Customer Reviews

The Serving Leader: 5 Powerful Actions That Will Transform Your Team, Your Business, and Your Community (Ken Blanchard (Hardcover))

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In The Serving Leader, Jennings and Stahl-Wert strike a deep chord of resonance for readers who are quietly serving and leading in the trenches of public, private, and non-profit sectors. There's an instrinsic rallying call in this book to these persons to embrace their destinies as serving leaders, to seek out and team up with like-minded souls in their networks, and then to get on with the work of great purpose to which they are committed. A good read with potentially life-changing ramifications.

Reviewer: WC Emeka Obiozor....Journalist/Author/Special Educator

Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert's Serving Leader is an amazing and unique testimony of powerful actions and skills every person in a leadership position desires to acquire and utilize in transforming his team; be it business enterprise or non-profit community organization.
The book presented valuable leadership traits and standards using heart-warming tales of an estranged son, his dying father and unique landmarks of innovative leaders in different businesses and community-oriented organizations to illustrate the dynamic five principles of a serving leader.
The authors painstakingly gave us insights into different environments - offices, schools, homes, industries, and other work areas where authentic leaders chosen by followers are in charge principally to build the team, the business, and the community. Thus, a teachable and learnable instrument is offered that provides practical sense for what leadership and service principles for teams and organizations are based upon.
Having come from two distinctive backgrounds, the authors utilized their professional skills in leadership coaching and community building to promote the uplifting of the value of people in organizations and achieving organizational success.
Jennings is the founder and managing partner of Venture Works - engages in the areas of leadership development, strategy, and the management of change. Stahl-Wert presides over the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation (PLF), a 25-year old faith-based intermediary organization in Pittsburgh-Pennsylvania, which specializes in bringing together leaders from the business, government, and social sectors to address human problems.
Distinctive information from the Serving Leader deals with the dreams and aspirations of most contemporary leaders to make their organizations work better. The authors packaged this book to provide today's servant leadership experiential opportunities "to see communities restored, lives improving, kids learning to read, prostitutes breaking the drug and economic chains that hold them, neighborhoods gaining local jobs."
I admired greatly the paradoxes of effective leadership displayed in the book, especially, how the authors blended passages from the Holy Scriptures to drive home important points and facts.
There were significant spotlights the book discussed in the process of pursuing the ideals of innovative leadership, such as - creating a working rapport among staff and management, coaching and mentoring activities that focus on staff strengths and address weaknesses, as well as mending fences and making up in a relationship. Highlights on father's role in giving and sharing love, directing, redirecting and influencing the lives of his child; enforcing school rules - belief in student's capacity for strength and determination, and getting them to rise up to expectations; was another unique aspect of this book.
As the authors would say, "They have to stay on the wire to succeed...because life is a high-wire act." This is very true.
Business executives, school administrators, policy makers, public and private sector, non-profit and community organizations would find this book useful.
It's definitely a good guide to addressing the weaknesses and strengths of leadership, exploring what leaders actually do in their organizations or are expected to do to support individual teams and run successful organizations.

The book reads beautifully, and the story moved me to tears. What I most appreciate is the fact that Dr. Jennings and Dr. Stahl-Wert are practitioners of what they preach. This book rings true from start to finish. These men know what they're talking about. I'm working to become more of the kind of serving leader in my work and at home this book so clearly teaches. They're working at it, too. All of this is very encouraging!

I have read various of these kinds of business books--parables with something to teach--and I usually don't like them. The characters aren't real and the world they live in isn't real. This was a great surprise--I identify with Mike in the story, he could be me, and what takes place has all the feel of life as life is. This book encouraged me so strongly!

This book made me laugh and it made my cry. I identify so much with the main character, and love what the book teaches.

The Serving Leader, by Jennings and Stahl-Wert, is a great read for business and not for profit leaders. While it characterizes the stories of amazing serving leaders throughout the country, it also spells out the steps to becoming a servant leader. Professionals who are searching for a deeper meaning to life and work will find this book extremely rewarding. Epitomizing the attributes of serving leaders, it encourages you to continue your work by compiling the stories of others who have battled the same challenges. It is a small book, a quick read but the impact could be huge!

Jennings and Stahl-Wert know what they're talking about. Unlike many "leadership experts," this book rings absolutely true. A very moving, honest, hopeful story that helped me a lot. Thank you for getting to the deeper heart of leadership.

A great book with lots of practical wisdom about how to lead in complex, mission driven organizations. Although the concept of servant leadership is now part of the leadership literature, it still doesn't resonate with many managers who question its practicality. This book contains numerous illustrations of the tremendous effect that serving leaders have on people and organizations. The authors draw on real-life examples but present them in an easy to read, easy to absorb story. For those in search of personal significance and making a difference in the world around them, this is the book to read.

This was a captivating and wonderfully written book. I was amazed at how much I learned about leadership relating to all aspects of my life. I really enjoyed the journey of the Father and Son and how they too were learning how to better serve each other. This brings home the idea that we must be a good leader not only in our work place but also in our own families. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching the true meaning in their life, and how to make any aspect of their life more effective. I am excited to share this book with relatives and friends for Christmas!! Happy Reading.

Jennings and Stahl-Wert make this a very easy read. You learn by osmosis. Do not read it on the plane. It's embarrassing when you are brought to tears. I can't wait for the sequel.