Servant Leadership during Natural Disasters Servant leadership is a leader who displays ethical and caring behaviors. These leaders seek to enhance the growth of others while improving quality of life. The two main constructs of this leadership are ethical behavior and concern for subordinates. The characteristics embodied in this are stewardship, foresight, conceptualization, persuasion, building community, listening, empathy, awareness, commitment to growth of people and healing. When responding to natural disasters, a servant leader must possess all of these qualities to be effective. Natural disasters can happen at any time with or without warning. Hurricane Katrina was a disastrous event in which leaders faced ethical challenges …show more content…
Nagin was irate about the lack of help for the people of New Orleans. He displayed commitment to growth by fighting for the funding needed to help rebuild the community. He was trying to make things complete again by healing the community. When things calmed down after the storm and he was re-elected; he moved into a non-servant leader role by committing fraud, taking vacations, and being more concerned about himself then about the people of the city. Nagin is currently serving a 10-year sentence for the crimes he committed and the unethical behavior he displayed ("Swept Up In The Storm: Hurricane Katrina's Key Players, Then And Now", 2018). Although the leadership in the Louisiana government was lacking during/post Katrina, the leadership of the Mississippi government reacted differently. They were prepared and dedicated to recovery. Government Leadership in Mississippi During/Post …show more content…
The two main constructs ethical behavior and concern for subordinates describes everything that a leader should embody at all times. During natural disasters, this proves to be even truer. All ten of the characteristics of servant leadership are important. Lt. Col. Marc Prymek, who is currently the 199th BSB Battalion Commander, was a young Captain commanding a transportation company out of Slidell, LA at the time Hurricane Katrina came through. He and his family were in an area affected by the storm. After he made sure his family was in a safe place, he went back to the unit to respond to the disaster. Because of the storm, communications were down throughout New Orleans and the surrounding
One model of leadership being adopted by many organizations, disciplines, and vocations is servant leadership. A servant leader is defined as “those who believed they must put other people’s needs and interests above their own needs and interests” (GCU, 2013). A servant leader is more focused on serving than leading and puts the interest of the people under him/her first. The end result is a transformation on the follower where they too perform their roles not as tasks allocated but as a service which makes them more engaged, more informed and performed their roles autonomously (GCU, 2013). Servant leadership was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970 (Greenleaf.org, n.d) Servant leader
The ineptitude of the USACE caused 18 feet flooding that would prevent those remaining in the city from accessing resources needed for survival. In the critical first 48 hours after Katrina, the federal government failed to deploy the National Guard or other forms of aid needed to rescue those who were trapped. As the federal government had declared there to be a natural disaster, I had entrusted them to provide necessary and swift assistance. My expectations were in dramatic contrast with reality. Despite daily pleas for relief intervention, the federal bureaucracy denied us emergency assistance for days.
Robert Greenleaf is credited with having coined the term “servant-leadership” in his 1970 article “The Servant as Leader.” His man-centered leadership model has become extremely popular among leadership theorists (Spears, 2004). Robert K. Greenleaf’s definition of servant leadership is one which is based on teamwork and community, involving others in decision-making, while strongly based on ethical, caring behavior with an intent on enhancing the growth of people (Spears, 1996). These ideas have spearheaded a change in many organizations implementing concepts to empower their leadership to utilize these traits. Spears (1996) further elaborates on the influence of Greenleaf’s theories when he lists all of the organizations, musicians, and authors that have adopted his
As the rescue team headed out, the citizens of the city started to steal out of all the stores for their survival. More crimes broke out after katrina than when katrina never hit. Stealing, rapes and all other crimes were being committed and the police couldn’t do anything about it because the mayor and government made their first priority to rescue the survivors or the city, the people who decided to stay in the city. The delay of federal response to Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast and has been led to many officials, also with President Bush. President Bush called the initial response “not acceptable” to question FEMA’s preparedness for a natural
Being somewhat curious, I asked Cousin John how he survived Katriana. With a big smile on his face, he said, “If I have survived Mardi Gras festivities for all these years, then Katrina was a cakewalk” (Personal Interview). According to the mayor of New Orleans, it is estimated that about 100,000 people had returned, of the 485,000 who lived in New Orleans before the storm. Forty percent of the homes were still without electricity and — again, according to the mayor — half the small businesses, 57,000, may have been lost for good (New Orleans Jazz Funeral).
