Book Review

NOTE: This review was produced for Common Threads, a sub-site of Men's Wearhouse devoted to the promotion of humanistic business practices.

Servant Leadership: A Journey into the
Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
by Robert K. Greenleaf (Paulist Press, 338 pages)

Bob Dylan sings "You gotta serve somebody." Can it be that a management guru actually preached this same idea in the boardrooms of America? You bet! And Robert Greenleaf attracted numerous heavyweight converts to his cause.

Here's the essence of the gospel of Greenleaf. First and foremost, truly great managers want to serve the people they lead. They do this by supporting them rather than dictating to them, and by assigning top priority to employee well-being. Deceptively simple and deeply profound.

The granddaddy of holistic management, Greenleaf created the concept of servant leadership after reading Herman Hesse's Journey to the East, in which the servant to an expedition is discovered to be the leader of the mystic order the party seeks. Get it? Service is first and foremost.

Greenleaf helps the reader understand his noble vision by citing examples from American history. Despite harsh criticism, Thomas Jefferson refused to fight in the Revolutionary War. Why? Because he knew he could serve his country better by working, instead, to create laws for the new nation. He led through service and courageously followed his own vision.

Want another example? Try this: John Woolman spent decades convincing his fellow Quakers to reject slave ownership. Thanks to his efforts, no Quaker owned slaves -- one hundred years before the Civil War. Woolman served his religious community by backing up his beliefs with tightly focused action.

Greenleaf showed that his ideas are equally valid in today's setting, and he didn't limit his challenge to individuals alone. Preaching that profit and heart can coexist in our world, he also dared our largest institutions in business, education, religion, and government to practice servant leadership in their area of concern -- be it local, national, or global. He argued that by adopting his principles they'd not only improve their bottom line (rather than harming it), they'd also improve society as a whole.

But that's still not enough. Greenleaf wrote that followers, too, must be servants. Those who follow must use special care when choosing whom to follow. They should seek out the kind of leaders who prefer giving service to others over their own selfish interests.

Servant Leadership defines an attitude and behavior that can support what's right and change what's wrong. Greenleaf tells us that by trading our cynicism for optimism centered on service, and our apathy for a willingness to become servant leaders, we can help create the better society we all hope for -- one that is "more just and more loving." In other words, you gotta serve somebody. Can I get an amen?

^ Top of Page ^

For a FREE initial consultation, send an e-mail.