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Robert K. Greenleaf: A Life of Servant Leadership
Meet the man whose work influenced some of the world’s most prominent business leaders and spawned a worldwide movement that is still gaining strength today. Robert Greenleaf’s landmark 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader , introduced the now common term “servant leadership” to the world. His work has been cited by leading writers and business people including Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, and Peter Block and led to the development of Centers for Servant Leadership around the world.
This long-awaited biography of Robert Greenleaf, authorized by his surviving children, finally tells his story. Drawn from Greenleaf’s personal papers, correspondence, and interviews with family and friends, it provides a fascinating look at the sources of Greenleaf’s thought, his friendships with some of the most influential men and women of the twentieth century—including Eleanor Roosevelt, Peter Drucker, the Menninger brothers, Reinhold Niebuhr, Aldous Huxley, Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, and many others—and how he influenced business history well before his first book was published at the age of seventy-three.
At a time when leadership and management fads substitute as wisdom, Robert Greenleaf’s life stories provide clues for how each person can make a difference in the workplace, no matter what position he or she holds.
This long-awaited biography of Robert Greenleaf, authorized by his surviving children, finally tells his story. Drawn from Greenleaf’s personal papers, correspondence, and interviews with family and friends, it provides a fascinating look at the sources of Greenleaf’s thought, his friendships with some of the most influential men and women of the twentieth century—including Eleanor Roosevelt, Peter Drucker, the Menninger brothers, Reinhold Niebuhr, Aldous Huxley, Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, and many others—and how he influenced business history well before his first book was published at the age of seventy-three.
At a time when leadership and management fads substitute as wisdom, Robert Greenleaf’s life stories provide clues for how each person can make a difference in the workplace, no matter what position he or she holds.
- GenresLeadership
456 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
12 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 20, 2022
Read this because I’m taking the Servant Leadership course thru the Greenleaf centre. It reads less like a biography and more like an entirely too long fan letter that should have had much more editing. A huge book and it doesn’t feel like I got to know Robert Greenleaf well a an actual human. That and so many misogynistic undertones throughout I’m just glad I got it finished.
September 10, 2019
A very good and interesting biography into the life of an unusual man who gained a lot of wisdom through a fascinating journey through life. The biography deeply enriches one's understanding and appreciation of Greenleaf's writings on servant leadership.
January 11, 2010
i am beginning my resourcing and research for my next non-fiction book:
THE SERVICE HABIT.
THE SERVICE HABIT.
January 22, 2016
Learning about how leaders and organizations benefit by learning, leading and helping.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews