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Servant Leadership Library of Books
What are the Best Books About Servant Leadership?
This collection of books is a compilation of both servant-leadership focused texts as well as books on other, closely related topics, that pair well with servant-leadership. All have been reviewed by Modern Servant Leader staff and are recommended closely for those who adopt and support The Acronym Model of SERVNT Leadership®.
| Cover | Title (Affiliate Link) | Description | Authors | Published / Reprinted | Servant Leadership / Other? | Model Name | Emphasis | Academic / Application |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership | Internationally-recognized leadership expert and bestselling author John C. Maxwell wrote his million-seller The 21 Laws of Leadership over ten years ago. Now, this expanded and updated edition of one of the most trusted and referenced leadership books features revised content that is fundamental to any leader. | John C. Maxwell | 2007 | Other | 21 Irrefutable Laws | Academic | |
 | 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignityÑprinciples that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. | Stephen R. Covey | 2020 | Other | Success | Application | |
 | Art of Servant Leadership | The Art of Servant Leadership provides a prophetic voice in overcoming the craziness within business and a guidebook on how any public or private company can achieve its true purpose in this world. Interwoven with the principles of servant leadership is a story of how one CEO transformed his international communications company to exist for the sake of others. | Dr. Tony Baron | 2013 | Servant Leadership | Balance | ||
 | Art of War | "The Art of War" is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the 5th century BC and is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare and it is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics. | Sun Tzu | 500 BC | Other | History, Military | Academic | |
 | Boldly Inclusive Leader | This is not a book about quick fixes or paying lip service to the hot topic of inclusion. This is for leaders who want to boldly transform the workplace and are willing to leave their comfort zones. As a leader, you will learn to maximize your team's potential and appreciate that inclusive leadership is an ongoing journey. | Minette Norman | 2023 | Other | Empathy, Nonpartisan | Balance | |
 | Built to Last | Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took 18 truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. | Jim Collins | 2019 | Other | Business | Balance | |
 | Case for Servant Leadership | The author argues that servant leadership is ethical, practical, and meaningful. He cites the universal importance of service, defines servant leadership, compares the power model of leadership with the service model, describes some key practices of servant-leaders, explores the meaningful lives of servant-leaders, and offers questions for reflection and discussion. | Kent M. Keith | 2015 | Servant Leadership | 7 Practices | Balance | |
 | CEO Excellence | From the world's most influential management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, this is an insight-packed, revelatory look at how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders—including chiefs at Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony. | Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra | 2022 | Other | Balance | ||
 | Coach Wooden's Pyramid Of Success | Based on John WoodenÕs own method to victory, Coach WoodenÕs Pyramid of Success reveals that success is built block by block, where each block is a crucial principle contributing to life-long achievement in every area of life. | John Wooden, Jay Carty | 2005 | Other | Pyramid of Success | Sports | Application |
 | Dare to Serve | Servant leadership is sometimes derided as soft or ineffective, but this book shows that it's actually challenging and tough minded - a daring path. Bachelder takes you firsthand through the transformation of Popeyes and shows how a leader at any level can become a Dare - to - Serve leader. | Cheryl Bachelder | 2018 | Servant Leadership | Dare to Serve | Application | |
 | Daring Greatly | From thought leader Brene Brown, a transformative new vision for the way we lead, love, work, parent, and educate that teaches us the power of vulnerability. | BrenŽ Brown | 2015 | Other | Application | ||
 | Define Your Destiny | You simply cannot lead others if you donÕt even know your own self. His is a holistic approach to leadership concerned with the totality of the individual, the self, and the people you serve. | Kelvin A. Redd | 2014 | Servant Leadership | Define Your Destiny | Self-Awareness | Balance |
 | Delivering Happiness | In this, his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely admired CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer - explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of employees, customers, vendors, and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences, and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success. | Tony Hsieh | 2010 | Other | Business, Culture | Application | |
 | Essentials of Servant-Leadership | CompThe Art of Servant Leadership provides a prophetic voice in overcoming the craziness within business and a guidebook on how any public or private company can achieve its true purpose in this world. Interwoven with the principles of servant leadership is a story of how one CEO transformed his international communications company to exist for the sake of others.anies ranging from a large airline to a retail store chain are experimenting with unprecedented and accelerated changes in how they define leadership -- in whom employees choose to follow, what it takes to effectively lead others, and how individuals can come together to address constant flux. | Ann McGee-Cooper, Duane Trammell, Matthew Kosec | 2001 | Servant Leadership | Skills & Behaviors | Business | Balance |
 | Ethical Intelligence | Emotionally intelligent people are aware of how they and others feel. Ethically intelligent people know how to use this awareness the right way. Being ethically intelligent doesn't just mean knowing what is right; it also means having the courage to do what is right. Ethical intelligence may be the most practical form of intelligence there is Ñ and the most valuable. | Bruce Weinstein | 2011 | Other | Ethics, Virtous, Self-Awareness | Balance | |
