Shepherd Leadership: A Review and Future Research Directions

Abstract

This chapter is important because Shepherd leadership is not much taught in popular business or leadership textbooks. There is inadequate understanding and practice of compassionate care-Shepherd leadership quality-in sectors such as education and healthcare. Education is an important sector as it impacts students’ learning. Teachers with Shepherd leadership qualities motivate students to outperform, and be creative and work persistently to improve themselves, their communities and society. Healthcare is an important sector because providing healthcare has significant impact on personal and public health, development and economic growth to attain major employment. Additionally, research reveals that caring and compassionate leadership is lacking in organizations because it forms resilience, nurtures a team spirit, enhances engagement, and may reduce employee turnover. This chapter sheds light on the importance of compassionate and caring leaders in religious and educational organizations, healthcare, the army, and business organizations. This chapter will discuss mainly Shepherd leadership and aims to define it and will explore where it is mostly utilized and in what type of organizations has this leadership been applied and successful. This chapter also compares Shepherd leadership with Servant leadership, a closely related leadership, and other popular leadership styles in today’s organizations. Lastly, this chapter will touch on the challenges of Shepherd leadership.

1. Introduction

A great leader is the one who sparks the followers’ passion and brings out the best in them. In many cases when trying to explain why such leaders are very effective, many tend to give credit to their perfect strategy, vision or to their innovative ideas. In reality however, such leaders are effective because they share their compassion with their followers as they work through the emotions, irrespective of what they are set out to accomplish. Those leaders’ success relies on ‘how’ it is being done therefore, if those leaders fail to share their compassion, care and drive their emotions in the right direction; nothing will work as anticipated [1]. Additionally, there is so much confusion about spirituality in public education and how educators may generate the right environment to adopt spirituality as a form of diversity, as an aspect of leadership at secular institutions. When educational institutions encourage and support the students’ spiritual walk without biases, this may extend students connectedness to self, others and the community at large. Also, when spiritual leadership is practiced, it may harvest the skills that are demanded by employers once those educational institutions nurture students’ spiritual development [2].

Several recent clinical studies concluded that there is inadequate understanding and inadequate practice of compassionate care in the healthcare industry as an example-the physical and the mental health; a more profound understanding of crucial behaviors and attitudes that bring better health to patients through compassionate care is in great need [3, 4].

Shepherd leaders, serve their followers with compassion, they know how to build themselves up through their spirituality as well as build and encourage their followers; to have compassion is when you serve others as a leader and not wait to be served [5]. There are real world examples that prove that when a type of Spiritual leadership is in place in business organizations, positive outcomes are harvested. The Ynna Conglomerate group, a Moroccan holding company led by a Spiritual leader Miloud Chaabi. Basically all his decisions at work were taken based on his ethical convictions; he was a shepherd before he established his organization. Chaabi was listed on Forbes Magazine among the top 40 billionaires in the continent of Africa [6]. Mrs. Shiprah Gichaga, is another example among many women in Africa, who was the executive director of the Kenya chapter of African Women Educationalists; lobbied for educational equality of access for girls, especially in marginal communities [7]. The hope Mrs. Shiprah had, kept her motivation going, even when the figures presented only minimal progress; it is the hope as a major element of spiritual leadership, as it provides persistence and resilience to continue until the goal is accomplished [7].

In this chapter the author advances a position regarding the current state of leadership and how it can be improved in multiple sectors; this is done through a theoretical lens of Shepherd leadership. The author will argue that through careful application of Shepherd leadership, organizations regardless of the sector can better motivate their employees and reap great success. The author aims to unlock some insights in Shepherd leadership by shedding light on the humane aspects of the real purpose of the organization and its people, besides maximizing profits, that is almost absent in today’s business world [8]. Being caring and compassionate not only is the right thing to do, but it is also good for the firm’s bottom line.

The author advances her position by starting with a theoretical framework that defines the Shepherd leadership model. Following, the author continues then with literature review to include Shepherd leadership in religious organizations where it is widely utilized, a brief comparison of Shepherd leadership with very similar leadership such as Servant leadership, followed by a comparison of Shepherd leadership with popular leadership approaches. Then the author goes on to discuss the success of Shepherd leadership in churches, education, healthcare, business sector, and the army followed by the discussion of drawbacks or challenges of Shepherd leadership.

2. Theoretical framework

Shepherding is one of the most ancient professions of humankind, the image of a shepherd as leader goes back since thousands of years and is a widespread image. The Shepherd leader’ symbol is a perfect way through which to understand leadership in general [9]. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the history of the word was taken from the Middle English word Sheepherde which comprises of the two words, sheep and herd [10].

The sufficient credentials that define a good leader is a ‘good Shepherd’ who has the best interest at heart for the flock [11]. A shepherd leader is a Spiritual leader who displays an honest character and demonstrates good moral behavior as he/she holds high respect for human dignity. Spiritual leadership appears to be an all-inclusive view in comparison with Servant and Shepherd leadership approaches. Spirituality in leadership emphasizes progress based on worldwide values like morality, integrity, love, compassion, thankfulness that have an influence on the leader’s behavior, ability and attitude. Such spiritual values are desired for generating accountable and ethical actions, as they control what to think, who the person is and what he/she does [12].

A Shepherd leader portrays humility while leads by example with patience, he/she encourages values and ethics, cares about the flock, with sound judgment and always seeks justice for all. The sincere character of Shepherd leaders stems from their fundamental beliefs [13]. The Shepherd leader is expected to sincerely care and demonstrate concern for others. The shepherd leader repeatedly evaluates the essentials of the herd and have empathy and go beyond the call of duty to support his/her followers [14]. As the Shepherd leader spends a plethora of time with his/her flock; he/she becomes very knowledgeable of their needs. Therefore, the shepherd leader develops great communication skills in order to guide, counsel and motivate his/her flock as well as provide accountability. Additionally, the shepherd leader provides the needed security to encourage stability, safety, innovation, and motivation to advance the organization [13].

The origin of the Shepherd leadership could trace back to the early biblical record, according to the Judeo-Christian faith, when God validated a preferential option for shepherds. This started in the Old Testament Bible and persists throughout the New Testament. Genesis 4:2 which is in the first book of the Old Testament, explains that Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer and it revealed that Abel’s sacrifice was one of his firstborn lambs that was preferred by God while Cain’s sacrifice of his crops was not preferred by God; which clearly revealed a favored option for the shepherd’s sacrifice [15]. A potential explanation would be as Cain was a ‘tiller of the ground’, he engaged in a more industrially innovative work than his brother Abel, since agriculture became the basis of the very first cultures or civilizations in recorded history. Shepherding, on the other hand, was the job of nomads and thereby set apart from the trappings of civilization [16]. As a result, through the Old Testament record, God often used the role of the shepherd to form His chosen leaders. Likewise, the leader as a shepherd is stressed as well, when Jesus Christ reveals himself as “the Good Shepherd” and compares the role with both hired laborer and the robber [16].

At the surface, the business world today may look at Shepherd Leadership style as an over-simplified style of leadership however, King David, one of Israel’s pronounced leaders, stated in Psalm 23, a book in the Old Testament Bible, that before he was seated as king of Israel, he was a shepherd. In today’s society, we may think of shepherding as a serene and peaceful activity, King David on the other hand may have disagreed with this simplification [17]. For King David, shepherding was much more than a peaceful activity; it was a hazardous and difficult business. The humility of Shepherd leaders is a difficult thing to be and it is established in their inclination to work silently behind the scenes, devote time on minor things, and make, seemingly unimportant decisions unrewarded and unobserved [18]. Furthermore, ruthless shepherding may destruct a family’s financial well-being if for example the quality of the flock’s meat, wool, skin, or milk is being degraded [17]. Therefore, from this viewpoint, David’s writings about shepherding may look more applicable to today’s business leaders [17]. However, the reader of David’s writings can sense the satisfaction and respect of the shepherd follower [17].

Shepherd leadership vision, with hope and unselfish love, offer the foundation for strong intrinsic motivation through identifying of goals and task involvement since it fits in the higher order needs category of individuals, such as feeling autonomous, self-efficacy, proficiency, and relatedness. Through empowerment, Shepherd leaders may free employees from fear, force, and over control. This allows employees to utilize their talents when needed while Shepherd leaders also benefit by focusing on strategic matters in this ever-changing environment [19].

The follower-leader in Shepherd leadership creates value similarity all across the empowered team which is very nurturing. Higher Spiritual leaderships such as Shepherd leadership proposes a promise as a catalyst, for a new model of leadership theory where theories and practice combine and outspread charismatic and transformational leadership theories along with values-based theories [20].

