Premium Essay

Book Review - the Serving Leader

In:

Submitted By jennybean030
Words 1670
Pages 7
Running Head: THE SERVING LEADER

A Review of The Serving Leader: 5 Powerful Actions That Will Transform Your Team, Your Business and Your Community

Review of The Serving Leader

CITATION

Jennings, K., & Stahl-Wert, J. (2004). The Serving Leader: 5 Powerful Actions That Will Transform Your Team, Your Business and Your Community. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
MAJOR THESIS

The book The Serving Leader, presents an alternative approach to leadership based on actions rather than theory. The dynamics of Serving Leadership are introduced using a narrative centered on an estranged son and his dying father. It is through the personal journey of the characters, documented in the journal of the son, that concepts of servant leadership are outlined. Serving Leadership is made up of five key principles that can be effectively applied in individuals, teams, businesses, or communities. The following text examines each of those principles as well as identifies how this approach relates to issues affecting human resource management.

The book begins by introducing the fictional son and father characters and their tumultuous relationship. Mike Wilson is a partner in a prestigious consultant firm who is amidst launching his firms’ leadership practice when he is suddenly called home to assist his estranged father, Robert Wilson a well know business leader, with his own leadership project due to his failing health. The text begins to actually touch on Serving Leadership by giving a brief overview. The approach is actually based on existing servant leadership ideas, the difference comes from the focus of the actual activities of the Serving Leader. According to Jennings & Stahl-Wert (2004), “The Serving Leader is down here at the bottom….unleashing the

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Exam 3 Study Guide Busi 502

...leadership teaches that there must be a balance between serving and leading; a focus on putting the needs of others first (Spears, 1996). The philosophy enriches the lives of not only individuals, but builds better organizations by making it a priority to serve others. The greater contributions of quality service exemplify the determination to create an exceptional institution (Greenleaf, 2009). Providing service to communities is one of the primary focuses of a servant leader, which will develop and enhance more self-growth in their communities. Servant leadership is an act of service, and the embrace of feedback as a source of useful information on how to better serve people (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Greenleaf’s revolutionary view on the new topic of servant leadership offered a shift from the traditional role of leadership (Duby, 2009). Part 1: Greenleaf’s Theories Robert K. Greenleaf popularized the term servant leadership, in his 1970 essay, The Servant Leader (Spears, 1996). According to Duby (2009), Greenleaf envisioned servant leaders as being driven and motivated to serve first with the end result being an empowered, serving society. Greenleaf introduced the term ‘servant leadership’ and proposed that great leaders are first servants to others (Spears, 1996; Dierendonck, 2011). Greenleaf believed that real servant leaders emerged because of their yearning to help others (Liberty University, The servant leader). The servant leadership style allows employees the...

Words: 2413 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Book Review

...Book Review Leading at a Higher Level examines the concept of leading with a higher purpose, which requires a compelling vision and a philosophy that the development of people is equally important to that of performance. Author Ken Blanchard challenges readers to lead by asking themselves who they are, what they stand for, and how they can take the initiative even if they don’t have position power. When I first started Leading at a Higher Level I expected it to be well written and informative based on my knowledge of the author Ken Blanchard’s work. Leaders in any realm of life can become self-serving when the driving reason for being in business is based solely on profit. While profit is a legitimate goal, neglecting to see leadership as part of a higher calling diminishes the capacity to influence others and impact the greater good. A better definition of leadership, according to the author, is the capacity to influence others by unleashing the power and potential of people and organizations for the greater good. Leadership should not be done purely for personal gain or goal accomplishment: It should have a much higher purpose than that. Leadership can be defined as the process of achieving worthwhile results while acting with respect, care and fairness for the well-being of all involved. When that occurs, self-serving leadership is not possible. It's only when you realize that it's not about you that you begin to lead at a higher level. Being a successful leader is...

