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Book Review In his book The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-line Performance Autry introduces the concept of servant-leader. The author inspires the reader to develop new approach to the problem of leadership. There are many theories concerning the basic concepts of servant leadership. James Autry explores the issue the finest sense of the word.
According to him, the leader is a person who is not obliged to be noble by birth or hold a high position in the modern society. People can take him for a servant because service is the main point of his life. The leadership is laid on a person who is the real servant for all other people. James Autry underlines that the leadership is something that can be given to a person or something the person can be responsible for or be in charge with.
The real servant leadership from the very beginning of his life should be a servant, a man who makes all his best to serve people. James Autry is often referred to as one of the innovators and founders of the modern concept of management in business. The author discusses model of servant leadership in conditions of modern life and dwells on its main dimensions. The author tries to explain why the corporate teams are more effective than small groups or separate individuals. He also claims that efficiency is not the same as effectiveness, and it is the latter to which servant leadership most concerns itself James Autry speaks about the importance of the servant leadership (Autry 15). By doing that the author makes the reader discover why the effective model of leadership should display itself in four main dimensions (head, hands, heart and habits).
The reader comes to conclusion that when the head, hands, heart and habits form the entire whole, extraordinary levels of trust, loyalty and productivity will inevitably result. On contrary, when they are out of alignment, frustration, mistrust, and diminished long-term productivity are the result. James Autry explores the concepts of servant leadership. He comes to conclusion that the leadership first of all was an act of service. Servant leader, according to James Autry, never send his subordinates into any situation with a faulty plan or a plan to fail. Servant leader speaks to his followers of what is right and effective.
Actually, the challenges of the manager who would become a servant leader are no different from the challenges of any manager (Autry 75). James Autry dwells on the main characteristics of the leader as a servant. He explains the three main aspects of vision and dwells on the everyday routine work of a servant leader as a manager: finding the right people, training the servant leader, coping with the high-tech workplace, to mention a few. James A. Autry speaks about the realities of organizational life and embraces organizational, personal and legal issues. Finally, he speaks about servant leadership in relation to loyalty, the conflicts and finding the way out, the responsibilities of family and community life.
Autry also discusses the aspects of leadership when times are bad and things are wrong. Autry's definition of the servant leadership is simple. He claims that the leadership is not about holding on to territory; its about letting go of ego, bringing your spirit tot work (Autry 25). First of all, the servant leader never asks his subordinates about the results, processes, methods and behavior.
He rarely uses questions like Have you done this? , Have you done that? , What is the situation? , etc. The servant leader asks questions that are aimed to find out whether he can be helpful. Besides, the leader often helps people and undertakes all efforts to make their work more effective. According to Autry, there is ever the possibility that people will take on enough to hang themselves, and part of the servant leaders responsibility is to not let that happen (Autry 67). The leader also asks people about their expectations concerning his participation in the issue. He wants to know how he can help people to solve problem.
The servant leadership never implies measurement of effectiveness of the company by the volume of production for man-hour, or by using any other quantitative index or other qualitative characteristics. The servant leader considers that organization is effective in case it implies the highest volume of volunteer activity, where all employees make all their efforts to optimize mutual effectiveness of the company. Autry claims that as a servant leader it is important that you also model community volunteerism and involvement (Autry 219). In case the leader is successful, the workers undertake all efforts timely and appropriately. They know how to act, although they receive no direct instructions or commands.
Servant leaders treat employees as a valuable resource of the company. They never consider themselves managers and bosses, who complete their job with one objective in mind: to increase profitability of the company for the president of the company and shareholders. The servant leadership has a firm conviction that people belong to the most valuable resources. The role of servant leader is in development of leadership qualities in other people. What concerns moral behavior and ethics, servant leader is never treated like strict and demanding authoritative manager who has doubtful and egoistic moral.
According to Autry, the servant leader must create an ethic that honors work well done, not just a lot of work done (Autry 78). The servant leader accentuates the importance of moral behavior and leads no double life. The subordinates describe servant leader like a person who trusts other people. He is sympathetic and kindhearted, responsive, and positively listens to new ideas. Servant leader has generally positive character; he has a sense of humor and likes to smile. Servant leader never stimulates competition among the workers of his company.
