Robert K. Greenleaf

Book description

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.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Foreword
    1. Peter M. Senge
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Introduction
    1. WHY READ THIS BOOK?
    2. WHAT IS SERVANT LEADERSHIP?
    3. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK
    4. LIVING LIFE FORWARD, READING LIFE FORWARD
    5. A WORD ABOUT WORDS
  8. PART I: Servant: 1904–1926
    1. CHAPTER 1: Breakthrough to a Paradox
    2. CHAPTER 2: First Light
    3. CHAPTER 3: George Greenleaf: Community Steward
    4. CHAPTER 4: Religious and Hoosier Heritages
    5. CHAPTER 5: Awe of the Stars
    6. CHAPTER 6: A Willingness to Venture
  9. PART II: Seeker: 1926–1964
    1. CHAPTER 7: Adventure in Spirit
    2. CHAPTER 8: Crash and Rush
    3. CHAPTER 9: A Passion for Learning
    4. CHAPTER 10: Openings and Convincement: The Quaker Way
    5. CHAPTER 11: Quaker at War
    6. CHAPTER 12: Researcher and Teacher
    7. CHAPTER 13: Meetings With Remarkable People
    8. CHAPTER 14: Crisis of Questions
    9. CHAPTER 15: Husband and Father
    10. CHAPTER 16: Breakout From AT&T
  10. PART III: Leader: 1964–1990
    1. CHAPTER 17: New Skin for New Wine
    2. CHAPTER 18: The Servant Series
    3. CHAPTER 19: Back to Spirit
    4. CHAPTER 20: Twilight
      1. EPILOGUE
  11. Afterword: The Living Legacy of Robert K. Greenleaf
    1. I. APERSONAL REMEMBRANCE OF ROBERTK.GREENLEAF
    2. II. WHYSERVANT LEADERSHIPMATTERS
    3. CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP
    4. III. GREENLEAF’S GREATEST LEGACY: THE GREENLEAF CENTER FOR SERVANT LEADERSHIP
  12. APPENDIX I: A Servant Leadership Primer
    1. WHOANDWHATISALEADER?
    2. WHOISASERVANT-LEADER?
    3. SKILLS AND CAPACITIES OF THE SERVANT-LEADER
    4. SERVANT LEADERSHIPINTHEWORLD
  13. APPENDIX II: Mindmap of Robert K. Greenleaf’s Thought
  14. APPENDIX III: Timeline of Robert K. Greenleaf’s Life
  15. NOTES
  16. Bibliography
    1. WRITINGS BY ROBERT K. GREENLEAF
    2. FURTHER READING: BOOKS AND ESSAYS ABOUT APPLICATIONS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP
  17. Index
  18. About the Author
  19. Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Product information

  • Title: Robert K. Greenleaf
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2004
  • Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • ISBN: 9781605097169