I just finished Practicing Servant Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness edited by Larry C. Spears and Michele Lawrence, which is a compilation of essays and interviews from a variety of well known leaders on how servant leadership theory and the writings of Robert Greenleaf has influenced their leadership practices in their different fields.There are applications of servant leadership to business, education, non-profits, foundations, and religious institutions among others. Every essay has a few great contributions and insights, but what I liked about this book is that I liked the last three chapters the best. When’s the last non-fiction book you’ve read where the strongest chapters were the last few? It was a pleasant surprise. There’s a fantastic essay (truly) by Daniel H. Kim on “Foresight as the Central Ethic of Leadership.” It was worth the book for me itself. There’s a great essay called “Toward a Theology of Institutions” as well in addition to a helpful essay connecting Servant Leadership, Forgiveness, and Social Justice. I also liked the essay that focused on collaboration and servant leadership.There are parts of the book that read quicker than others, but there were enough chapters/essays in there to make it well worth my time. The “Foresight” chapter to me is worth the investment in this book if you like thinking about leadership issues. If you aren’t “really into” leadership literature it might be too academic or organizational for you, but if you like reading business/organizational leadership stuff you’d probably be into it.I hope to offer a couple more posts at least highlighting a few of the insights that jumped out to me in my reading of this book.