Words: 1467 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

What Makes a Winner

...BOOK TITLE : What Makes a Winner – Book2 AUTHOR’S NAME : Robert J. Tamasy Rick Warren and other contributors Type of Book/Genre : Inspirational Book Descirption/Brief Summary: One topic discussed in the book is about Leadership and noted that a Good Leader Should be a Good Shepherd. Reading on this book, I marvelled at the important role of the shepherd plays, guiding helpless, defenceless sheep that generally cannot fend for themselves. It’s interesting that in many ways, to maximize the productivity of a company and its people, a good leader should also be a dependable, responsible shepherd. Leaders who serve as shepherds are known for having (1) Unwavering Commitment (2) Unquestioned Familiarity and (3) Unshakeable Priorities. For some, leadership means completely controlling what subordinates do. These leaders like to micro-manage, insisting on knowing and managing every detail. Others prefer a more hands-off, delegating approach. While there is not one particular style that is ideal for all leaders, there is something to be said about the leader who empowers those that work for him. There are two other related observations from the Bible about leadership: (1) Leaders Maintain Awareness of their Follower’s Needs. For employees to perform maximum effectiveness, leaders should see to it that their basic needs are met such as: adequate compensation, suitable working environment, sufficient assistance for complex projects, clear communication from leadership...

Words: 739 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Good Boss Bad Boss Review

...Book Review | Book Review | Good Boss, bad boss: How to be the best... and learn from the worst | Ottawa University Organizational Consultation Skills | Erin Smith | 11/18/2012 | | Good Boss Bad Boss wrote by Robert Sutton is the research and stories put together about good and bad bosses, and behaviors in the workplace that led to their successes and failures. This book gives insight and self awareness as part of an ongoing process toward becoming a great boss or leader. Suttons work was directed by three basic questions: His work is directed by three basic questions: If you want to be a Good Boss, what do you need to accomplish day after day, If you have a Bad Boss, what can you do about it, and In short, what are the hallmarks of a Good Boss, and worst flaws of a Bad Boss? (Sutton, 2010) In the beginning of the book Sutton takes a look at having the right mindset. Being a good boss creates a healthy environment. What is more, a good boss has "more impact on engagement and performance than whether their companies are rated as great or lousy places to work" (Sutton, 2010). Sutton points out that “the leaders of an organization still matters more than the other bosses.” (Sutton, 2010) Sutton points out many points, but one strong point that is a focus is that bosses matter. Sutton stated, “Bosses matter, especially to their immediate followers and in small teams and organization.” He points out that bosses need to act as if they are in control even when...

Words: 705 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Five Guys Burgers and Fries: Ingredients to Success

... The Philosophy A company’s philosophy highlights the overarching goal of its operation. In addition, it can help a company set itself apart from its competitors. This is precisely what occurred at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. According to its website, www.fiveguys.com, the company philosophy is “focusing on a few items, and serving them to the best of our ability.” As opposed to most of their competitors, Five Guys Burgers and Fries invest their money into the quality of the food instead of marketing. Five Guys' owner, Jerry Murrell believes "Our best salesman is our customer. Treat that person right, he'll walk out the door and sell for you." (Welch) This type of philosophy clearly sets the company apart from others. Not only does Five Guys Burgers and Fries have a powerful philosophy, the company also has original core values that remain strong today. Original Values Five Guys’ original values were created simple. "Sell a really good, juicy burger on a fresh bun. Make perfect French fries. Don’t cut corners." ” It is vitally important for a company to maintain its original culture and values. According to Harvard Business Review, " Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world." Factors of Success Three key factors greatly contributed to Five Guy’s success in such a short time. These...

Words: 881 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Servant-Leader

...Management of Organizational Behavior The Servant Leader 2/16/2016 I. Introduction This essay will describe the true meaning of servant leadership. How the servant leader is inspired and performed his/her job within the health care organization? The paper will also inform readers of how each individual can unleash the servant within described by Larry Spears in his book “Reflections on Leadership.” Everyone has a deep need for serving, sometimes adults find it very difficult to unleash this desire to serve. Having worked in a large Hospital for over five years, it is easy to see why many people get frustrated and depart the health care industry. There are many complicated situations that happen working in healthcare. Throughout the majority of these situations between registered nurses, patient care technicians, and some doctors; there are solutions for dealing with most of those problems. Compassion, empathy, trustworthiness, faithfulness, respect, honesty, integrity, and rapport are all words that will be used frequently within the body of the paper. In my personal quest to better understand how to work well with people in a highly stressful environment as in healthcare, I begin to do my own research on process improvement and better systems that works in the hospitals. I turned my mind to various leadership books on healthcare and process improvements in the hospital setting. Some of the books I read was tremendously inspiring, interesting, as...

