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Review

“The Servant” by James Hunter is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. There were moments when I was laughing and moments when I was crying. Hunter’s writing is easy to read and yet profoundly challenging to grasp. The principles and ideas of leadership shared in this book are life changing if applied.

The story of a business man named John who was in desperate need of change in his life is simple and fascinating. Hunter writes about John and his struggles and his amazing transformation, not only as a business man, but more importantly as a man.

“The Servant” is an easy and short read. But be prepared to have your life challenged and changed. If you are not interested in becoming a better leader, or for that matter, a better person then this book is not for you. Although “The Servant” may be a short and easy book to read, you will find it extremely enlightening and challenging. It is one of the most powerful books I have read.

Summary of Main Points
"The Servant” is a story of an amazing transformation of a business man named John. John seemed to be a typical business man. He is married with two kids. He has a beautiful home and all of the possessions that makes up the American dream. But through is his own description, his life was falling apart. On the outside everything seemed perfect. John shares that his marriage was crumbling and his relationship with his kids was deteriorating quickly.

John finally breaks down and visits his pastor. With the encouragement of his pastor and wife John decides to spend a week at a Monastery in Michigan . This begins his week long journey and transformation.

The leader of this week goes by the name of Simeon. Simeon’s real name is Leonard Hoffman. Hoffman was a renowned business man. One of his major accomplishments was leading the restructuring of Southeast Air.

John was part of a small group of people who were going through this week together with Simeon’s leadership. As Hunter shares throughout the book, each day was filled with discussion and reflection. The group would spend time with Simeon discussing and learning numerous leadership principles. Mainly these discussions revolved around challenging currently held paradigms and beliefs that were not helping these individuals be as successful as they desired. The story also shares daily one-on-one interactions that John had with Simeon.

One of the many principles they discussed was the concept of Management and Leadership. “Management is not something you do to other people. You manage your inventory, your checkbook, your resources. You can even mange yourself. But you do not manage other human beings. You manage things, you lead people.” They defined Leadership as, “The skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good.”

“The Servant” is a wonderfully practical book regarding how to lead according to the principles of Servant Leadership. James C. Hunter does an excellent job of sharing John’s journey and learning in a way that allows the reader to feel like you were part of their group. The reader will certainly benefit from “The Servant”.

Call To Action

After reading this book, Hunter provides numerous principles and concepts of leadership that we can all apply to our lives. Following are four of these principles that you can reflect on right now:

“Power: The ability to force or coerce someone to do your will, even if they would choose not to, because of your position or your might.” “Authority: The skill of getting people to willingly do your will because of your personal influence.”
“… leadership is about getting things done through people. When working with and getting things done through people, there will always be two dynamics involved – the task and the relationship.”
“When you cut people off in midsentence … it sends some bad messages. Number one, by cutting me off you obviously have not been listening to me very well if you’ve already formulated your response in your head; two, you do not value me or my opinion because you refuse to take the time to hear me out; and finally, you must believe that what you’ve got to say is much more important that what I’ve got to say.”
“Long ago a man named Syrus said that it is of no profit to have learned well if you neglect to do well.”