• The first biography of Robert Greenleaf, originator of the immensely influential concept of "servant leadership" which plays a crucial role in the writings of today's most important business thinkers and has had an major impact on organizations of all types
• Explores the origin, development, basic concepts, and practical applications of the idea of servant leadership
• Greenleaf maintained friendships with some of the most important men and women of the twentieth century, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Peter Drucker, the Menninger brothers, Reinhold Niebuhr, Aldous Huxley, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson, and many others
• Includes a foreword by Peter M. Senge

Self-assessment companion product to The Transformational Consumer

PRODUCT INFORMATION:

Format: Online Subscription

Price: $9.95 for one-year subscription, or five tests, whichever comes first

Description: This instrument helps business leaders sequence an intentional action plan for what to rethink first, and how to do it given specific business priorities, resources and challenges. It consists of 30 questions to help rethink 1) what you sell, 2) your customer, 3) your marketing, 4) your competition, and 5) your culture.

AUTHOR'S WELCOME:

The fact that you’re reading this tells me something about you. It tells me that you’ve made the decision to accept this call to adventure. It tells me that you have a vision for transcending the transactional, and becoming a transformational leader of a transformational business.

It also tells me that you are a conscious leader. That could mean a lot of things, but mostly means right now that you are awake. Awake and concerned enough to know that disengagement is the enemy. Awake and optimistic enough to have hope that rethinking what you sell, your customer, your marketing, your competition and your culture are the first steps on the path beyond disengagement. And awake and wise enough to know how hard change management is to pull off, and to seek out help converting what you read in The Transformational Consumer into a real plan of action.

I’m here to help. Take some time, and answer the following questions about your business, your product, your customers, your industry and your team. The process of just answering them could very well spark some thoughts, so stay open to that.

The best practice is to approach the assessment by suspending cynicism and frustration, but also with the commitment never to drink your company’s own Kool-Aid or buy your own hype. It is also helpful to have a sense for your company’s current priorities, challenges, and key performance indicators [KPIs] or other success metrics.

You can take the assessment up to 5 times. I encourage you to have leaders from other teams in your company to take it, at the same time as you, to compare results and kickstart the change management strategy from a collaborative place.

When you’re done, the tool will provide you with the insights you need to sequence an intentional action plan for what to rethink first, and how to do it given your specific business priorities, resources and challenges.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Transformational Consumer

They are the most valuable, least understood customers of our time. They buy over $4 trillion in life-improving products and services every year. If you serve their deeply human need to continually improve their lives, they will eagerly engage with your brand at a time when most people are tuning out corporate messages.

They are Transformational Consumers, and no one knows them like Tara-Nicholle Nelson. Her Transformational Consumer insights powered her work at MyFitnessPal, which grew from 40 million to 100 million users in her time there.

Nelson takes readers on a hero's journey to connecting with customers in ways both profitable and transformational. After going inside the brains, emotions, and behaviors of Transformational Consumers, Tara issues a call to adventure: a rallying cry to leaders to shift their focus from simply making products to solving their customers' problems.

Nelson uses stories and cases studies from every industry to guide readers through this journey in five stages, shedding light on how to rethink their customers, their products and services, their marketing, their competition, and even their culture.

The key to growing a business today is not building an app or getting new social media followers. The key is engaging people over and over again by triggering their deep, human desire for growth and transformation.

When a company reorients every initiative to serve Transformational Consumers, it kick-starts a lifelong love affair with its customers—a love affair that results in unprecedented revenue growth, product innovation, and employee engagement.

Though bureaucracy appears on almost every "biggest problems with business" list, most management books simply suggest ways to make it work better. This book shows how to replace bureaucracy with fundamentally different principles for organizing and coordinating work.

Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot confront head-on the key organizational issues that are threatening the very existence of today's corporations. They assert that "bureaucracy is no more appropriate to the information age than serfdom was to the industrial era. Only freedom and community will work."

The Pinchots describe "intelligent organizations" that make full use of the intelligence of all employees. By developing and engaging the intelligence, business judgment, and wide-system responsibility of all its members, an organization can respond far more effectively to customers, partners, and competitors. The Pinchots provide a far-reaching guide to:
o establishing internal free markets
o liberated teams
o community in the workplace
o equality and diversity
o democratic self-rule
o multiple sources of authority
o limited corporate government

The Pinchots support the sweeping changes they propose with numerous examples of how these changes are already being implemented in such diverse organizations as AT&T, the Canadian National Railroad, DuPont, Russian entrepreneurial firms, Hewlett-Packard, and the U.S. Forest Service.

• Everyone complains about bureaucracy. Here's how to replace it with more humane and effective systems of organization
• From the authors of Intrapreneuring, one of the bestselling and most influential business books of the 1980s
• Originally published in hardcover as The End of Bureaucracy and the Rise of the Intelligent Organization

• Presents an original analysis of what the real sources of power are in America today
• Reveals the tactics used by corporate interests to wield hidden power
• Offers detailed strategic advice for how the Democrats can unite with grassroots social movements and form a powerful coalition for fundamental change
• Thom Hartmann, Air America radio host and bestselling author of Screwed, says "Hidden Power is the must-read book of the year. Buy three copies, at least, because you'll want to share a few with friends, and will never want to part with your own well-marked-up copy." read the full review

Shows that sustainability, a concept usually associated exclusively with environmentalism, is the key to a truly fulfilling personal life

Filled with practical advice as well as thoughtful reflections

Illustrated with stories of Schuler's own efforts not always successful to live a sustainable life, as well as insights from science, literature, and a range of spiritual traditions

So many of us are beset by anxiety, depression, loneliness, and spiritual malaise, tense and unhappy despite our gadgets and goodies. Michael Schuler, leader of the nation's largest Unitarian Universalist congregation, says it's because, urged on by an aggressively materialist culture, we too often opt for short-term gratification and long-term denial. In this thoughtful and deeply honest book, he helps us find a life path that leads to treasures of perennial value: a beautiful and healthy earth home, enduring relationships, strong communities, work that contributes to the common good, and play that restores our bodies and lifts our souls.

Deconstructing the assumption that consumption, stimulation, and constant motion comprise the good life, Schuler urges the wholesale embrace of sustainability as both an operational principle and a life-sustaining core value. His book presents sustainability as a coherent frame of reference that can ground us spiritually, heal us internally, and deepen our relationships. Schuler identifies four behavioral principles for living sustainably Pay Attention, Stay Put, Exercise Patience, and Practice Prudence and shows how to apply them in our daily lives. He uses stories from his own life to illuminate the rewards and challenges of sustainable living and shares insights from environmentalists, social commentators, writers, poets, businesspeople, and spiritual leaders.

Sustainability means more than mere survival for individuals, just as for natural and social systems, it's the key to thriving rather than burning out. For those seeking a more profoundly satisfying way of life, Schuler's heartfelt explorations offer a counter intuitive answer: the sustainable life is the good life.