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When we look at a servant leadership, the growth and wellbeing of the employees is prioritized. In this type of leadership, the employees are the main factor, as the organization grows as its employees do. The theory of servant leadership began from a man name Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s. He believed that that the effectiveness of the servant leadership was the relation between the servant and the leader. He stated that giving the employees the ability to relate to their leader or the other way around, created a greater trust and autonomy for the workers. There were some important characteristics that a servant leader should have. The most important however was having a servant mindset and making it a priority. Greenleaf stated that servant leaders who were more interested in serving the needs of the employees, were less interest in the profit part of the organization, and instead focused more on helping their employees along the way to the finish line. If this type of leadership is done correctly, a multitude of things can begin within the workplace. Mainly the growth of trust, accountability, and inclusion within the company between the leaders and the employees.

Cheryl Bachelder was the CEO of Popeyes Chicken, and her success within the company revolved around servant leadership. The company was on the brink of going bankrupt when she took over but was able to reverse its downward spiral through her leadership style. Bachelder had been known to be a good leader in other companies before Popeyes, but she truly shined when she started to use this style of leadership. When she first became CEO, her first objective was to figure out who she was serving, and so she went on a listening tour to different cities and stores. She was able to gain a lot of information from the employees and guests at all the stores and so she used this information to come up with a plan. She then started to build relationships with the different franchise owners, basically making them feel as if they were partners. She was able to open different lines of communication and it allowed for discussion of issues within the different chains. She used this to slowly build up the bottom line of all the franchises and helped them to become more confident and successful.

When we look at spiritual leadership, we are looking at values, attitudes, and behaviors that are needed for motivation of your own self. Yes, it also can be used to motivate others as well, but this is one of the differences between servant and spiritual leadership. In servant leaderships, leaders serve their employees to lift them up within the company, and in spiritual leadership the employees can use these things to lift themselves up. However, both are very similar in the fact that they both want for the employees to rise within a company through their own growth. Spiritual leaders use altruistic love, which includes forgiveness, compassion, kindness, honesty, patience, and appreciation. These things help employees to feel accepted and part of the team. Well, the way leaders encourage employee growth through the servant leadership is very similar. Employees also feel as if they are important and needed.