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Serve first, lead second: Impact of servant leadership on wellbeing and culture within emergency service context
This presentation shares findings from my ESF 2025 Scholarship study tour examining the impact of leadership culture on wellbeing within emergency services, with a particular focus on ‘Servant Leadership’ in practice. Research consistently shows that organisational factors such as poor leadership, bullying, and lack of psychological safety are more harmful to responder wellbeing than operational trauma. It is often not the horrible work that harms, but the environments in which that work is done.
Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 1970) is a values-based style of leadership that prioritises service, trust, empowerment and the growth of others, contradicting traditional command & control paradigms. Often referenced in corporate & non-profit settings, Servant Leadership applied in high-stakes environments such as fire and policing has been shown to improve responder health, resiliency, and post-traumatic growth, yet is seldom formally embedded in these contexts. Concurrently, these sectors face increasing psychological injury & burnout; as well as recruitment, retainment & cultural challenges, highlighting the need for leadership practices better aligned with psychological safety.
The study draws on immersive on-site engagement with the Swedish Police Authority, one of the few emergency service organisations globally to have scaled a trust-based, servant-oriented leadership development program and strategy. Insights are drawn from interviews with program architects and senior leaders, lived-experience accounts from participants now in leadership roles, participant feedback, and organisational data. Additional comparative insights are drawn from US agencies that have trialled Servant Leadership programs with varying degrees of success.
Themes emerging across contexts include increased psychological safety, improved leader member relationships, earlier and more skilled performance management, strengthened internal and external trust, and healthier team functioning despite chronic stress and trauma.
Lleadership culture is a primary upstream determinant of responder wellbeing and makes the case for Servant Leadership as a viable, evidence-informed pathway for sustainable cultural change in emergency services.
Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 1970) is a values-based style of leadership that prioritises service, trust, empowerment and the growth of others, contradicting traditional command & control paradigms. Often referenced in corporate & non-profit settings, Servant Leadership applied in high-stakes environments such as fire and policing has been shown to improve responder health, resiliency, and post-traumatic growth, yet is seldom formally embedded in these contexts. Concurrently, these sectors face increasing psychological injury & burnout; as well as recruitment, retainment & cultural challenges, highlighting the need for leadership practices better aligned with psychological safety.
The study draws on immersive on-site engagement with the Swedish Police Authority, one of the few emergency service organisations globally to have scaled a trust-based, servant-oriented leadership development program and strategy. Insights are drawn from interviews with program architects and senior leaders, lived-experience accounts from participants now in leadership roles, participant feedback, and organisational data. Additional comparative insights are drawn from US agencies that have trialled Servant Leadership programs with varying degrees of success.
Themes emerging across contexts include increased psychological safety, improved leader member relationships, earlier and more skilled performance management, strengthened internal and external trust, and healthier team functioning despite chronic stress and trauma.
Lleadership culture is a primary upstream determinant of responder wellbeing and makes the case for Servant Leadership as a viable, evidence-informed pathway for sustainable cultural change in emergency services.
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