Reflections on Leadership : How Robert K. Greenleaf's Theory of Servant-Leadership Influenced Today's Top Management Thinkers

Rating:
Summary: First Class Leadership
Review: Reflections on Leadership is a first class book demonstrating the influence of Robert K. Greenleaf's Servant Leadership philosophy on top management thinkers. The book begins by sharing how Greenleaf developed his philosophy. Part two is a bit of a sales pitch for why and how servant leadership has benefited leaders. The truly valuable portions of the book are Part Three which shows how to put servant leadership into action in today's tough business world, and Part Four which tells some stories of people putting it into action. It is written by people who seem to be followers of Greenleaf, and have bought into his servant leadership. The book did deal with some of the tough questions about Greenleaf's philosophy, but would have been improved had it actually quoted some critics and responded to their criticisms. I used it for a textbook for a course I teach, and the students, who were all too young to know about Greenleaf, found it a revelation that the servant leadership they took for granted actually came from somewhere! I personally enjoyed it's broadening vision of how servant leadership can influence even today's modern theories and practices of leadership and management.