 | First, Break All the Rules | Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its revolutionary study of more than 80,000 managers in First, Break All the Rules, revealing what the worldÕs greatest managers do differently. With vital performance and career lessons and ideas for how to apply them, it is a must-listen for managers at every level. | Marcus Buckingham | 2017 | Other | 12 Questions | Business | Application |
 | Five Dysfunctions of a Team | For twenty years, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been engaging audiences with a page-turning, realistic fable that follows the travails of Kathryn Petersen, DecisionTechÕs CEO, as she faces the ultimate leadership crisis. She must unite a team in such disarray that it threatens to derail the entire company. | Patrick Lencioni | 2002 | Other | Business, Fable, Nonpartisan, Technology | Academic | |
 | Good to Great | Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. | Jim Collins | 2001 | Other | Level 5 Leadership | Business | Application |
 | Greatest Salesman in the World | You too can change your life with the priceless wisdom of ten ancient scrolls handed down for thousands of years. | Og Mandino | 2011 | Other | 10 Scrolls | Fable, Sales | Academic |
 | How to Win Friends and Influence People | Dale Carnegie, known as 'the arch-priest of the art of making friends', pioneered the development of personal business skills, self-confidence and motivational techniques. His books - most notably How to Win Friends and Influence People - have sold tens of millions worldwide and, even in today's changing climate, they remain as popular as ever. | Dale Carnegie | 2023 | Other | Business, Empathy, Influence | Application | |
 | Incidients in the Life of a Slave Girl | Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery and was later freed. She became an abolitionist and reformer. Jacobs wrote an autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. It was a reworking of the genres of slave narrative and sentimental novel, and was one of the first books to address the struggle for freedom by female slaves, explore their struggles with sexual harassment and abuse and their effort to protect their roles as women and mothers. | Harriet Jacobs | 1861 | Other | Empathy, History, Nonpartisan | Academic | |
 | Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands | The most authoritative and comprehensive text of its kind, Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands, 2nd Edition is your must-have guide to proper international business protocol. With countries such as China and India taking on a more significant role in the global business landscape, you can't afford not to know the practices, customs, and philosophies of other countries. | Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway | 2006 | Other | Business, Empathy, International, Nonpartisan | Application | |
 | Laws of Success | Decide today to make your future brighter than your past and make these 12 laws work for you. There is greatness within you. With the help of these 12 Laws of Success, you will discover and unleash that greatness. | Les Brown | 2017 | Other | 12 Laws of Success | Motivation, Success | Academic |
 | Lead Like Jesus | With simple yet profound principles from the life of Jesus, and dozens of stories and leadership examples from his life experiences, veteran author, speaker and leadership expert Ken Blanchard guides readers through the process of discovering how to lead like Jesus. He describes it as the process of aligning two internal domains-the heart and the head-and two external domains, the hands and the habits. | Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges | 2007 | Other | Four Dimensions | Faith | Balance |
 | Leadership Challenge | With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential. | James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner | 2017 | Other | Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders | Balance | |
 | Leadership Is an Art | Leadership Is an Art has long been a must-read not only within the business community but also in professions ranging from academia to medical practices, to the political arena. | Max DePree | 2004 | Other | Business | Academic | |
 | Leadership Jazz | this powerful book reveals why today, more than ever, leadership is more an art than a science. TodayÕs best leaders, De Pree says, are attuned to the needs and ideas of their followers, and even step aside at times to be followers themselves. | Max DePree | 2008 | Other | Business | Academic | |
 | Leading with a Limp | Pick up most leadership books and youÕll find strategies for leveraging your power and minimizing your areas of weakness. But rather than work against your weakness, why not draw from a deeper well of strength? God favors leaders who make the most of the power that comes from brokenness. | Dr. Dan B. Allender | 2008 | Other | Limping Leadership | Faith, Vulnerability | Balance |
 | Lean In | Sandberg, COO of Meta (previously called Facebook) from 2008-2022, provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career. She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment, and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women both in the workplace and at home. | Sheryl Sandberg | 2013 | Other | Business, Empathy, Technology, Women | Application | |
 | Meditations | Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. | Marcus Aurelius, James Harris | 180 | Other | Stoic Philosophy | History, Military | Academic |
 | Mentor Leader | As a son, a football player, and a winning coach, Tony has always learned from others on his path to success. Now you can learn to succeed for your team, family, or organization while living out your values_by becoming a mentor leader. | Tony Dungy | 2011 | Other | Business, Mentoring, Sports | Balance | |
 | Most Powerful Leadership Principle | In The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle, Hunter demonstrates that leadership and character development are one and the same. But the work, even the pain, of changing one's self - breaking old, worn-out habits - is difficult. Hunter provides an uncomplicated, straightforward, three-step change process he has seen successfully employed by literally thousands of leaders to effect change in their lives and organizations and fulfill beneficial goals. | James C. Hunter | 2004 | Servant Leadership | Application | ||
