On Becoming a Servant Leader. - Review - book review

School Administrator, June, 1997 by Brian L. Benzel

In the press of business, we often begin to think the problems and challenges we face as leaders today have never been faced by others. The late Robert Greenleaf was an executive at AT&T during the peak of the industrial age, yet his ideas and attitudes about the leader a servant are even more relevant to our leadership work today.

On Becoming a Servant Leader is a collection of his writings that started in the 1930s and extended or 50 years. His thoughts, ideas, and questions remind each of us today that our challenges and opportunities are not new. They have a legacy. This book of essays helps create the basis for much of our current leadership thinking.

Greenleaf describes the attributes of leaders continuously searching to improve. He provides the foundation thinking for subsequent work about learning organizations, purpose, and mission. In a long essay titled "The Ethic of Strength," he outlines a framework for the leader's continuing life search.

One characteristic of each essay is that it asks the reader questions about practice that we ignore at our peril.

By publishing these lesser-known essays, the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership helps preserve wisdom about people and leadership. I also recommend visiting the center's website at http:\\greenleaf.org.

(On Becoming a Servant Leader: The Private Writings of Robert K. Greenleaf edited by Don M. Frick and Larry C. Spears, Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome St., San Francisco Calif. 94104-1740, 1996, 394 pp. with index, $28 hardcover)