The seven servant leader behaviors are: conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering. Conceptualizing – through a largely decentralized process allow team and managers to cooperate (equality assumption) in the development of what works best Emotional healing – in the service to others, be empathetic of all individual mental and moral states, provide assistance through shared discovery of their inner sprit Putting followers first – leave the ego at home and avoid asserting leaders will on the group, decisions further the group Helping followers grow and succeed – through good listening and observation assist when appropriate to develop personal, professional,
On the other hand, approximately 70,000 citizens remained. These citizens generally belonged to disadvantaged populations such as low-income citizens, senior citizens, or they required other special needs. When Hurricane Katrina landed, it left the city relatively intact; nevertheless, levee breeches flooded the city. During the response phase, emergency management officials were not prepared to respond because many aspects of their emergency operations plan were left “To Be Determined” (TBD). Because the Hurricane Pam project was eliminated, the TBD areas were not adequately addressed.
She used her leadership to push her people to start believing in themselves and moving forward. She inspired her people, creating this vision of a better Liberia of women having a voice. Sirleaf showed Spears 10 characteristics of servant leadership. As a servant leader, she listens to those around her, she listens to the women who were protesting. She even went to West Point during the Ebola crisis and listened to the people problems.
Today, most of the organizations are implementing servant leadership principles in their leadership models whether they are health care, institution, business etc. For example, Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, owners of Broetje orchards- privately owned orchards under the brand name of First Fruits, practice servant leadership. Their mission is to serve, encourage, and educate the employees and their families by providing affordable housing community- Vista Hermosa, schools, college scholarship, and other assistance (www.firstfruits.com/our-philosophy).
Forum 11 Johan Rivera Liberty University Introduction The main focus of chapter five, six, and seven of Resilient Leaders, is to understand what a leader needs to be prepare for a crisis. These chapters describe the role of a leader from the beginning, the middle, and the end of a crisis. This paper will discuss three concepts that include condition setting, helping others weather the storm, and rebuild the team.
Servant Leaders are leaders who put others needs above their own. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez are two examples of a servant leader. Three things that they both have in common are empathy, able to understand others, conceptualization, the ability to dream good for their people, and community building skills. Martin Luther King Jr. had empathy for people who are being discriminated because he was discriminated for his skin color. Being a civil rights leader King was elected to be in charge of the MIA, Montgomery Improvement Association, where he and the black community organized protest against segregation.
I feel as if this style best fits me naturally as a person as well as offer the greatest reward for the leader follower combination. Throughout my paper I have provided examples of the servant leader as it pertains to the public and nonprofit organizations. The Dreamville foundation has a strong building community characteristic and is one of the motivations that assisted in it’s inception. While the prison servant leader and upper management often use empathy to relate to the followers. With both nonprofit and public the servant leader being able to have foresight can prevent danger negative imaging from the public as well as promote positive imaging from the public if they are able to properly predict situations based on the current situation.
Servant Leadership has not been a customary research topic in the small businesses arena. However, there has been research showing that servant leadership is an effective style for creating results. In fact, according to Van Winkle, Allen, DeVore, & Winston (2014) servant leadership coupled with a learning, purpose-driven, and inclusive environment, has created such outcomes that has positively affected sales, professionalism, and employee
Lao-tzo describes servant leadership perfectly. “Many find it hard to accept the phenomenon of servant leadership because they do not understand how a servant can be a leader and how a leader can be a servant; that is, it seems to be an oxymoron” (Focht & Ponton, 2015, p. 44). I believe many people think a leader cannot work under other people as they are the boss, but it is much more simple than that. A leader is not successful if he or she serves the people by managing or demanding work from his or her followers. A true leader leads from the heart and does whatever it takes to inspire the teachers and teach the students.
Also, servant leaders take a more long-term perspective to ensure that the company will be sustainable over time. Therefore, they will not make decisions that will only benefit them in the short run. Therefore, I believe that servant leadership is the best way to lead a company, because it develops and empowers the employees,