How To Be A Servant Leader

Check out the definitive book on servant leadership. It's a curated collection of incredibly insightful and motivational perspectives on servant leadership via essays by 44 servant leaders.

Edited by Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell, Servant Leadership in Action, includes the personal stories from some of the most well-respected authorities on leadership:

Patrick Lencioni
John C. Maxwell
Marshall Goldsmith
Stephen M. R. Covey

Plus, you'll read keen advice from celebrated sports coaches, company CEO's, pastors and retired military leaders.

Each of the 44 stories/chapters stands strong on its own. However, Blanchard and Broadwell group them within six parts:

Fundamentals of Servant Leadership
Elements of Servant Leadership
Lessons in Servant Leadership
Examples of Servant Leadership
Putting Servant Leadership to Work
Servant Leadership Turnarounds

Get your pen or highlighter ready. You're sure to take lots of notes as you capture advice from this powerful book, whereas John C. Maxwell writes:

"When you become a leader, you give up your right to think of yourself first. Servant leadership is about always putting others first."

Some of my favorite takeaways include the Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader, as told by Larry C. Spears, and extracted from Robert K Greenleaf's (retired from AT&T) writings:

Listening
Empathy
Healing
Awareness
Persuasion
Conceptualization
Foresight
Stewardship
Commitment to the growth of people
Building community

Thematically throughout the book, you'll read a lot about trust, celebration, culture and humility, including this wise definition of humility shared by Cheryl A. Bachelder, former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., and attributed to Rick Warren, Ken Blanchard, and others:

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less."

Finally, I found powerful the list below shared by basketball player Tamika Catchings as she reflected on her time being coached by University of Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt. It's Summitt's "The Definite Dozen," -- her rules for success:

Respect yourself and others
Take full responsibility
Develop and demonstrate loyalty
Learn to be a great communicator
Discipline yourself so no one else has to
Make hard work your passion
Don't just work hard, work smart
Put the team before yourself
Make wining an attitude
Be a competitor
Change is a must
Handle success like you handle failure

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