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Book Review - the Serving Leader

In: Business and Management

Submitted By jennybean030
Words 1670
Pages 7
Running Head: THE SERVING LEADER

A Review of The Serving Leader: 5 Powerful Actions That Will Transform Your Team, Your Business and Your Community

Review of The Serving Leader

CITATION

Jennings, K., & Stahl-Wert, J. (2004). The Serving Leader: 5 Powerful Actions That Will Transform Your Team, Your Business and Your Community. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
MAJOR THESIS

The book The Serving Leader, presents an alternative approach to leadership based on actions rather than theory. The dynamics of Serving Leadership are introduced using a narrative centered on an estranged son and his dying father. It is through the personal journey of the characters, documented in the journal of the son, that concepts of servant leadership are outlined. Serving Leadership is made up of five key principles that can be effectively applied in individuals, teams, businesses, or communities. The following text examines each of those principles as well as identifies how this approach relates to issues affecting human resource management.

The book begins by introducing the fictional son and father characters and their tumultuous relationship. Mike Wilson is a partner in a prestigious consultant firm who is amidst launching his firms’ leadership practice when he is suddenly called home to assist his estranged father, Robert Wilson a well know business leader, with his own leadership project due to his failing health. The text begins to actually touch on Serving Leadership by giving a brief overview. The approach is actually based on existing servant leadership ideas, the difference comes from the focus of the actual activities of the Serving Leader. According to Jennings & Stahl-Wert (2004), “The Serving Leader is down here at the bottom….unleashing the

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