3. Literature review

The main objective of this chapter is to define Shepherd leadership and have a better understanding of such leadership, and which organizations are known to be utilizing and applying Shepherd leadership. Also this chapter compares Shepherd leadership with other similar leadership styles such as Servant leadership as well as other popular leadership styles. In addition, this chapter will aim to examine the applicability of Shepherd leadership in both, religious and secular sectors while touching on the challenges and potential drawbacks of such leadership.

3.1 Shepherd leadership in religious organizations

This term-Shepherd leadership is widely recognized and practiced in most churches, a Christian house of worship, all over the world. The Shepherd Leadership is when a church calls for a leader who is able to walk side by side with his flock in regular communication and care, all while teaching them self-adequacy [21]. The more self-sufficient a church becomes, the pastor functions as a true shepherd. It is worthy of noting that faith fixated Shepherd leaders give credit to God when a sermon touches the heart of the hearer. As it is believed that the Shepherd leader is used by God to feed, encourage and support the flock and when great accomplishments take place, the Shepherd leader never takes credit, but gives it all to God [22].

3.2 A brief comparison between shepherd leadership with servant leadership

There is a substantial link between Shepherd Leadership and Servant Leadership; it may exist as a model of Servant leadership in a parallel fashion where spiritual leadership is advanced as a model of Servant leadership. Robert Greenleaf originally presented this concept in his paper in 1970 [23]. The Servant leader is the opposite of the oppressive and authoritarian leader, who is mainly occupied with controlling his followers and gathering wealth; one who has confidence in the idea that leaders should be first. While, Servant leaders may not be concerned with individual glorification and self-interest, their focus is on others; they care about and empower individuals and act as facilitators, and long for all of their followers to be successful [24]. In order to lead, a servant leader has a duty to serve, mentor and teach followers; this is considered the main motto that is indicative of Servant leadership. Servant leadership is the methodical process of developing the needs of followers ahead of those leaders which may potentially be found inside many organizations. Shepherd leadership however, provides individual followers with empowerment and encouragement to do well [25]. The value sought from effective leadership is grounded in the sharing of accountability, respect, care, and being practical with the people, not against them. Thus, in Shepherd leadership, delegation is essential and must be handled wisely with a goal in mind which may fundamentally equip, empower and inspire followers in their efforts [26]. There is an evident overlap of Servant, Spiritual and Shepherd leaderships. To point out a leader, the Bible uses the Shepherd metaphor; according to the Old Testament Bible, Prophet Moses was chosen as a leader due to his tenderness and caring character as he was a shepherd; he fed his sheep and made sure they never went astray [15]. Meanwhile the Servant leader is the one who delights his followers with tenderness and compassion; in many cases, leaders are shunned for being insensible or indifferent with their followers which strip them from influencing them into ethical standing [27].

Servant leadership explains the reason behind the motivation of the shepherd in fulfilling his/her responsibilities. Servant leaders are committed to put their followers’ needs before their own which allows for relationship formation with their followers as it provides leverage to be influential; with such influence, a culture is recognized [17]. Shepherd and Servant leaderships can be both considered Spiritual leadership which may be recognized as faith-based leaderships; such leadership styles compel the leader to follow his/her vision to make a difference in the organization as part of the leader’s calling which provides meaning and purpose to the leader’s life [19].

Table 1 gives a brief comparison of servant leadership attributes and shepherd leadership attributes.

Servant leadership attributes VS. Shepherd leadership attributes
1. Listening	1. Best interest at heart for the flock
2. Empathy	2. Accountability Sharing
3. Healing	3. Honesty
4. Awareness	4. Good moral behavior
5. Persuasion	5. Has sincere character
6. Conceptualization	6. Humility
7. Foresight	7. Leads by example
8. Stewardship	8. Patience
9. Commitment to people growth	9. Sound judgment
10. Building community	10. Seeks justice for all
	11. Sincerely cares
	12. Listens, cooperates to create harmony, security, stability and safety

Table 1.

Servant leadership attributes versus Shepherd leadership attributes [17].

