Could I have served my follower better?
Servant leadership – prioritising followers' needs – drives strong organisational outcomes, yet developing it in practice remains a challenge. This study introduces a structured intervention where leaders reflect on past interactions and consider how they could have better served their team members. Tested across two randomised experiments, including a multi-organisation field study, the approach demonstrably improved servant leadership behaviours. Crucially, benefits extended beyond leaders themselves: followers showed greater thriving and increased helping behaviours. For organisations, this offers an actionable, evidence-based tool for leadership development programs – one that improves culture and performance through structured reflection rather than traditional training alone.
Counterfactual thinking interventions encourage leaders to consider how they could have better served followers’ needs. In their paper, Dr Ui Sun and Prof Nathan Eva, offer a theory-driven approach to servant leadership development.
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Article
- Sun, U. Y., Liden, R. & Eva, N. (2026). How Could I Have Served My Follower Better? A Counterfactual Thinking Intervention for Servant Leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior