Most of, if not all of my leadership experience has been through athletics, and servant leadership is something that is emphasized from the start of any athletic career. It manifests itself differently in every sport, but the main idea, to paint with a broad brush, is that no one is too important or too skilled to be put above their teammates. A leader of a team demonstrates this asset off the field more than on it. The captains should be the ones who clean the bus after an away game, or clean up the field after practice. This sends the message that they are putting their teammates before themselves. In turn, this makes them more approachable, especially to younger players, and this builds overall team camaraderie.
Greenleaf and Spears talk about servant leadership in a more general setting. Greenleaf references Hermann Hesse’s Journey to the Eastto show what exactly is meant by servant leadership. In this story, Leo does the grunt work for his crew, and when he disappears, the whole mission falls apart. Later, we find out that Leo was actually the leader of this mission. This directly ties to our previous conversations about humility in leaders; humility is the principle that servant leadership revolves around. Followers will not support a leader who puts himself first. Followers want a leader who will genuinely care for them, and servant leadership is the best way for a leader to prove this to their followers.
I really like the parallel you drew to athletics. It’s not often that we think about servant leaders and team leaders being the same but you make a good point as to why they could/should be.
I really liked how you connected it to athletics because after reading this I feel the same way. I would not have thought of this if you didn’t bring it up.
I really like the way that you compared servant leadership to athletics. I feel like many leadership opportunities we have in high school and college are often through running an organization and when you take on that role you often have more work to do in order to please all members of an organization. Because that is the main form of leadership we are able to achieve from a young age, I am almost surprised that we don’t have more servant leaders.
Really good point on how “followers will not support a leader who puts himself first” and “followers want a leader who will genuinely care for them”. I agree! The leader-follower relationship is like any relationship- in order to thrive you need mutual respect! (which is often achieved in servant leadership).
The way that you connected your thesis to athleticism reminds me how no one is above the team or law and it reflects the past idea of humility because leaders with humility are more personable and are not just some sort of figure we have to listen to.
I completely agree and can relate to this as well being a student athlete. When a captain places themselves above the rest of the team he loses respect. However, when he asserts himself as equal to and is there to provide and teach he gains the respect of his teammates. They have the characteristics of humility which allows them to lead so well.