Words: 2306 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Servant Leadership Philosophy

...The following presentation will review the Servant Leadership Philosophy and the CEO of Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen and her implementation of the leadership style within her Leadership practices. According to her LinkedIn profile Cheryl Bacgelder, began her career in food service as the President and Chief Concept Officer for KFC in 2001. She clearly states that her failings at KFC provided her a level of humility that allowed her to be the leader she is today. It is apparent by an article entitled “The CEO of Popeye’s says becoming a 'servant leader' helped her turn around the struggling restaurant chain” those early years of leadership she had not developed the servant leadership style. (Goudreau 2015) She clearly states that her failings...

Words: 663 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Mgmt 591 Course Project

...command of the governor of the state. The Militia Act of 1903 organized state militias into what is not the National Guard. The National Guard Bureau, located in Washington, DC, has regulatory authority over National Guard units that are not under orders from the United States Army. The State Head Quarters is located in Nashville, TN. Units of the Army National Guard are dispersed throughout the state. I am currently a Battery Commander with the Army National Guard. I have been a Battery Commander since July, 2013. Prior to becoming the Battery Commander I served on the Command Staff of the Field Artillery. While serving on the Command Staff I was in a position the developed training plans for the entire Battalion of the Field Artillery, a battalion is made up of three firing batteries. I have served as an Executive Officer and a Platoon Leader in a Battery. I was enlisted for over ten years and achieved the rank of Sargent, a Non-Commissioned Officer. I then decided to become an officer and applied for and was accepted to the Officer Candidate program. There were 124 fellow service members that were in my class of Officer Candidates. Of this number there were 19 that graduated and became officers. I have served in war zones and many countries that I never thought I would have the opportunity to see. This has exposed me to many different cultures and has given me insight in to how people view others from outside of their cultre. My unit is Battery B Field...

Words: 3078 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Organizational Structure

...structure of your selected organization. As far as marketing, I would evaluate Amazon at the top of their game. They have commercials, emails; they even get to know their customer. When someone logs onto Amazon and orders an item they remember the item, category, and around what time frame you ordered it. If you order a cook book during the holidays for cooking recipes, they will store the information for marketing later. Amazon will send you an email asking if you would be interested in a new selection of holiday cook books and show what you previously ordered. The good news is that Amazon will never sell, rent, or give your information to a third party. http://money.howstuffworks.com/amazon3.htm Amazon’s finances http://www.hoovers.com/amazon.com/--ID__51493,ticker__AMZN--/free-co-fin-factsheet.xhtml When it comes to human resources within Amazon, they are looking for people with fresh new ideas. As we know human resources is somewhat difficult and full of challenges. Human Resources have always been known to be an administrative expert. With the business world quickly changing, Human Resources are now expected to be a strategic leader as well. Currently, this is the top paradox within Human Resources. Being the kind of organization that Amazon is, their human resource department would be a fun-loving group. Team player type attitude is probably what works best while maintaining successful partnerships with Benefits, Recruiting, Payroll, and business operations...

Words: 624 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethical Decision Making

...American public is bombarded with ethics violations on all levels, including corporate scandals, university cover-ups, and wasteful government spending.   Ethical leaders are becoming important  now more than ever.  If basic, common sense ethics had been exercised, the economy would not be in the situation it is in today.   The military has been known for creating exceptional leaders, but just like any other organization, there is always room for improvement.  In the military, it is extremely important to make ethical decisions.  Leaders are entrusted with hard-earned taxpayer dollars and the lives of America’s most valuable asset, people.  This paper focuses on the importance of making sound ethical decisions.  Leaders operating overseas must use ethics as a cornerstone in their decision making process to ensure commanders are able to maximize resources and to promote a culture of integrity for soldiers to emulate when they become leaders. During a recent deployment, our Task Force conducted a series of Joint Combined Exercise Training blocks to build relationships with foreign allies.  One of the well-respected platoon leaders began writing inaccurate reports that embellished the positive points and left out the negative points to demonstrate his superior management skills.  When others in the team were asked to review the reports and add their comments,no one agreed with the reports.  Still, the reports were sent up the chain of command to senior field commanders.   Then, shortly...

Words: 1565 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Machiavelli's Political Theory

...Kristine Mae S. Yaun BS Management II October 21,2014 Social Studies 2 I. Review of Machiavelli’s Political Theory Niccolo Machiavelli is often called as “ father of Modernity “ because of his intention to ground politics in an account of human nature. He is different from the other philosophers that we had tackled in the past. His views on effective leadership is by force which might be disturbing to others. He has been viewed as evil throughout the centuries , but as most business leaders and politicians agree Machiavelli has only defined the physics of power (“Great Book” t.v) The Prince is an extremely practical book because it does not tell about the ideal leader for an ideal society but it explains the readers what actions and qualities have enabled the prince to best rule a certain principality no matter what the circumstances are. He recommends the characteristics of a prince that he must posses is that it is better to be stingy than generous .Many people might disagree with this because a leader is expected by many to be helpful to everyone , the one who is approachable and the one who is not feared but loved. But in Machiavellian’s view he states that “it is better to be feared than to be loved because according to him love is something that is deceitful and inconsistent” because feelings change .. Being feared on the other hand is consistent and person who is intended to follow the rules of the land will not only be expected to be obliged to follow...

