The servant leader: a higher calling for dental professionals.

Full Abstract

The dental profession is guided by normative principles that provide guidance to our leaders and practicing dentists in addressing the needs of patients and the profession, yet there is room for incorporating new ideas that help dental professionals meet their professional obligations. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the concept of "servant leadership," especially in contrast with "self-serving leaders," and to suggest that servant leadership is consistent with the high ethical and professional ideals of the dental profession. The servant leader is the antithesis of the self-serving leader, who incessantly seeks more power and acquisition of material possessions. The servant leader's highest priority is the people (patients/students/customers) he or she serves. The concept of the servant-leader can take us away from self-serving, top-down leadership and encourage us to think harder about how to respect, value, and motivate people and ultimately provide better service to our patients.

Author information

Author/s: Certosimo, Fred (F);

Affiliation: Department of General Practice, School of Dentistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, 520 North 12 Street, Richmond, VA 23298-0566, USA. ajcertos(-atsign-)vcu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of dental education (J Dent Educ), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 73 (issue 9) : pp 1065-8

Dates: Created 2009/09/07; Completed 2009/09/29;

PMID: 19734247, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/29/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.