3.3 Comparing Shepherd leadership with other popular leadership styles!

There are noticeable differences between Shepherd leadership and other popular leaderships. The first difference is that most popular leadership approaches can be manipulating as they aim to influence, guide or control followers’ behaviors in order to accomplish the firm’s objectives. Secular leadership models put emphasis on the leader overpowering his/her followers through demanding work while Shepherd leadership utilizes power via kind and gentle service [28].

Furthermore, Shepherd leadership is about building relationships and demonstrating sincere love as the highest inspiration and transformational force. It pursues to work on maturing the leader-follower unity of purpose and change the followers’ hearts while they joyfully complete their tasks. Other popular leadership approaches rely on their followers to complete tasks; Shepherd leadership on the other hand, gets the tasks done through building relationships and transforming individuals [29]. The second difference is that popular leadership approaches are usually transactional and demand followers’ commitment through the use of rewards, intimidations or coercions [29].

Popular leaderships are usually based on the concept of reciprocity; which brings mutual benefits; therefore subordinates perform their parts to benefit the leadership while they can benefit from a good evaluation or a bonus at the end of the term. The view of rewards/punishment or fear of vengeance frequently motivates, since it provokes positive or negative feelings within followers. The relational view of leadership understands that the individual role is powerful, and at the same time is always performed in the context of the whole belief system, practices, and action logic that form how mutual direction, order, and commitment are generated [30]. Shepherd leadership however, is relational and neither relies on possibilities of rewards nor threats of consequences, and followers do their tasks and go the extra mile to please their leader; as they expect the leader’s steadfast care and love for them [31]. Finally, Shepherd leadership is a whole-person kind of leadership approach, and has little to do with completing tasks in a particular way; it is a leadership that benefits from a transformed character that makes his/her followers’ interests, the leader’ priority [19]. Shepherd leadership relies on the belief that what people do does not define them, but rather what people are; which is echoed in people’s behavior. Accordingly, Shepherd leadership is all about first becoming and then doing, and not the other way around; sincere leadership is a lifestyle, not a system or method [31]. Table 2 below summarizes the main differences between popular leaderships in the twenty first century and Shepherd leadership.

Shepherd Leadership Popular Leaderships
1. Kind and gentle	1. Manipulating to accomplish objectives
Builds relationships	Puts emphasis on leader overpowering followers
Demonstrates sincere love as the force	Relies on followers to complete tasks
2. Pursues Leader-follower unity of purpose	2. Transactional and demand followers’ commitment
A leader benefits from a transformed character	Reliant on reciprocity
3. What people are defines them	3. What people do, defines them

Table 2.

Brief comparison between Shepherd leadership and other popular leaderships.

4. Method

This chapter assumes a critical review method to advance an understanding of Shepherd leadership. This work was demonstrated based on the most noteworthy literature in the field. The focus of this chapter is to generate a clear understanding of Shepherd leadership in the secular and non-secular arenas. Also this chapter, through the use of a critical lens, will touch on how Shepherd leaders can influence their followers by referring to the current literature and practice.

5. Discussion

5.1 Shepherd leadership in churches

The Shepherd-like leadership of Joel Osteen at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas can be a good example of very successful Shepherd leadership in religious organizations [25]. Lakewood Church is the largest congregation church in the United States and Joel Osteen’s message had been described as positive and optimistic. Regardless of Joel Osteen’s leadership successes, he continues to display humility and down to earth character, his message always aims to create harmony as he does not harp on conflicting views, while many of his followers perceive sincerity in character; which is consistent with Shepherd leadership qualities [25].

According to study findings, there is a strong direct relationship between the shepherd leadership characteristics, when present, and tithing. Tithing is essential for churches to survive and thrive. The study collected Shepherd leadership scores of multiple churches, which experienced growth in major areas as a proof of ministry effectiveness and success; the top five churches that had their attendance go up as well as their finances improve, had very high scores in relationship and duty grouping [32]. Thus, the Shepherd leader’s relationship with his/her flock is the main element that produces ministry effectiveness. Also, the findings show that a strong relationship between effective leaders and the capability to create and sustain relationships with their followers [32].

