Leading as Servant in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Using servant leadership as a framework, leaders within a school of nursing guided faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic and called them to address social injustice in the summer of 2020. A model was developed to sustain growth and build resilience of students, faculty, and staff. Influenced by external and internal drivers that stimulated the need for change, strategies were implemented based on core principles of servant leadership. Outcomes emerged in three categories: collaborative strengths demonstrated by students, faculty, and staff; performance of the community to be intentional about change; and transformative practices leading to enhancement of internal and external partnerships.

Leading With Heart

“…Benefits include development of a strong team culture, strong relationships, enhanced team confidence (Asuna, 2023), and trust (Saleem et al, 2022). In addition, servant leadership has demonstrated positive correlations with organizational outcomes (Yasir & Jan, 2022), collaboration (Tagliareni et al, 2022), reduced burnout (Ma et al, 2021), job satisfaction and engagement (Specchia et al, 2021), and overall nurse well-being (Niinihuhta & Häggman-Laitila, 2021). Conversely, a lack of authority can lead to confusion and lack of confidence in decision-making (Team Asana, 2023).…”

Servant-Leadership in Nursing Education

“…It is this lack of construct clarity that hinders theory development (Eva et al, 2019). However, of the 16 known measures, there are three measures of servant-leadership behavior that Eva et al ( 2019 Executive leaders in a southern school of nursing used servantleadership as a theoretical framework to guide faculty through the COVID-19 pandemic and the national civil unrest in the summer of 2020 after the egregious death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers (Tagliareni et al, 2022). The researchers developed a model to "sustain growth and build resilience" (p. 315).…”