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The Servant (精装)
by James C. Hunter
| Category:
Business, Management, Leadership |
| Market price: ¥ 238.00
MSL price:
¥ 198.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
James Hunter uses a fictional narrative to present and elaborate on concepts of leadership. The most significant aspect of The Servant is the relationship between leadership and the highest Christian principle: love. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
Everyone serves. Some more than others. It is impossible to not serve either yourself, someone else or something else. The Servant - written by James C. Hunter, simply illustrates this fundamental of successful living in an easy-to-read, hard-to-put-down allegory about leadership through servanthood. These 187 pages are super-saturated with wisdom that can be absorbed by a grade-schooler. In fact, most of us have already learned the principles contained in this book, from our schoolteachers, our religious faith, our family and our friends. We need not to be taught so much as to be reminded.
Simeon, a monk whose chief role is to teach through servant leadership, achieves this task (as supporting protagonist) by gaining authority through altruism. Although told through the experiences of a fictitious "once-successful" businessman, John Daily, the story is about each one of our own natural inclinations, natures and choices. A cast of other supporting characters designed to symbolize a wide demographic variety proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only villain in this story is self.
If you're interested in reading this book or giving it as a gift to either your staff, peers, family or friend, it will make an impression. If you're interested in improving relationships, this book is a must-read. You could spend a great deal more than $14.95(US) to get this kind of direction from other sources.
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Emil Posey (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This is an excellent, short book on the principles of leadership. I prefer leadership books that use real-life leaders as models rather than the contrived storyline method used here, but that did't detract from its message - only its delivery.
Hunter espouses a series of easily understood leadership traits.
- Treat others exactly the way you would want them to treat you.
- Listening is the most important skill a leader can develop.
- You manage things, you lead people.
- The key to leadership is accomplishing the tasks at hand while building relationships.
- Trust is the most important ingredient in successful relationships.
- Your feelings of respect must be aligned with your actions of respect.
- A leader is someone who identifies and meets the legitimate needs of their people, removes all the barriers, so they can serve the customer. To lead, you must serve.
- Slaves do what others want, servants do what others need.
- Intentions minus actions equal squat.
- Love is patience, kindness, humility, respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness, honesty, and commitment. This is also a definition of leadership.
- At the core of human personality is the need to be appreciated.
- Love is the act or acts of extending yourself for others by identifying and meeting their legitimate needs.
- There are only two things in life everyone must do: die and make choices.
- We do not see the world as it is, we see the world is we are.
My experience is that his list is correct, albeit it is somewhat incomplete. For example, it doesn't touch on decisiveness, intuition, and other characteristics that one will find in a good leader. Still, it's well worth the short time it takes to read.
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Baycity (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
The Servant is a fable. The author sends his depressed and frustrated manager to a monastary for enlightenment by a CEO turned Monk. Along with other cardboard characters (the cynic, the coach, the teacher) our hero learns the true meaning of leadership.
While this story approach can be off-putting and even annoying, the reality is the reader will learn a great deal about leadership. The key, at least for me, is to get past the genre (story as business lesson) and to the substance of what Hunter offers. And Hunter offers a lot. He's thought a great deal about leadership and it shows. He offers thought provoking insights and a worthwhile perspective on what it means to be a leader, what commitment is required to lead and what challenges a leader must face.
This book is a good buy for a plane trip or as a gift for a new manager. It is an easy read, but is likely to spark some serious self-appraisal.
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Peter Nguyen (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
What do you think about attending a week long retreat at a small, relatively unknown Christian monastery built on a magnificent sand cliff a couple of hundred feet above and overlooking lake Michigan? While there, you will attend classes on leadership taugh by the legendary Fortune 500 executive turned monk, Len Hoffman. I've attended the seminar and I'm inviting not just you but all of my family and friends to go. Actually, I don't know if such a seminar exists, but what I described above is the setting of this superbly written, easy to read book. True to claim, it is a quick read! I could hardly put it down. I felt as if I, too, was there at the leadership retreat along with the characters in the book. Everyone should read this book because it not only teaches us how to be good leaders, it also teaches (or reminds) us how to be good people. Thank you, James C. Hunter, for your invaluable contribution!
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Stosh Walsh (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This book delivers many of the same principles you will find in other leadership oriented books, and even refers to some of them (synergy, from Covey's 7 Habits, for example). However, this book is unique, and well worth reading for what it does differently than other books on the same subject: it tells a story to illustrate the principles it espouses.
The plot revolves around a glass plant manager who is having difficulty in his marriage as well as his career. He agrees to spend a week at a monastery to appease his psychologist wife, and there he enrolls in a week-long leadership course taught by a wealthy businessman turned monk named Simeon. Also in his class are five other people: a nurse, a drill sergeant, a basketball coach, a preacher, and a principal, who serve the purpose of providing realistic perspectives from a variety of backgrounds. The lessons they learn together and the interactions they have in the class comprise the majority of the leadership teaching of the book.
