The 3 Leadership Paradigms: Autocratic, Paternalistic, & Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is becoming an increasingly recognized term in our leadership and organizational literature. When the likes of Peter Senge, Steven Covey, Meg Wheatley, Ken Blanchard, and Ron Heifetz give credence and promote the term we must at least accept the fact that the idea of servant leadership is gaining a wider audience.

Autocratic leadership stands as the antithesis of servant leadership. However, neither autocratic leadership nor servant leadership are the predominant organizational leadership practiced today.

Instead, most organizations operate with a paternalistic view of leadership and that, more than any other reason, hinders them from becoming truly collaborative and effective. This kind of benevolent rule has the effect of producing a child-like response in followers who readily accept that their leaders know more, are wiser, and should be followed. This abdication of their own responsibility to lead has far-reaching effects.

The paternalistic view of leadership is not new. James O’Toole observed that “rule by a few wise and virtuous men has been the preferred mode since 400 B.C., the era of two influential near contemporaries, Plato in the West and Confucius in the East. Both believed that chaos is the enemy of efficiency and that it can be averted only by the strong leadership of an enlightened elite.”

Laub defines three distinct paradigms of leadership. The underlying leadership paradigm chosen determines the corresponding health of the organization. The paradigms are:

1. Autocratic Leadership. The leader is viewed as a dictator and treats others as his/her servants.

2. Paternalistic Leadership. The leader is viewed as a parent and treats others as his/her children.

3. Servant Leadership. The leader is viewed as a steward and treats others as his/her partners.

The paternalistic leadership paradigm was discovered to be the most common way that workers experience leadership within their organizations. This parental view of leadership encourages the led to take on the role of children. This leads to an unhealthy transactional leadership that operates more on compliance rather than true individual motivation.

The "Leader as Parent" and "Employee as Child" dynamic can exhibit two very different behavioral patterns:

1. The Critical Parent and the Rebellious Child (a negative paternalistic orientation). In this environment, the leaders often view the workers as less than capable children who need strong guidance and control from the leadership.

2. The Nurturing Parent and the Dependent/Compliant Child (a positive paternalistic orientation). In this environment, the leaders view the workers as very capable children who continue to need the wisdom and foresight of the leader (a “father knows best” mentality).

The "Leader as Parent" and "Employee as Child" relationship becomes self-perpetuating, as each role tends to draw out and encourage the opposite role. This is an unhealthy situation for any organization that desires to develop leadership throughout the enterprise, empower others to act, and build a community of capable partners to fulfill an agreed upon mission and vision.

The answer to this dilemma is to foster adult roles that emphasize open, direct communication, partnership, receptive listening and mutual respect. This is the healthiest scenario—when people at all levels of the organization trust and respect one another and encourage active participation and leadership, the organization as a whole prospers.

Two critical issues—shared awareness and open communication—are essential for establishing and growing the trust that is needed to create an organization that is healthy and growing.

Transitioning to the servant leadership paradigm requires a totally new way of thinking about organizations and leadership. As leaders, we can choose this kind of organization.

Assessing Your Own Leadership Paradigm

Read each of the descriptions below and select the one that most closely represents how you currently experience your own team or organization. Ask your co-workers, colleagues, and employees to do the same.

1. Workers experience this organization as an autocratic-led organization characterized by low levels of trust and trustworthiness and high levels of uncertainty and fear. People lack motivation to serve the organization because they do not feel that it is their organization or their goals. Leadership is autocratic in style and is imposed from the top levels of the organization. It is an environment where risks are seldom taken, failure is often punished and creativity is discouraged. Most workers do not feel valued and often feel used by those in leadership. Change is needed but is very difficult to achieve.

2. Workers experience this organization as a negatively paternalistic (parent-led) organization characterized by minimal to moderate levels of trust and trustworthiness along with an underlying uncertainty and fear. People feel that they must prove themselves and that they are only as good as their last performance. Workers are sometimes listened to but only when they speak in line with the values and priorities of the leaders. Conformity is expected while individual expression is discouraged. Leaders often take the role of critical parent while workers assume the role of the cautious child.

3. Workers experience this organization as a positively paternalistic (parent-led) organization characterized by a moderate level of trust and trustworthiness along with occasional uncertainty and fear. Creativity is encouraged as long as it doesn’t move the organization too far beyond the status quo. Risks can be taken, but failure is sometimes feared. Goals are mostly clear, though the overall direction of the organization is sometimes confused. Leaders often take the role of nurturing parent while workers assume the role of the cared-for child.

4. Workers experience this organization as a servant-oriented organization characterized by authenticity, the valuing and developing of people, the building of community and the providing and sharing of positive leadership. These characteristics are evident throughout much of the organization. People are trusted and are trustworthy. They are motivated to serve the interests of each other before their own self-interest and are open to learning from each other. Leaders and workers view each other as partners working in a spirit of collaboration.

Now, ask each person to share their rating and the reasoning behind it and then talk about what you’ve learned and what you might want to keep doing, start doing and/or stop doing in the future.