Listen to this article:
Abstract: This article explores how leading through service can cultivate purpose, strengthen organizational culture, and build trust. Through a review of scholarly literature and real-world examples, key tenets of service leadership are examined, including prioritizing people through active listening, empowering employees through distributed leadership models, and leveraging core competencies to positively impact communities. Research indicates servant leadership correlates strongly with employee engagement, accountability, innovation, and long-term profitable growth. The article argues that in today's complex world, leaders who serve others by fostering belonging, sparking creativity, and inspiring whole-person commitment can empower both individuals and organizations to achieve shared goals. Practical applications and specific industry cases are provided to demonstrate how organizations have operationalized service-oriented approaches to positively impact their workforce, customers, and the communities in which they operate.
In today's complex business landscape, leadership is a challenge that requires looking beyond oneself to find true north. Profit motives alone no longer fuel strong, lasting organizations. Employees yearn for meaning, customers demand ethics, and society insists on responsibility. Yet in this climate of uncertainty, a simple truth reemerges: the most impactful leaders are those who serve others.
Today we will explore how leading through service cultivates purpose, strengthens culture, and builds trust – empowering individuals and energizing teams toward shared goals. Through research and real-world examples, I aim to shed light on an approach that fosters belonging, sparks creativity, and inspires people to bring their whole selves to work each day.
Defining Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is rooted in putting organizational and community needs before personal interests. It is not a style but a mindset, with humility as its foundation. Rather than take credit, a servant leader acknowledges the contributions of others. Their focus is on empowering growth in employees, supporting clients, and bettering society – not personal gain or glory. By removing ego from the equation, space opens for authentic relationships and collective problem solving. Research shows service-oriented leaders build high-performing cultures marked by innovation, resilience and meaning (Spears, 1995). They tap into intrinsic motivations to unleash potential in new ways.
Prioritizing People through Active Listening
At the core of sustainable success lies understanding diverse perspectives. Servant leaders make a daily practice of active listening, seeking first to understand before being understood (Covey, 1989). Through open and non-judgmental conversations, they gain insight into real challenges, surface untapped ideas, and foster psychological safety. Regular "walk-arounds" and one-on-ones keep leadership connected to frontline realities. During times of transition and uncertainty, prioritizing listening over directives is especially critical to maintain trust. International mining company BHP, for instance, embedded leadership rounding into its operations after safety incidents revealed communication gaps between leadership and workers (BHP, 2021). Regular check-ins now promote early problem identification and solution-focused collaboration.
Listening for Understanding, Not Just Information
While information sharing is important, the most impactful conversations center on understanding other's lived experiences, values, fears and aspirations. Studies show feeling heard significantly boosts employee engagement, well-being and discretionary effort (Gallup, 2017). To establish psychological safety, leaders must resist the urge to reply or react—instead focusing attention fully on the speaker through eye contact, questions and reflective statements. Interpreting intent accurately and with empathy is key. This level of presence builds meaningful connections that empower individuals and, in turn, strengthen organizational resilience over the long term.
Empowering through Distributed Leadership
No individual possesses all the answers. In complexity, the whole truly is greater than the sum of parts. Distributed leadership disperses decision-making across natural expertise to harness diverse perspectives. When authority is shared versus concentrated, motivation and creativity multiply. 3M’s approach to innovation exemplifies this well - empowering employees to allocate 15% of work time toward passion projects fostered breakthroughs like Post-it Notes (Kim & Mauborgne, 1999). Similarly, software giant GitHub cultivates a lean, collaborative culture where employees drive priorities through self-organized teams and community feedback (Rooney, 2022).
Unleashing Potential through Autonomy and Mastery
Empowering autonomy and competence actualizes human potential. When problems are truly “ours” versus “theirs,” buy-in and ownership naturally emerge. Research links feelings of control and skill-building to engagement, learning and performance (Deci & Ryan, 2000). To enable this, leaders connect daily tasks to bigger impacts, provide open-ended challenges, and celebrate wins publicly. They also facilitate peer-to-peer learning and development through rotational assignments, communities of practice and mentorship. Overall, distributed leadership cultivates shared responsibility, agility and creativity as the standard way of work.