As evidenced by the title, the premise of leadership professed here is servant leadership, based most significantly on the model of Jesus Christ. That having been said, however, the author makes many references to the findings and theories of psychology, and the he takes care to justify his position by having Simeon answer the questions posed by skeptical members of the class when the Christian element of things is brought into the conversation. All of this is done very artfully within the fabric of the story; so well, in fact, that it is almost as if the story stands by itself, and the tenets about leadership are gleaned almost in passing.
Overall, this book accomplishes what other books like The One Minute Manager and Who Moved My Cheese? have done to a lesser extent: it takes important facets of a given topic (leadership) and presents them in an entertaining and easy to understand story, rather than the traditional didactic approach. I have read numerous books on leadership, and this is one of the best I have encountered-highly recommended.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
The Servant is an incredibly simple and gentle story that reveals wisdom above and beyond the leadership training that is going on in boardrooms across North America today. Business is changing, and with it the needed characteristics of our leaders must change also. Gone are the days when the dictator... or the technical manager could drive a company forward to success. What it takes now is someone who can serve in a very powerful and affirming way. James C. Hunter reveals such a leader in the reverant atmosphere of a monastary... and in the capable hands of a humble monk with a passion for God and people. James' story calls out the servant within all of us. It will change how you think... and more importantly... how you lead.
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Linda Van Norman (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This book is a lesson in maturity. John Daily is sent by his psychologist wife to a seminar at a monestery as a last ditch effort to get a grip on his life. The reader is allowed to reflect on the experiences there that bring him to the notion of true leadership- - - Developing others. Developing others is a selfless task, turned into a way of life. John first learns he must give up his ego, then how to encourage, reward, and coach others to be the most they can be. He leaves the seminar believing he has shortchanged all the people in his life and is motivated to make it up to them. He has a new inner voice to follow, and can once again think out of the box. The book does have some religious overtones, but they are very subtle. Whatever your role in life, this book can make a difference for you. It is the type of book that can be re-read at a different point in your life and bring new awareness to an old problem.
If you are involved in motivating individuals at work, at home, school or in any community setting, this is the book for you.
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James (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This is a fabulous book that I found myself unable to put down. I started reading it about 8 pm one night and stayed up until I was finished (about 1 am). I have read many business books in the past and have set through a great number of courses on leadership. The Servant, by James C. Hunter, summed up all of them in 187 pages.
This is a fictional story of a manager that goes on a weeklong leadership retreat. He has been successful but is finding his life not what it should be. His marriage is suffering, his relationships with his children are suffering, his relationships with his employees is strained. So he allows himself to go on a retreat in which he doesn't see himself learning a great deal on.
But that is where he is wrong. The majority of the book is focused on what he did learn. Through a fictional teacher and fictional leadership seminar, James Hunter takes us all on a journey of self discovery. He breaks down leadership to its most basic characteristics, much to the reader's surprise.
It is a well written book that I immediately bought several more copies of to give as gifts to some of my closest friends.
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Jeff Jones (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This may be one of the best books on leadership I have ever read. It certainly rang a chord within me and has prompted me to begin a leadership training program at my job using some of the examples from this book as the basis.
The Servant is a story of a ragged businessman having trouble in his personal and professional life. He's on the edge emotionally, mentally and spiritually. (Sound like anyone you know?) He winds up at a program in a monestary and finds one of his teachers to be a former Wall Street hot-shot executive. He initially works diligently to find the secret to instant success from the former Wall Streeter but learns that true leadership, true success comes from giving, not getting; from being a servant instead of being served. As you might know, Jesus is the model for servant leadership and the thesis of the book is based on principles illustrated by Christ while on earth.
Whether you are a Christian believer or not, the stories and principles found here are beneficial and can help you be a better person/boss/employer/husband/father. If you really want to find out what the top of the ladder is like, read The Servant. It will help you climb every step of the way.
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Jeffrey Ellis (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
The Servant is the story of John Daily, a coach, father, and manager who seemingly has it all together. But beneath the surface, the wheels have begun to fall off his life. Many of us will be able to see ourselves in him: driven, worldly, ambitious, anxious; a wreck waiting to happen.
John goes to a "retreat" at a monastery in a search for answers to those questions of his life, the missing pieces of his heart. At the hands of Brother Simeon and five other attendees, John discovers insights and treasures about life, leadership, and himself.
In the tradition of Og Mandino, John Wooden and John Maxwell, this is a book about leadership and love. Much more than a self-help manual or a touchy-feely-go-nowhere narrative, this work defines and redefines principles of leadership, influence, authority, power, relationship, and, yes, love. Though based on a Christian foundation (Brother Simeon is a believer), it avoids being preachy or overtly religious. It lessons are universal in application and timeless in relevance.
The Servant unveils hard truths about ourselves and ourselves in the workplace.
It suggests a new paradigm of leadership: servant leadership; that upside-down paradox which declares that to be a true leader, one must serve. It is this paradox of faith, this foundational truth gives the book its power. Imagine a corporation where its leadership is based on: patience, kindness, humility, respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness, honesty, and commitment. This definition can't be found in an MBA textbook - it is taken from 1 Corinthians 13. These same characteristics which define good leadership also define love.
Whether you are a senior manager or independent contractor; distinguished leader or stay-at-home mom, there is depth and delight awaiting you in this book. It is all about love.
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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