Abusive Leaders and Alignment & Achievement

According to our definition of leadership (as found in SpiritBuilt Leadership #1: Leadership), there are three parts to leadership:

1. The leader establishes the direction or the vision.
2. He aligns the people in that direction.
3. He motivates and inspires them to move in that direction and to fulfill the vision.

Servant leaders differ from abusive leaders in all three basic issues of leadership: vision, alignment and achievement. In our previous Letter we examined the first area of contrast between servant and abusive leaders: vision. In this Letter we will consider alignment and achievement.

Alignment:

The issue of alignment involves helping the people to understand and embrace the direction.

In setting agendas that represent the interests of the organization, servant leaders continuously seek out the viewpoints of their followers on critical issues. They want to have the right vision and they want everyone to own it. Thus, they listen to the ideas, needs, aspirations and wishes of followers and then, within the context of their own secure and well-developed system of beliefs, respond in an appropriate way. They invite two-way communication with others, while still promoting a sense of knowing what they are doing. In this way, servant leaders build a broad understanding and ownership of the vision and a strong commitment to it. People do not follow such leaders because they are ordered to do so, or because they calculate that such compliance is in their own self-interest, but they voluntarily identify with the organization and its vision, and willingly seek to fulfill its purpose.

In contrast, abusive leaders unilaterally establish the vision and then impose it on everyone, demanding compliance.

Achievement:

The issue of the achievement of the vision involves helping the people begin to move and then keeping them moving in the right direction, so that the organization’s purposes are fulfilled.

Servant leaders see the potential in their followers who they perceive as coworkers and treat with respect. They are sensitive and responsive to their followers’ needs and aspirations and share both information and opportunities with them. In this way, they achieve higher levels of ability, motivation and commitment.

Abusive leaders, however, are not so concerned with their followers. Self-focused, they are insensitive and unresponsive to the needs, hopes and desires of others. Often they are arrogant and harsh.

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (1 Tim. 5:1-2)

In 1 Timothy 5, Paul shows that a healthy leader values the relationship between believers far above any need to assert or prove his own authority. The leader must not use the depersonalizing “tongue-lashing,” which method of correction relies on fear and authority and is often used when feelings of anger and insecurity are involved.

Servant leaders express confidence in followers’ abilities to achieve the vision, and when it is met, they recognize the contributions of others and share the credit for success.

Abusive leaders have a low opinion of others and take all the credit for any organizational successes that are achieved.

Our next Letter will study the contrast between servant and abusive leadership in the area of personal qualities.