Josh Spiro Chapter Summary

In this reading, Josh Spiro explains how someone can become a servant leader. To begin, Spiro claims that “servant leaders are attentive to the growth and development of those they work with, including partners, employees, and customers” (Spiro, 2010). Kent Keith, CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership simply describes “‘that servant leaders focus on identifying and meeting the needs of others rather than trying to acquire power, wealth, and fame for themselves”’ (Spiro, 2010). Spiro, hints that leaders who are focused on others are more effective than leaders who are focused on themselves. Additionally, “‘servant leaders really are good at listening, they stay close to their colleagues, they have a good understanding of what their

What is more, when people follow the “‘power, wealth, and fame model…people kind of do their jobs and leave when the clock says five o’clock. They [do not] put in any extra effort, they give [everyone their] minimum”” (Spiro, 2010). As can be seen, there are many downsides to having a non-servant leader, however, it is simple to become a servant leader. This includes, “getting started early, staying introspective, upending the pyramid, listening, and expanding the family” (Spiro, 2010). “Getting started early: the best way to make servant leadership a part of how you run your business is to build it into the founding values of the company” (Spiro, 2010). “Staying introspective: when [a leader is] directing so much energy outwards into [their] company it can be hard to recognize [their] own strengths and weaknesses and their impact on the people around [them]” (Spiro, 2010). “Upending the pyramid: when [when a leader’s organizational] chart looks like a steep pyramid with [them] at the top, it can cause a number of problems within the organization” (Spiro,