On contrary, he is convinced that competition is not conductive to the effectiveness of the company in general. He considers that the manager has to undertake all efforts to decrease the level of competition among his workers if he is unable to eliminate competition and its consequences. According to James Autry, service and competition are antitheses. Servant leader never creates special group of people to conduct analysis and provide with solutions and recommendations. On contrary, he takes an active part in the work of the group. Servant leader also engages people to work in group in order to make analysis, research or problem-solving.
He listens to group members, teaches them and helps to ask appropriate and correct questions. In such a way, he undertakes all efforts to help people finding effective solutions for problems by examining opinions of all members of the group. Servant leader tries to find time for everything, including communication with his subordinates. Servant leader not only plays the role of an intermediary and arbitrator between people who dispute with each other, but notices people whose opinions are not taken into account. Autry also focuses attention on solving conflict situation and claims that the challenge for the servant leader is to try to prevent disagreement about ideas or process or product from degenerating into personal conflict (Autry 173).
Servant leader finds time to make people listen to the reason, taking into consideration their peculiarities and individual traits of character. He tries to support people and communicate with them in a manner that allows keeping heart of the problem but eliminates distance between the people. These actions cheer up his subordinates and strengthen the team. James Autry considers that servant leader never tries to find the followers who support definite measures and fulfill duties and obligations as it is prescribed by the companys statute.
Servant leader interacts with his followers in order to promulgate good ideas, to attract attention to them, to challenge them and to create common vision of the issue. Servant leaders on contrary understand the organization as garden where they work as gardeners and never treat organization as a kind of pyramid, where they play roles of chief architects. Servant leaders never demand implicit obedience. They never strive to change subordinates in the image and likeness of themselves. Servant leader always expresses sympathy to his workers and tries to understand people and not to change them. Although sometimes they cannot call actions of their subordinates positive, they never force people to change their behavior.
Servant leaders make their best to help people to change by their own will, not by force. Servant leader commands respect. Servant leader takes care of his subordinates and inspires them to work at their full potential. He considers that he gives them possibilities and allots them power by means of his love, patience and strength of mind. Servant leader loves his subordinates and never allows them working worse than they are able to work.
At the same time he never tries to disgrace them or to put them in shame. Servant leader never humiliates his workers. He proposes the workers to acknowledge their abilities and skills in order to realize them. Servant leader is convinced that effective work of the manager relates to personal development of the workers. He have no conviction that index of effective work of the manager is expressed by the levels of profitability and financial results. The key words and key processes are as follows: personal development, wisdom, open processes, ability to serve other people, etc.
The leader has to find the way to influence his followers to make their work more effective. Finally, by this book James Autry makes valuable contribution into the concept of servant leadership. He applies the well-known proverb that there are managers doing things right and the leaders doing right things. Autry claims that this proverb cannot be interpreted literally, instead, it is mean to define what a manager must move beyond (focusing on how to do) in order to become a leader (focusing on what to do and how to be (Autry 37 - 38). In order to support his point of view, the author provides the readers with effective leadership and management technologies that can be applied in practice. Autry proposes a list of six things he believes about the leadership: The leadership is about caring for people and being a useful resource for them.
Leadership is not about controlling people; Effective leadership implies being present for people and building a community to work (20) but not being the boss; The leadership is about letting go of your ego, bringing your spirit to work, being your best and most authentic self (20). It implies no holding on to territory; Servant leadership is less concerned with pep talks and more concerned with creating a place in which people can do good work, can find meaning in their work, and can bring their spirits to work (Autry 21); The leadership is largely a matter of paying attention (21); Finally, the leadership requires love. In conclusion Id like to remind James Autry's words: Effective leadership starts from inside. In the process of reading the reader will find answer to question whether he is a servant leader or a self-serving leader. This book will be interesting for experts and wide circle of readers interested in management relations and will help readers to understand leadership not as a mere instrument of getting profit. References Autry, J.
A. (2001), The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-line Performance, Prima Publishing, Roseville, CA. ,
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