When I began my doctoral research at Regent University, I set out with a question that had followed me for years: does the way we serve and develop people as leaders look the same everywhere? I surveyed 138 participants across the United States and Ghana — 65 in the U.S. and 73 in Ghana — asking the people who reported to church leaders about five characteristics of servant leadership: altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship.
What I found reshaped how I teach leadership, and it is one of the reasons I built the NTI Academy for Leadership around the model it has today. Here is what the data said — and what it means for anyone who leads people.
The five marks of a leader who serves well
Servant leadership research describes five observable characteristics, and my study measured each one through the eyes of the people being led:
- Altruistic calling — a deep, internal drive to serve others, not to be served.
- Emotional healing — the ability to restore people's spirit and help them recover from setbacks.
- Wisdom — the ability to read situations and people clearly and respond with sound judgment.
- Persuasive mapping — the ability to articulate a compelling vision and move people toward it without coercion.
- Organizational stewardship — the commitment to leave the organization stronger than you found it.
Where culture changed the picture
Two of the five characteristics showed significant differences between the two countries: altruistic calling and organizational stewardship. The context in which a leader serves — the culture's expectations about duty, community, and the role of institutions — shapes how strongly those qualities are expressed and perceived.
That is a sobering and hopeful finding at once. Sobering, because no leader develops in a vacuum; the culture around you either feeds or starves your instinct to serve. Hopeful, because culture is something leaders can shape. A workplace, a ministry, or a team can be intentionally designed to reward service, stewardship, and the development of people.
What stayed the same everywhere
Emotional healing, wisdom, and persuasive mapping showed no notable differences between the two groups. Across two continents, two very different contexts, the same three qualities defined what people experienced as good leadership. The ability to heal, to discern, and to cast a vision that people willingly follow is not culturally bound. It is simply what leadership is.
Across two continents, the same three qualities defined good leadership: the ability to heal, to discern, and to cast a vision people willingly follow.
How this shaped the NTI Model
The NTI Leadership Development Model was built on this research. Its three domains are not slogans — each one maps directly to what the study revealed:
- Nurture People — altruistic calling and emotional healing. Leadership begins with developing human potential and restoring people.
- Transform Culture — wisdom and persuasive mapping. Leadership shapes the environment in which people and organizations flourish.
- Inspire Results — organizational stewardship. Leadership translates people development and healthy culture into meaningful, sustainable performance.
Read the characteristics in that order and you can see the logic of the model: you cannot transform a culture with people you have never nurtured, and you cannot sustain results without a culture that holds together when the pressure comes.
Developing people is a practice, not a personality
The most important takeaway from the research is not a score or a chart. It is that these characteristics can be taught, practiced, and improved. Servant leadership is not a temperament you either have or lack — it is a discipline, and disciplines are developed.
That conviction is what the NTI Academy for Leadership exists to act on. Our six-module program walks leaders through the full arc of the model — from leading yourself, to developing others, to building culture, to accountability and results — with a personal assessment and a 90-day action plan so the learning lands in real life.
If this resonates with how you want to lead, I would love to have you in the founding pilot cohort. You can learn more and register at ntileadership.com/register.
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If this was useful, share it with a leader who would benefit — and consider joining the founding pilot cohort of the NTI Academy for Leadership.