Serving through Community Impact
Beyond transactional exchange, purposeful businesses uplift the communities supporting their success. As economic engines, large corporations impact societies for better or worse. Service-oriented leaders recognize this reality and proactively cultivate positive change. Through United Way partnerships and volunteer programs, many top employers mobilize talent toward social causes addressing root issues like poverty, education access and health. Industry titan Mastercard launched a global five-year commitment donating $250 million-worth of technology, volunteer hours and financial expertise toward financial inclusion worldwide (Mastercard, n.d.). Such programs benefit communities while boosting employee pride, skills and networks - driving retention.
Leveraging Core Competencies for Community Good
Rather than one-off acts of charity, impactful partnerships strategically leverage an organization's core competencies. During natural disasters for example, logistics giants coordinate supply chain operations; technology firms design communication tools; construction companies deploy equipment and engineers. Multi-year United Nations collaborations between Unilever, Coca-Cola and others apply marketing expertise solving issues like sanitation, women's empowerment and sustainable agriculture globally (Accenture, 2019). This integrated approach to social responsibility builds brand affinity while addressing root systemic challenges through collective effort. Everyone wins.
Conclusion
In a volatile world, leading through service anchors purpose in humanity. When people feel respected, valued and part of a collaborative mission, motivation and innovation surge. Research shows servant leadership correlates strongly to employee engagement, accountability and profitable growth over time (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006). However, it requires continuous reflection, vulnerability and putting pride aside to truly grasp diverse realities. Starting or strengthening a service culture starts from small acts - asking how rather than telling, acknowledging others' efforts openly, actively listening to understand beyond words. Leadership, at its heart, is about empowering human potential for collective benefit. In that simple truth lies opportunity for impact far beyond profits alone.
This brief explored how leading through service cultivates purpose, strengthens culture and builds trust to empower both individuals and organizations. By prioritizing people through active listening, distributing leadership and empowering community impact, service-oriented leaders foster belonging, spark creativity and inspire whole-person commitment to shared goals. While challenging, research indicates this approach cultivates high-performing, resilient and meaningful work cultures correlated to engagement, accountability, innovation and long-term profitable growth. Overall, serving others is the surest way to lead with heart and purpose in today’s complex world.
References
BHP. (2021, March 12). Safety leadership rounds. https://news.bhp.com/safety-leadership-rounds
Accenture. (2019, September 19). How multinational companies are tackling global issues like water scarcity, women's empowerment and sustainable agriculture through strategic partnerships. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/public-service/role-of-private-sector-sustainable-development
Barbuto, J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. Group & Organization Management, 31(3), 300–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601106287091
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. Simon and Schuster.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The" what" and" why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.
Gallup. (2017, October 3). State of the American workplace. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (1999). Strategy, value innovation, and the knowledge economy. Sloan management review, 40(3), 41-54.
Mastercard. (n.d.). Our commitment to financial inclusion. https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2021/our-commitment-to-financial-inclusion/
Rooney, K. (2022, January 27). How GitHub leverages self-organizing teams, public feedback to cultivate collaborative company culture. https://www.businessinsider.com/github-lean-collaborative-culture-self-organizing-teams-public-feedback-2022-1
Spears, L. C. (1995). Servant leadership and the Greenleaf legacy. In L. C. Spears (Ed.), Reflections on leadership: How Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant-leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers (p. 1–14). John Wiley & Sons.
Additional Reading
Westover, J. H. (2024). Optimizing Organizations: Reinvention through People, Adapted Mindsets, and the Dynamics of Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.3
Westover, J. H. (2024). Reinventing Leadership: People-Centered Strategies for Empowering Organizational Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.4
Westover, J. H. (2024). Cultivating Engagement: Mastering Inclusive Leadership, Culture Change, and Data-Informed Decision Making. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.5
Westover, J. H. (2024). Energizing Innovation: Inspiring Peak Performance through Talent, Culture, and Growth. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.6
Westover, J. H. (2024). Championing Performance: Aligning Organizational and Employee Trust, Purpose, and Well-Being. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.7
Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Workforce Evolution: Strategies for Adapting to Changing Human Capital Needs. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.8
Westover, J. H. (2024). Navigating Change: Keys to Organizational Agility, Innovation, and Impact. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.11
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). The Servant Leader: Finding Purpose through Service. Human Capital Leadership Review, 15(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.15.4.6