5.2 Shepherd leadership in education

Shepherd Leadership has been successfully utilized in the education sector as well. Shepherd leaders provide a learning environment in higher education that is favorable in creating optimum performance from the faculty members, administrative employees, and students alike [33]. Also within the educational institution, teachers may ‘lead from behind’ although they may not hold any leadership title [34]. Shepherd leadership for example deemed successful in enhancing online class participation for Asian students; it helped them overcome cultural barriers and were able to get the students involve in online critical thinking. A shepherd leader knows his/her flock adequately to practice effective and compassionate care in order for their followers to progress [35]. In the classroom where teachers practice Shepherd leadership, a teacher only intercedes or redirects the students if they are moving outside the allowed perimeters; this is considered compassionate and caring attributes of a good Shepherd leader. Moreover, according to current research, teachers possess the greatest impact on student learning. Metaphorically, just as the good Shepherd pays great deal of attention in the form of caring for the flock, good teachers pay a great deal of attention to their students [36]. For example, religious higher education generally offers theological college students with the expertise required to practice their calling, such expertise should form a share of a multifaceted competency that embraces Shepherd leadership qualities mentioned earlier in this chapter as well as discipleship fundamentals, teamwork, and empowerment [33]. Secular higher education also, may prosper and become a success in a learning community where faculty members are treated justly and with reverence so to share their wisdom and knowledge with their students. In the meantime, these students may share their learning experiences and character building with their families, loved ones, and their communities at large [33].

Shepherd leadership is also practiced in secular education; when we closely examine informal teacher leadership style, as teachers practice humility in character and focus on building caring relationships with students and their communities. Teachers in this informal leadership setting do not have a hierarchical role with their students where they do not have a formal title as being the students’ superiors [37].

5.3 Shepherd leadership in healthcare

Shepherd leadership has been successful also in healthcare organizations. Many studies in healthcare institutions concluded that compassionate care impacted the health of patients. When receiving compassionate care from nurses, doctors and those who interact with patients, it assisted in their recovery process. Moreover, according to institutional reports from psychiatric therapists in social work, they specified that because of the use of compassionate care, patients felt heard and understood; patients were improving noticeably [38, 39].

5.4 Shepherd leadership in the business sector

Empirical studies in the field of Shepherd leadership as part of Spiritual leadership, has proven this leadership to be productive and demonstrated positive relationships between spirituality on multiple organizational variables. One study who surveyed 225 non-executive workers in one firm, they have concluded, among other things, that their results propose a direct causal relationship between spirituality in the workplace and a constructive and efficient leadership [40]. Another study also concluded causal relationship between successful leadership and spirituality [41]. another relevant research where 1234 participants were surveyed to detect how faith-based values in secular organizations, impact business ethics and judgments; their findings indicate a greater level of moral judgment on behalf of participants with strong spiritual beliefs [42]. Additionally, other researchers studied the relationship between job satisfaction and spirituality and found a solid and positive correlation between organizational commitment and spirituality [43]. Also, research concluded a positive relationship between workplace spirituality and job involvement [44].

In practice, Shepherd leadership concepts have been successful in a group of companies in the country of Turkey. A group of small and medium firms in Turkey recognized as’ The Anatolian Tigers’ has been investigating and trying new methods of integrating care and compassion within their organizations. The group mainly focused on Shepherd leadership concepts such as spirituality, ethics and sustainability, in order to create compassionate and caring organizations which led to their financial success [45].

Spiritual leadership was also examined through China and Taiwan societies and three main Chinese industries which included manufacturing, financial institutions, and retail sectors. Factors of spiritual leadership like vision, hope and faith, and unselfish love-also called altruistic love- were found to be facilitated by the employee’ spiritual attribute towards several things like work, calling, work-team, and towards his/her inner self such as self-esteem. The latter was found the most impactful on the firm’s performance [46].

Another practical example is JW Marriott Surabaya, is one of Marriott International subsidiaries; is a successful application of Shepherd/servant leadership concepts. Their leadership is voluntarily submissive, transformative inspiration as they practice moral responsibility, genuine character, unparalleled spirituality, relational promises, and supervision capabilities. Also, the Marriott leadership displays understanding, mindfulness, listening, community building, staff growth commitment, and persuasion; are among the major depictions of the Marriott leadership [47].

There are a plethora of successful organizations that apply Shepherd/Servant leadership concepts, in addition to the Marriott International, such as FedEx, AFLAC, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Nestle, Men’s Warehouse, UPS, and GE to name a few. Consequently, Shepherd leadership harvests results in many industries in our unceasingly changing environment. Although all leaders serve their firms however, merely exceptional leaders serve the best interests of others; and that is the central reason behind these companies success [48].

