Empowering Care Through Servant Leadership
Servant leadership
Servant leadership is an approach to leadership that was developed in the 1970s by Robert K. Greenleaf. ,In servant leadership a leader puts serving staff above all other things. Unlike other leadership styles where the staff serves the leader, in the servant leadership approach, a leader serves the staff. Leaders using servant leadership focus on creating an environment that supports the team to thrive and achieve the highest results. The leaders believe that employees who are motivated and fulfilled increase productivity and efficiency. A servant leader should be a listener, be committed to the growth of people, and have empathy, stewardship, persuasion, and foresight. This type of leadership is commonly used in business as it creates an environment where employees feel respected, valued, and appreciated. The servant leadership approach helps create a strong work culture centered on staff morale and engagement.
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Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leadership is a style that is built on strong communication skills, charm, and persuasiveness. Leaders using this style must be inspiring, empathetic, and charming to those they lead. Charismatic leaders have an intense commitment to their work, and this evokes strong emotions from their followers. Such leaders connect with their subjects emotionally, and this makes them feel inspired and motivated to achieve organizational goals. This approach to leadership is similar to transformational leadership, where managers use motivation and intellectual stimulation to empower their followers to do their best work. Charismatic leadership is characterized by authenticity, emotional intelligence, great communication skills, and adaptability.
In nursing, charismatic leadership can have a positive impact on the staff as it influences them to participate more in the organization’s initiatives. This is because the style helps staff stay focused on the goal and the bigger picture. One of the identifiers of a charismatic leader is the ability to walk through life with a positive attitude. Also, leaders using this style show a desire to rise above the status quo. They also demonstrate the ability to solve complex problems and, with exactitude, overcome challenges preventing the achievement of the organization’s goals.
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Transactional leadership
The transactional approach to leadership utilizes a system of reward and punishment to motivate and direct followers. Leaders using this style reward staff who are industrious and self-motivated and reprimand those that are underperforming. This leadership does not focus on changing the organization as a whole but on achieving short-term goals through rewards. In this approach, staff are motivated by their personal interest to achieve goals and not the company’s interests. The role of leaders in transactional leadership is to set performance goals, make a reward promise, and avail the promised reward upon completion of the goal.
The leaders also impose punishments on employees who do not meet the goals within the required time. This style is among the most commonly used in the medical industry. Although transactional leadership is effective in getting the work done, it fails in the basic aspect of collaboration as it does not promote relationship building. The transactional leadership approach can also be used in emergency situations because there is only one decision-maker. Lastly, this leadership style is hierarchical, and those using it are passive, practical, motivated by self-interest, and reactionary. APA