With the publication of “The Servant as Leader” essay in 1970, followed by the book Servant Leadership in 1977, a different paradigm of leadership entered into the hearts and minds of people, organizations, and society. Robert K. Greenleaf proposed that service ought to be the distinguishing characteristic of leadership. Not only would it create a better, stronger society, but people themselves “would find greater joy in their lives if they raised the servant aspect of their leadership and built more serving institutions.”

In this ground-breaking book, Greenleaf was among the first to analyze the qualities of leaders and followers, and the necessity for leaders to be attentive to the needs of others. Servant-leaders, said Greenleaf, constantly inquire whether “other people’s highest priority needs are being served. Do those served grow as person? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

The servant-leader is also a seeker–alert to new possibilities, open, listening and ready for whatever develops. Servant-leadership, then, is an inner quality as much as an exercise of “legitimate” authority.

This attractive new 25th anniversary edition, edited by Larry C. Spears, contains all of Greenleaf’s classic text–including the central core of his ideas as described in the first three essays which he wrote on servant-leadership: “The Servant as Leader,” “The Institution as Servant,” and “Trustees as Servants.” Other chapters of the book deal with servant-leadership in education, in foundations, in churches, in business, and in the world. To this heady mix of Greenleaf’s classic book has been added the wonderful addition of aForeword by Stephen Covey and an Afterword by Peter Senge, each of whom addresses the central question of why this book is so important.

There are very few books which can be truly called seminal works. Robert K. Greenleaf’s Servant Leadershipis one of those rare books that will live far beyond the life of its creator. While its impact on leadership is already felt every day in organizations all over the world, I predict its influence will only become greater as more and more leaders and would-be leaders come to understand the power of its message and come to experience the results of its practice. –James A. Autry, author, The Servant Leader and Love & Profit