The Relationship Between Trait Mindfulness and Servant Leadership

Abstract

In recent years, servant leadership has become a widely studied leadership style. Literature has focused on the outcomes of servant leadership, and only a few studies have looked at the antecedents of servant leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine trait mindfulness as an antecedent of eight dimensions of servant leader behaviors. It was hypothesized that trait mindfulness would have a positive relationship with the servant leader dimensions humility, authenticity, and standing back. In addition, a research question was posited to see if trait mindfulness would have a relationship with the other dimensions of servant leadership including empowerment, courage, stewardship, accountability, and forgiveness. A total of 142 managers were obtained via an online survey to test the hypotheses and research question. Results showed that trait mindfulness showed a significant positive relationship with humility, authenticity, empowerment, stewardship, and courage. These results suggest that trait mindfulness is an antecedent of servant leadership behaviors. Organizations should assess leaders on their levels of trait mindfulness if they aim to hire servant leaders. In addition, organizations should look at mindfulness trainings to develop servant leaders within the company.