Insights on Leadership

Book excerpt: From INSIGHTS ON LEADERSHIP . . . Robert K. Greenleaf from "The Servant as Leader" "The servant-leader is servant first. Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. . . . The best test is this: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" Stephen R. Covey from "Servant-Leadership from the Inside Out" "You may be able to buy someone's hand and back, but you cannot buy their heart, mind, and spirit. And in the competitive reality of today's global marketplace, it will be only those organizations whose people not only willingly volunteer their tremendous creative talent, commitment, and loyalty, but whose organizations align their structures, systems, and management style to support the empowerment of their people that will survive and thrive as market leaders." Ken Blanchard from "Servant-Leadership Revisited" "With the traditional pyramid, the boss is always responsible and the staff are supposed to be responsive to the boss. When you turn the pyramid upside down, those roles get reversed. Your people become responsible and the job of management is to be responsive to their people. That creates a very different environment for implementation. If you work for your people, then what is the purpose of being a manager? To help them accomplish their goals. Your job is to help them win." INSIGHTS ON LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTORS Stephen R. Covey * Larry C. Spears * Robert K. Greenleaf * Ken Blanchard * Elizabeth Jeffries * Joe Batten * Lawrence J. Lad and David Luechauer * Jack Lowe Jr. * Ann McGee-Cooper * Peter Block * Susana Barciela * John J. Gardiner * Richard P. Nielsen * Jill W. Graham * Bill Bottum with Dorothy Lenz * Robert E. Kelley * Judith A. Sturnick * Parker J. Palmer * Diane Cory * Diane Fassel * Thomas A. Bausch * Christine Wicker * James Conley and Fraya Wagner-Marsh * Joseph Jaworski * John P. Schuster * Ken Melrose * John S. Lore * James A. Autry * Irving R. Stubbs * James M. Kouzes * Jeffrey N. McCollum * Margaret J. Wheatley * Don M. Frick "It is one of the great ironies of our age that we created organizations to constrain our problematic human natures, and now the only thing that can save these organizations is a full appreciation of the expansive capacities of us humans." --Margaret J. Wheatley from "What Is Our Work?" Leadership without hierarchy? Organization in a whirlwind of change? Community and shared responsibility in a global village? Soul in a free-enterprise world? Robert Greenleaf's visionary theory of Servant-Leadership continues to engage many of the best minds in and out of business. Greenleaf's prescriptions for employee empowerment and organizational change continue to achieve nothing short of miraculous results in organizations worldwide. As one enthusiastic observer wrote in Fortune magazine, "Once the consensus is forged, watch out: With everybody on board, your so-called implementation proceeds 'wham-bam.'" In this sequel to the critically acclaimed Reflections on Leadership, many of today's most respected business thinkers share their insights into key aspects of Robert Greenleaf's revolutionary thinking. Over the course of 33 essays, a dream team consisting of such luminaries as Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Peter Block, Margaret Wheatley, John Schuster, and James Autry explore how Greenleaf has influenced today's business leaders and discuss a range of leadership principles at the heart of his philosophy, including stewardship, the spirit of the workplace, and the concept of healing leadership. A source of inspiration and instruction, Insights on Leadership is required reading for senior executives, community leaders, and managers in for-profit and nonprofit organizations.