Table of Contents
- Essay
- Introduction
- Servant Leadership
- Follower’s perception of a leader
- Class Discussion Preparation
- Connection of movie position and Book Position
Essay
Introduction
Leadership refers to the ability of an individual or company to motivate a group of people to act effectively for accomplishing a common objective. There are three types of leadership styles which an organization can use for inspiring their employees to work hard and perform better for achieving the common goals. These styles are Autocratic, Participative and Free-rein.
For the current file Mathew 20:26 is taken into consideration for explaining servant leadership, follower’s perception of a leader. Along with this, the file also emphasizes the class discussion preparation and connection paper.
Servant Leadership
According to the Mathew 20:26, a leader must be a servant. Serving others is found to be real leadership. It does not mean that employees working at higher positions started cleaning their offices, sweeping their floors, etc. nor that they help others as an excuse. In spite of this, servant leadership means that one can do his or her work with the goal of serving their customers, colleagues, shareholders and many others. The individual who knows his/her spiritual poverty and exercises power under the control of God for maintaining and managing the relations posses qualities of servant leadership. A servant leader shows mercy on the failure of others apologizes for own mistake and create peace whenever it becomes possible. In this leadership style, the emphasis is on serving rather than charming self or seeking the higher position.
Follower’s perception of a leader
Every leader has at least one follower who follows the directions shown by them. The relationship between servant and follower depends upon their behavior and self-perceived empowerment. The perception of the supporters regarding empowerment is correlated with the behavior of supervisors while using servant leadership. With the increase in the behavior of leaders, understanding of the members of being empowered also enhances. In servant leadership, the leader can unleash the potential of his/her followers. Organizations grow when leader foster a framework of purpose, ethics, inclusion, and empowerment among the employees (Steve, 2014).
The Factors impact follower’s perception is:
The conflict between leader and follower results to make subordinate believe that his or her supervisor could not provide emotional support. And these emotional conflicts occur to affect the perception of members regarding their leader. In addition to it, lack of daily interaction by a leader with his or her subordinate’s results to change leader-follower relationship along with the perception of supporters.
Class Discussion Preparation
I am working as a retail store manager, and I preferred to keep working on this position rather than traveling here and there for a corporate job. The reason behind this decision is my family members. I am the only son of my parents, and it is my responsibility to take care of them. My parents cannot travel with me here and there as my father has a job in the same city and my mother is suffering from dementia. Due to all these reasons, I decided to serve my parents for making their life comfortable while working as a manager in the retail store.
I can move to another city for developing my career and improving my lifestyle, but I must serve my parents as they are my first preference. I cannot run away from my duties for enhancing my living style and fulfilling self-desires. My parents had complete their responsibility by educating and making me capable enough to face the world, now it’s my turn to provide better life to them. Due to this, I am satisfied with my job of retail manager in the store and wants to grow in the same field.
Connection of movie position and Book Position
Movie Position: According to the film, prisoners were arrested in a cave for a very long time. Only shadows are the reality of the prisoners as they have never seen anything else. In this movie, cave represents the empirical evidence, i.e., knowledge comes from what an individual see and hear in the surrounding. Along with this, shadow represents the views of people who believe in empirical evidence. For prisoners, the shadow is the truth of life and reality of the world. On the other hand, the departure of a detainee from the cave shows the adjustment process of an individual into a new world. Here the freed prisoner is a philosopher who seeks knowledge outside the cave. The journey of prisoner represents his journey of facing the truth and finding wisdom. Now this prisoner can see and think beyond the shadows (Nahavandi, 2016). The return phase of the individual to the cave says that he wants to make other inmates aware about the reality or outside world. The knowledge regarding sun, water, and his whole journey are much more beautiful and real than those shadows. He wants to take his fellow prisoners out of the cave and into the sunlight for creating awareness about the right side of life.
Book Position: According to the book, followers follow their leaders because of their behavior and qualities. Servants can improve and develop the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of the subordinates by using appropriate and effective means of action. By guiding, handling problems, monitoring the performance, sharing the experience and showing the right path, servants can serve their followers to develop themselves and make themselves capable enough to face the real world. Along with this, it is also necessary to have a robust and active relationship between follower and leader. This relationship makes supervisors serve better and subordinates to learn more (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013).
The connection between Book and Movie: The movie represents the impact of empirical knowledge over the individuals whereas book shows that servants help followers in developing their knowledge and skills. In the film, the freed prisoner can work as a servant as he wants to make other inmates free from the cave. The returning phase of the prisoner to the cave after knowing the reality to make other fellow prisoners aware of it represents the selfless behavior. Fellow prisoners are unable to understand the reality as they have never seen anything else except shadows and cave, but a freed prisoner can make them aware of other things like Sun, Water, People and much more (Bolman, and Deal, 2017). Here, the individual possess servant leadership qualities which makes him develop knowledge among the other prisoners in the cave. According to the book and servant leadership, fellow prisoners are the followers of the freed prisoner (leader or servant).
Conclusion
From the above, it is concluded that servant leadership is not about doing something for gaining something, but it is about serving people for their enhancement and development. Along with this, cave story represents that a servant can make followers believe into the reality.
References
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2013). Introduction to, and overview of, transformational and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.
Steve, (2014). “Leadership “According to Jesus= Matthew 20:26-27. Available Through: < https://stevesbiblemeditations.com/2014/01/30/the-mark-of-leadership-matthew-2026-27/>. [Accessed On: 23rd September 2017].