Can a self-serving leader become a servant leader Essay

Can a self-serving leader become a servant leader - Essay Example This perception can change, provided we have the willingness, ability and passion to change ourselves for the good. The book ‘Lead like Jesus’ written by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges serves as an ideal guide for someone who wants to adopt more of a servant leader attitude. In the book, the leadership in not mentioned in just organizational context but personal context as well as the authors have defined leadership as having an ability to influence on other people’s behavior, thinking or development in all or any one dimension of life (personal or professional). They have divided leadership into four parts of which the first two are heart and hand. These are the internal factors of leadership while the other two which are hand and habits refer to the external dimensions of leadership. The component of heart defines where ones focus is and whether an individual pays more attention to Religion, work or relationships. On the other hand, head refers to the fact what ones views, beliefs and ideas are about leadership. Hands refer to how clear a persons goals are and how consistently a person goes for them. In totality, it means how focused a person is towards his principles and values while habits accumulate to the reflection of ones beliefs and how a person puts it into his beliefs and actions (Blanchard and Hodges 2005). In order to be an effective leader all four of these domains have to be aligned towards one common goal. It is clear that a self serving and a servant leader exhibit different characters and hence they have different personality traits. It is all about what kind of personality a person develops and this development can be impacted by counseling, mentoring and reading self motivational books. The most important thing is to have the willingness to change and be flexible about the principals that an individual holds. Furthermore, another very important point mentioned in the book is that leadership transformation is only possible when a