Module six barriers to servant leadership. We've covered a lot of qualities and characteristics that make a great servant leader, but it is just as important to recognize what can hinder someone as well. servant leaders are meant to encourage growth and promote confidence in their employees. But delivering excessive criticism, demanding action from employees and simply refusing to engage with them can create the complete opposite effect. Excessive criticism. constructive criticism can be a helpful tool in management when it is used correctly.

However, simply delivering criticism to employees without any form of evaluation or redemption is damaging to the employee and the confidence they carry at work. Excessive criticism can cause employees to feel as though they cannot perform their job correctly on many levels, which can lead to a lack of confidence and decreased productivity. A servant leader should review any form of criticism before they deliver it to the employee and determine if it will ultimately be helpful to them. And what is the best way to deliver them. feedback so it is constructive, not destructive. Think before delivering criticism.

Is this helpful? Can it be worded more effectively? How will the employee perceive this? Can I offer any positive notes with it? Doing everything yourself. Learning to delegate is an important step in becoming a great servant leader.

When a leader delegates tasks and not demand action, it shows their confidence in their employees that they will complete the job right without much interference from management. But when a leader decides to simply do every task by themselves, it cannot only create a very large workload for them to do, but it loses the faith of the employees and can weaken professional relationships. As a servant leader, learn to delegate and assign tasks to avoid the workload burnout, and show faith and trust in your employees abilities and skills. Remember to delegate show trust in your employees give clear instructions and expectations. Give employees a chance to ask questions. Follow up to ensure the task is completed.

Sitting on the sidelines. A servant leader knows when it is time to step in to help an employee and when it is the right time to step back and observe from a distance. However, if a leader constantly sits on the sidelines, refusing to participate and still giving orders, they will lose the loyalty of their team and any respect as a leader. A servant leader is involved in their employees successes and their challenges because they care about their achievements and growth. But a leader who simply sits on the sidelines and does not work alongside their employees shows that they only care about their own agendas and interests. By not participating in the workplace.

This leader relays the message that they hold all the power themselves and have no problem telling their employees what to do, but won't actually put in much of their own effort. While employees may work for this type of leader for a short while, they will eventually feel undervalued and underappreciated, leading them to move on to other areas. demanding from employees. A servant leader knows how to delegate properly and make requests to employees without a sense of demand or threatening. However, many leaders feel that as a leader they are entitled to demand what they need from their employees and expect them to blindly follow. A demanding leader will not only intimidate their employees to get what they want or need, but they will also demand more from them over time, such as more work to meet a deadline, more duties assigned to them to complete or more time spent at the office for various tasks.

But this type of leader is actually not leading at all but trying to build a herd of followers. Some employees may follow for the time being, but many employees will not tolerate all of the demands and seek to move on somewhere else. Case Study. Adam and Julie were discussing the recent decline of employees in Julie's department. Recently the company has had to hire many new employees but then watch them quit soon after. Adam asked Julie about some of the management practices she was using.

Julie started by saying she He had a critical feedback system in place, but it only included negative components. She said she would normally tell her employees what to do and then leave them alone, but had to make overtime mandatory to pick up the slack from their low productivity. Lastly, Julie said if her employees couldn't do the task correctly, she would simply take it from them and do it herself, just to make sure it was done right. Adam told Julie that these qualities did not make a good leader and felt that many of the employees were not satisfied under her actions. He told Julie that she would need to attend some leadership classes and work with him to improve some of her management techniques.