Words: 1591 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Servant Leadership Research Paper

...attention from business leaders. It is similar to some earlier models in that it focuses on the leader and the behaviors of the leader; it deviates in that the leader puts the follower’s needs before their own. They do this by providing nurturing and support in hopes of developing the follower to realize their full potential. At the heart of servant leadership is the central idea of truly putting follower’s needs before those of the leader. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the elements of Servant leadership. The goal is to explore the characteristics, theories, and models of servant leadership. The idea of servant leadership originated in the 1970’s...

Words: 2227 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Edwin Friedman's a Failure of Nerve Review

...Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve Review Sarah Jo Gomez- Lorraine CMLE 601 Dr. Sarah Drummond Who wants to lead this committee? Often this results in silent. Perhaps there will be the one among many who raises their hands after a deep breath and reluctantly says, “I’ll do it.” Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve seem to be answer the question posed by Sheryl Crow, “If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad? “ If God is good all the time, all the time God is good then why are so many congregations unhappy? The answer is the lack of leadership. Great leadership in Ministry allows the children of God to feel safe as they figuratively pass through the Red Sea of their lives to the dry ground that God has promised them. The Israelites needed Moses. Our congregations need us. They need us to lead by focusing on the “…leaders presence and being, not technique and know-how.” Every child of God has a purpose placed on their lives, leadership in Ministry is important in order for the will of God to move forward through God’s children. In this module I was educated about characteristics of great leadership. The topics that left the biggest impression on me are the ideas of self-differentiating, equanimity and how to reframe the question. In the military there is a common mantra whispered among females, “ Don’t let them see you cry. “ Trying to suppress emotions seems to be a sure fire way of gaining emotional momentum of the feelings that are coming up in an already...

Words: 1279 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Leadership Approach

...will indicate one of the major approaches in the studying of leadership. The paper will indicate the strengths and weaknesses that are a part of the chosen leadership approach. The paper will also indicate an example of an organization currently using the chosen leadership approach. According to Leadership Theories and Studies (2012),”Leadership is probably the most frequently studied topic in the organizational sciences. Thousands of leadership studies have been published and thousands of pages on leadership have been written in academic books and journals, business-oriented publications, and general-interest publications” (para. 2a). Individuals and researchers conducting a particular leadership study state that leadership has many definitions (Yuki, 2010). Yuki (2010) states “Researchers usually define leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon of most interest to them. After a comprehensive review of the leadership literature which also indicates that there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept” (p. 2a). Behavioral Leadership One of the major leadership approaches is the behavioral leadership study. Yuki (2010) stated,“ The behavior approach began in the early 1950’s after many researchers became discouraged with the trait approach and began to pay closer attention to what managers actually do on the job. The behavior research falls into two general subcategories...

Words: 739 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Servant Leadership

...Affiliated: Date of Submission: SERVANT LEADERSHIP Servant leadership offers a of a kind point of view to the leadership writing as it is the one hypothesis that is focused on the leader as a servant; this goes past the attention on the association with the emphasis on the needs of adherents. As such, servant leadership is about the leader being servant first according to Page & Wong (2000).While the needs of the association are constantly show, servant leaders put resources into the needs of their supporters, empowering, engaging and supporting them, and delivering servant leaders at all levels of the association, which at last prompts authoritative achievement. Trompenaars and Voerman (2010), in the book Servant Leadership crosswise over Cultures, refer to illustrations from Indian society to demonstrate that servant leadership was rehearsed in antiquated India. This can be exhibited by the way some famous Indian leaders lead their kin. India is a captivating and different nation with numerous dialects, societies, ranks, and religions. India has been formed by different incredible leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, and Ambedkar. These leaders are good examples for leadership, and their remarkable leadership qualities have numerous similarities with the qualities proposed by the servant leadership philosophies. The accompanying are the standards of servant leadership...

Words: 1425 - Pages: 6