Servant Leadership vs. Servant Management
I'm not an expert in Servant Leadership; I only know the phrase because one of my career coaching clients mentioned it. But, when I heard the term, I was surprised that I hadn't heard it before.
Most MBA programs have it in their curriculum as one of the management styles one can use as a manager. Such as...
- Directive Management
- Coaching Management
- Relational Management
- Affiliative Management
- Participative Management (also called democratic style)
- Pace-setting Leadership (aka: leading by example)
- Servant Leadership

You can learn more about these management styles in this article from Rasmussen University.
Let's call it Servant Management
I prefer the term Servant Management over Servant Leadership.
So, what's the difference?
"Servant leadership" sounds like a top-down approach that removes the meaning of servant. "Servant management" sounds more like someone on the ground than someone on the top of the triangle.

The core values that I can connect with are:
Honour Others (Before Yourself)
Respect and raise others ahead of yourself.
Inspire Vision (Before Setting The Course)
Elicit vision from others around you so that ideas and motivation come from your team.
Choose Ethics (Before Profit)
Setting your ethical value higher than the bottom line will end up helping the bottom line over the long term because it will build long-term trust.
Empower Others (Before Personal Gain)
Asking for the opinions of others and implementing their ideas will help them see that they can impact their work, allowing them to feel empowered.
Commit to the growth of people (Before Tasks)
To develop the team members that you manage, understand their strengths and weaknesses so that you can give them tasks that are suited to them and help them to stretch themselves to grow.
This style of management can take some getting used to, or it could be something you are already using without even realizing it.
If you struggle with managing teams in your work, feel free to book a free exploratory session with Tam Young Coach.