 | On Becoming a Leader | On Becoming a Leader delves into the qualities that define leadership, the people who exemplify it, and the strategies that anyone can apply to achieve it. | Warren Bennis | 2009 | Other | Academic | ||
 | Paradigm Flip | How will you use social media to advance your mission? Leadership has never been easy, but the technology available today can help. Whether you run a Fortune 500 business, an INC 500 company, a department, a non-profit, a church or youÕre just getting started with a personal mission, Paradigm Flip can help. | Ben Lichtenwalner | 2013 | Servant Leadership | Acronym Model of SERVANT Leadership¨ | Social Media, Technology | Application |
 | Power of Servant-Leadership | The Power of Servant Leadership is a collection of eight of Greenleaf's most compelling essays on servant-leadership. These essays, published together in one volume for the first time, contain many of Greenleaf's best insights into the nature and practice of servant-leadership and show his continual refinement of the servant-as-leader concept. | Robert K. Greenleaf, Larry C. Spears | 1998 | Servant Leadership | Academic | ||
 | Primal Leadership | This is the book that established 'emotional intelligence' in the business lexicon, and made it a necessary skill for leaders. | Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee | 2013 | Other | Emotional Intelligence | Application | |
 | Servant as Leader | This is the essay that started it all. Powerful, poetic and practical. The Servant as Leader describes some of the characteristics and activities of servant-leaders, providing examples which show that individual efforts, inspired by vision and a servant ethic, can make a substantial difference in the quality of society. | Robert K. Greenleaf | 1970 | Servant Leadership | Greenleaf Model | Academic | |
 | Servant Leadership | Servant Leadership_ á helps leaders find their true power and moral authority to lead. á helps those served become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous. á encourages collaboration, trust, listening, and empowerment. á offers long-lasting change, not a temporary fix. á extends beyond business for leaders of all types of groups. | Robert K. Greenleaf, Larry C. Spears | 2002 | Servant Leadership | 10 Characteristics | Academic | |
 | Sevent Pillars of Servant Leadership | Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership trains readers in how to evolve and implement the competencies and behaviors of servant leadership using pointed questions, stories, exercises, case studies, and research-based activities that the authors have field-tested with numerous leaders in the public and private sectors. | James W. Sipe, Don M. Frick | 2015 | Servant Leadership | 7 Pillars | Academic | |
 | SPEED of Trust | Stephen M. R. Covey shows how trustÑand the speed at which it is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholdersÑis the single most critical component of a successful leader and organization. | Stephen M. R. Covey | 2008 | Other | Business, Nonpartisan, Virtuous | Balance | |
 | StrengthsFinder 2.0 | All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in 2001 which ignited a global conversation and helped millions to discover their top five talents. | Gallup | 2007 | Other | Goals, Objectives, Performance Reviews | Application | |
 | Surrounded by Idiots | It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with Ð in and out of the office Ð based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way we speak and share information. | Thomas Erikson | 2019 | Other | Personality Assessment | Balance | |
 | Taking People with You | Over his fifteen years at Yum! Brands, Novak has developed a trademarked program he calls Taking People with You. He spends several weeks each year personally teaching it to thousands of managers around the world. | David Novak | 2012 | Other | Balance | ||
 | The Secret | The authors get at the heart of what makes a leader successful in this classic business fable. Newly promoted but struggling young executive Debbie Brewster asks her mentor, ÒWhat is the secret of great leaders?Ó His replyÑÒgreat leaders serveÓÑflummoxes her, but over time he reveals the five fundamental ways that leaders succeed through service. | Ken Blanchard, Mark Miller | 2009 | Servant Leadership | SERVE | Fable | Balance |
 | The Servant | 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. | James C. Hunter | 1998 | Servant Leadership | Business, Fable | Application | |
 | The Servant Leader | Readers looking to expand their effective leadership skills, to experience the transforming power of Blanchard's unconventional teachings, and to grow as leaders and as business executives will benefit greatly from Servant Leader. | Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges | 2003 | Servant Leadership | Four Dimensions | Academic | |
 | The Servant Leader | A Practical Guide to Using the Principles of Servant Leadership. Leadership is a calling. And servant leadershipÑthe idea that managing with respect, honesty, love, and spirituality empowers employeesÑhelps individuals answer that calling. | James A. Autry | 2004 | Servant Leadership | Business | Application | |
 | Think and Grow Rich | Napoleon Hill presents a ÒPhilosophy of AchievementÓ in 13 principles drawn from the success stories of such greats as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and other millionaires of his time. | Napolean Hill | 2015 | Other | 13 Steps to Riches | Motivation, Success | Application |
 | Words to Lead By | Whether you lead 1 or 1,000, these quotes will inspire and motivate you. Inside is both ageless wisdom and insights from contemporary thought-leaders, all organized by the greatest leadership principles. | Ben Lichtenwalner | 2022 | Servant Leadership | Acronym Model of SERVANT Leadership¨ | Motivation, Quotes | Academic |
 | You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader | Through the stories of a number of unsung heroes, Sanborn reveals the keys each one of us can use to improve our organizations and enhance our careers. | Mark Sanborn | 2006 | Other | 6 Principles of Leadership | Balance |