Is the customer always right? Take a deep dive into the world of hospitality and customer service with co-founder of the Hospitality Leadership Academy, Alec Dalton. Listen to him speak to how COVID affected the hotel business, his time working with the Disney organization, and his tips on how to create great customer experiences by building relationships between the customer and the brand.
AKPsi’s Presidents Academy and Fraternity Advisors Conference
This special edition episode of Business Edge contains some of the highlights from Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity’s Presidents Academy and Fraternity Advisors Conference. Some of these topics the speakers covered were self-awareness, foresight and persuasion, alignment and execution, and managing conflict.
What is Servant Leadership?
In the world of business, there are few personal characteristics more important than strong and effective leadership. While managers may like to believe they’re all set in that department, statistics have shown that employees may not be so confident. According to a study performed by Brandon Hall’s State of Leadership, though the most resources are dedicated to leadership development, 71 percent of companies do not feel their leaders are able or capable of leading them into the future. With this insight in mind, it’s no surprise industries are looking for a new approach to leadership. Many organizations have found success by turning to the concept of servant leadership. This concept places emphasis on serving individuals, as opposed to seeking out business goals or benchmarks. But how does this process work, and what applications might it have at work, with friends, or family?
Though the definition is generally ambiguous, many thought leaders have gone on to provide their take on what exactly makes up the servant leader. Larry Spear, who served as president of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, outlined ten significant characteristics for these types of considerate and selfless leaders. Let’s take a look to see what these characteristics look like and how they apply to work, friends, and family.
Different Leadership Styles Compared to Servant Leadership
What makes a leader great? People have wildly different answers to that question. While there may not be one black and white answer, we can certainly look at the most common types of leaders and see what makes them so effective. In 2000, Daniel Goleman did a study on leadership styles that garnered the best results while taking emotional intelligence into account. Four of the leadership styles resulted in positive impacts on the workplace environment. Let’s take a look at these types of leaders and see how they might improve further with the application of some servant leader concepts.
Business Success Through Servant Leadership
Being a servant leader is a conscious choice that stems from a natural desire to serve. The best test of a servant leader’s effectiveness is how much the people they are leading grow and develop thanks to their presence. It’s easy to focus conversations about servant leadership on the actions of individuals, but this principle can be applied on a macro level with just as many benefits. Here are examples of businesses that continue to achieve success through applied servant leadership on an organizational level.
