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The Servant (Hardcover)
by James C. Hunter
| Category:
Business, Management, Leadership |
| Market price: ¥ 238.00
MSL price:
¥ 198.00
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| 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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Author: James C. Hunter
Publisher: Crown Business
Pub. in: September, 1998
ISBN: 0761513698
Pages: 208
Measurements: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00803
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0761513698
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- Awards & Credential -
A book that has sold 480,000 copies in Brazil, author James C. Hunter presents a fictional tale that analyzes the main attributes of a leader on the basis of Christian principles. |
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- MSL Picks -
In order to lead, you must serve. This is the solid premise of the book “The Servant” by James C. Hunter. It is discussed through the tale of John Daily, a business executive who starts to lose his grip as boss, husband, father, and coach. He was talked into going on a week-long retreat at a Benedictine Monastery to re-center and find his balance. During the retreat, a former Wall Street legend turned monk shows him a different perspective on leadership - servant leadership.
The Ten Attributes of Love and Leadership The book enumerated the following as the qualities of a servant leader. Incidentally, these are also the attributes of love, which was defined earlier as one’s behavior towards others.
1. Patient - showing self-control.
2. Kind - giving attention, appreciation, and encouragement.
3. Humble - being authentic without pretense or arrogance.
4. Respectful - treating others as important people.
5. Selfless - meeting the needs of others.
6. Forgiving - giving up resentment when wronged.
7. Honest - being free from deception.
8. Committed - sticking to your choices.
All these behaviors will entail you to serve and sacrifice for others. This would mean setting aside your own wants and needs to focus on the legitimate needs of others.
You need to realize that success does not only come from hard work and appropriately playing the part. To be successful in business and in your career, you must be able to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack - you need to develop, build and defend your reputation.
The Law of the Harvest
Remember: you reap what you sow. For authority or influence to flourish, the right environment must be provided and a nurturing behavior must be present. In a garden, the soil, the sun, the water, the fertilizer, and the care given by the gardener all make up the environment under which the plant will grow and mature. The one thing that you are not sure of, however, is when the flowers will actually bloom. Bear in mind that influence is not a magical beanstalk that will sprout overnight; rather, it is something that grows in time.
The Rewards of Leading with Authority
Leading with authority enables you to have a personal mission statement: to serve the people you lead, to listen to their needs, to give praise and recognition, to show kindness, and to be honest, among other things. When servant leadership becomes your ethos in life, people would be lining up to join your cause.
By serving others and loving your neighbors, you are keeping in line with the doctrines of the Church as well as other religions. You mature psychologically and spiritually, which is essentially the end goal of the individual’s journey through life.
While the above payoffs are well and good, the most important reward of all is the joy you will experience when you put others first and free yourself from the chains of self-centeredness. As a certain Dr. Albert Schweitzer wisely puts it, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know. The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”
Target readers:
Businessmen, managers, entrepreneurs.
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James C. Hunter is principal consultant of J. D. Hunter Associates, a labor relations and training consulting firm located near Detroit. He is a sought-after public speaker and trainer primarily in the areas of servant leadership and community (team) building. He resides in Michigan with his wife and daughter and can be reached online at www.jameshunter.com.
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From The Publisher
In this absorbing tale, you watch the timeless principles of servant leadership unfold through the story of John Daily, a businessman whose outwardly successful life is spiraling out of control. He is failing miserably in each of his leadership roles as boss, husband, father, and coach. To get his life back on track, he reluctantly attends a weeklong leadership retreat at a remote Benedictine monastery.
To John's surprise, the monk leading the seminar is a former business executive and Wall Street legend. Taking John under his wing, the monk guides him to a realization that is simple yet profound: The true foundation of leadership is not power, but authority, which is built upon relationships, love, service, and sacrifice.
Along with John, you will learn that the principles in this book are neither new nor complex. They don't demand special talents; they are simply based on strengthening the bonds of respect, responsibility, and caring with the people around you. Perhaps this is why The Servant has touched readers from all walks of life?because its message can be applied by anyone, anywhere?at home or at work.
If you are tired of books that lecture instead of teach; if you are searching for ways to improve your leadership skills; if you want to understand the timeless virtues that lead to lasting and meaningful success, then this book is one you cannot afford to miss.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
The Prologue
The Definitions
The Old Paradigm
The Model
The Verb
The Environment
The Choice
The Payoff
The Epilogue
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| View all 10 comments |
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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