Fellowship and Leadership (Compare and Contrast Essay) Education Essay

Running head: SERVANT LEADERSHIP & FOLLOWERSHIP1
Servant Leadership and Followership: Compare and Contrast
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Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast followership and servant leadership. The emerging realities of the 21st-century military offer a different picture of leadership and followership where leadership, particularly servant leadership, and followership, contrary to long-held beliefs, are complementary and strongly encouraged as exchangeable. To understand servant leadership and followership better, a closer examination is required whereby comparisons and contrasts are made between each. This brief essay aims to compare and contrast servant leadership and followership concepts in military contexts to showcase similarities, differences, and, possibly, ways for integration.
Servant Leadership and Followership: Common Grounds
Unlike a widespread yet mistaken perception, servant leadership and followership share several commonalities. For one, each requires sustained commitment to work (Disque, 2018). Servant leadership and followership require leaders and followers, respectively, to commit to a mission to achieve success. Failing to commit leads to mission failure as only one sure outcome. Second, each is informed by constant communication, up and down, and horizontally, to ensure any given activity, briefing, or mission is understood. Third, each allows for proper dissent should disagreement be expressed to maintain dignity for subordinates and authority for commanders. Fourth, collaboration is essential for servant leadership and followership to work. This is, perhaps, best captured in characteristics of servant leadership including listening up (for subordinates) and down (for commanders); persuasion of commanders to change course by subordinates as well as subordinates to commit a certain course of action involving high risks; and, not least, stewardship whereby commanders, as servant leaders, cater to needs of subordinates, and subordinates have full ownership of mandated service (Griffing, 2019; Disque). Far from being an exhaustive list of similarities between servant leadership and followership, such similarities are only meant to draw attention to the potentials each concept holds– aside from, or perhaps because of, all differences servant leadership and followership have.
Servant Leadership and ...