5.5 Shepherd leadership in the army

There is evidence that Spiritual leadership seems effective in the army. An in-depth study took place in the United States army division with specific leaders with good reputation being positive and optimists who enticed voluntary individuals from other programs to wish to join this particular division. The study investigated the leadership practices and concluded that organizational commitment within the leaders division may have positively impacted followers through exhibiting spiritual leadership attributes [49]. Another study took place in an Apache operational army unit in Texas; it also concluded that Spiritual leaderships, such as Shepherd leadership, proposes a promise as a catalyst for a new paradigm for leadership model and practice offered that it incorporates and extends charismatic, transformational leadership and values-based models [20].

5.6 Drawbacks/challenges of shepherd leadership

To shepherd human flock may not be as easy as shepherding animals; due to the high standards and it is cumbersome to find someone who satisfies the requirements. Only the select few appear to shine at this human shepherding task. A spiritual shepherd leader for example, can be a devout, talented, multi-skilled person of integrity, yet he/she ought to uphold a meek conduct of a shepherd. There are great responsibilities when leading human flock; although there is tremendous blessing from such responsibilities; there is potential to tremendous judgment [50]. Also, trying to explain spirituality in a scientific sense is very challenging [51]. Some scholars argue that the concept of a spiritual leader in the business world is flawed. Leaders are anticipated to perform in a moral and ethical manner, yet it should not be confused with successful or failing business leaders and relate it to the firm’s action. Therefore, wrong corporate decision may be addressed as a matter of poor judgment or miscalculation as opposed to a spiritual or ethical deficit. Thus, spirituality at work, according to some research, is not a productive leadership and it’s a deceptive framework that serves as an instrument to control followers [51, 52]. Also, it is a challenge for many Spiritual leaders such as Shepherd leaders to be bold in order to face serious situations which could threaten the well-being of followers. The leader must always be prepared to make exceptions on certain issues, for example boldness to face a complicated situation [53]. It is not easy for Shepherd leaders to lead in fast-changing or intimidating environments. Many times followers forget that the Shepherd-leader is also a human being who is not perfect. This leadership role may mandate facing false accusers and assisting victims of unfair attacks; in many cases this can be challenging [53]. Nevertheless, for future research, its recommended that more empirical research of the psychometric properties of Shepherd leadership to measure behavior, is needed to further develop and validate this approach.

6. Conclusions

6.1 Practical implications

Shepherd leadership, as a type of Spiritual leadership, is utilized in the business world which means that leaders ought to find basis of a higher purpose especially within perplexing situations. A spiritual leader instead of zooming in on the challenge at hand, he/she looks to inspire her followers through a higher purpose or calling in order to overcome the challenge. Thus, dependence on a higher purpose allows leaders to overcome individual and the surrounding environment, by instigating activities that would serve the community. Once the individual’s attitude is molded to a higher purpose-related societal cause than simply adhering to guidelines and procedures; it would help individuals not have pity on themselves and aim to help others [54].

Moreover, Shepherd leadership contributes to the advancement of positive behaviors and conduct in followers as they demonstrate Organizational Citizenship Behavior [55].

The author’s position is that Shepherd leadership, as a Spiritual leadership, may work successfully in any sector, whether religious or secular, once employees and leaders have a shared belief system with the whole organization. These shared beliefs create harmony, understanding and intrinsic motivation which lead to compassion to do the job well because they truly believe in their organization and its higher purpose.

7. Conclusions/limitations

This study concluded that Shepherd leadership as a form of Spiritual leadership have been successfully utilized in different types of sectors including religious organizations, education, physical and mental healthcare, the army, and business organizations. Also, Shepherd leadership is not without flaws or challenges, some scholars believe that this type of leadership is flawed due to the fact that the Shepherd leader may use spirituality to control her followers. Also, the Shepherd leader is always held to very high standards where there is always potential for tremendous judgment once he/she makes a miscalculated decision in such fast-changing environments [56].

This chapter is not without limitations; the author had to select articles and exclude others, and was not able to include great details which may have resulted in a not completely all inclusive study.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the almighty God for everything and for everyone that He had placed in my life. I like to thank my loving husband for believing in me and encouraging me. Also, I would like to thank this book publisher, staff and editors, IntechOpen, for their very supportive staff and for being patient with me and giving me this opportunity to contribute to this leadership book.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.