Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition

Servant-Leadership is rapidly becoming a popularized term and a popular concept to bandy about in many circles.This is the book that started that trend.Published originally in 1977, it contains articles and concepts that found their germination in the turbulant decade of the 1960's. While you might imagine from the term "Servant-Leader" that the ideology of this book stems from religious conviction and it certainly does include that, you may be surprised to read in the first chapter of the book that it finds its inspiration in literature. Specifically, the Servant-Leader who captured Greenleaf's imagination and catalyzed the writing of this book was the fictional character Leo in Herman Hesse's "Journey to the East."More surprises remain in store throughout this book that challenges concepts seemingly ingrained in human nature and counter-intuitively argues for several revolutionary premises, not simply on the basis of morality, but rather effectiveness and societal need.In particular, Greenleaf argues that the advent of big business, large institutions, and corporate growth requires a paradigm shift in the view of leadership. Contrary to the anti-authoritarianism so ingrained in the 60's, Greenleaf argues that large organizations hold tremendous promise to accomplish correspondingly large results. What is needed are leaders who will embrace the organizations and see them almost as separate entities, living organisms as it were, love them, care for them and serve the population within and without through them.The qualities that Greenleaf profers as indicative of such growth and service are:1. Do those served grow as persons?2. Do they, while being served become healthier wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?3. What is the effect on the least privileged in society?4. Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived? (Greenleaf 1977/2002 p.27)In practical terms Greenleaf argues strongly for such Servant-Leaders to rise up and shake off the traditional trappings of leadership within archaic and dusty organizations and equally archaic leadership models, where the emphasis has been upon elevating managers to de facto leaders of these institutions and instead, elevating Trustee's and Board Chairpersons to reject passivity, reject the role of a rubber stamp and exert leadership that embraces values, takes risks and empowers people.It is a clarion call to activist leadership that feels very much a derivitive of the 60's altruism, yet rejects the across the board discarding of all institutions as irretrievably corrupt and inherently in need of dismantling.This 25th anniversary edition issued in 2002 comes after the fruits of this call have culminated in Servant-Leadership's adoption as a legitimate and growingly influential leadership model in both academic, private and public sectors.The influence of this concept and the leadership institutions that are adopting the model in their training and operations is remarkably going beyond its author who passed away in 1990.Notable as well for its forward by Stephen Covey and an afterword by Peter Senge, this edition should be a welcome addition to the leadership library of every student and participant in the leadership melieu. Whether you accept and adopt the premises contained, there is wisdom and insight for all who wish to read. Answers in some context are given, but more importantly, tools are provided with which to frame the question for those moving forward.I highly recommend this book as an indispensible tool for understanding the leadership issues and needs of this generation.

Outstanding read.

Great read on serving others. Leadership isn't about being the boss. It's about brining out the best in others. This should be required reading for those who want to make a difference and lead by example.

I waited a long time to read this book. I heard much about servant leadership from plenty of other sources. I figured it was time to read the foundational document. The first part of the book is the best the second part is a series of articles and speeches that as value but are not necessary for understanding.

A great concept, however; not all leadership accept the concept to be a servant to those they rule over.

While there were parts that were a bit dry to the modern reader, as a whole this book does a nice job of explaining the components of Servant Leadership across different types of organizations. It tends to focus more on the top levels of the organization and less on the layers below. It does talk about the importance of every person needing to be able to take on the role of leader, but the most text is devoted to the trustee and executive level. The focus is important as an organization often needs top-level buy-in to embrace Servant Leadership, it limits the value of the book to a narrow audience of people who comprise those groups and makes the contents seem an academic theory rather than a reality to the wider audience who may not be able to do anything with the information.

The idea of servant leadership isn't new to me. I thought this book was going to redefine how I looked at servant leadership but it didn't. However, it was still a good book. The author of this book actually coined the idea of servant leadership back in the early 1970's and he had devoted his life to the study of servant leadership.If you are going into any leadership position, this is a good book to look over, but not an essential.

Some two thousand years ago Jesus said unto his disciples: Whoever wants to be the greatest of all must became their servant first. It is interesting that it took almost 1970 years for someone to figure out the same idea. I am talking aobut Herman Hesse who Greenleaf credites the idea. The point here is no to argue about where the idea come from but to state the truthfulness of a simple statement: If you want to became a leader then you must start serving others. If you are a christian I would also recommend Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Leadership" or "Handme another brick" by Chuck Swindoll.