I found this article on servant leadership most interesting, and it helped me reflect on my own experience over the years, both as a leader in different contexts and as a member of various teams.

The basic principles of the servant leadership model developed by Robert K. Greenleaf (1977) are listening, knowledge sharing, empathy, healing, awareness, and persuasion. Servant leaders display the desire to create a healthy work environment by using strong listening skills, knowledge sharing, empathy, and self-awareness.

Other leadership models are those of Kurt Lewin (authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire), Daniel Goleman (emotional leadership), and Bernard M. Bass (transformational leadership). Different contexts may require different leadership styles.

In the study by Song et al., the authors analyzed data from 67 sales teams and 1,884 direct sales representatives employed by a large cosmetics company in South Korea. Actual team sales data were obtained from the company three months after surveying, and regression analyses and bootstrapping were used to test the hypotheses.

Key findings from the study were: (a) Servant leadership was shown to positively affect the teams’ knowledge-sharing climate; and (b) the mediating effect of a knowledge-sharing climate on measured team sales performance was empirically demonstrated.

From my own experience there are six suggestions for those who wish to become servant leaders: (a) Lead by example, (b) show your team why their job matters, (c) encourage teamwork, (d) help your team members to grow and develop, (e) care personally for your team, and (f) always ask for feedback.

Robert A. C. Stewart | Editor-in-Chief
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal