (2) new models and theories we learn, (3) our exposure to leadership culture and values in various organizations in which we participate, (4) the discipline or vocation in which we work and (4) results of our experiences from testing various leadership models and behaviors.

There are a set of leadership models used in many organizations which (1) are research based, (2) have proven to be successful, (3) have survived the test of time and (4) are aligned with the values and beliefs of one's discipline or vocation.. Some of these leading contemporary models include situational leadership, transformational leadership, change leadership, emotional intelligence, spiritual leadership, visionary leadership and servant leadership. Although these models are different, for the most part they are not incompatible. They actually provide a leader a variety of perspectives and enable the leader to develop their own personal model of leadership.

Each of these models can be looked at from a framework that can be used to create one's own personal model of leadership as seen in Creating a Personal Model of Leadership Resource you read earlier.

This framework include four dimensions that includes (1) values and beliefs, (2) resulting leadership capabilities and behaviors reflecting the values and beliefs, (3) contributions to organizations, community and society based on the behaviors, beliefs and values, and (4) positive impacts and improvements in organizations, communities, the environment and society based on one's contributions. As one explores each of these models of leadership the four layers are completed. To build ones final model you select from the various pieces that have been drawn from the models that are explored.