Cambridge Business Association
Great Leaders Grow
Book

Great Leaders Grow

Becoming a Leader for Life

Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
Berrett-Koehler, 2012
Buy book or audiobook

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

6

Recommendation

With millions of copies of his titles in print, including his bestseller, The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard is one of the business world’s most popular authors. Corporate executive Mark Miller teamed up with Blanchard to create 2009’s The Secret. Their newest collaboration, Great Leaders Grow, is an instructive fable that explains why leaders must keep growing. Readable and easy to understand, this business novella presents a tidy, mainstream message about self-development. Blanchard and Miller discuss the requirements of “servant leadership” and encourage readers to expand their personal and professional understanding. getAbstract recommends this tale to the authors’ dedicated fans and to aspiring leaders seeking an accessible book as a bridge to something a little more challenging.

Summary

Leadership Calling

Jeff Brown was an accomplished executive, a “servant leader” – one who leads as a way of serving others – in the finest sense of the term. He helped people in all walks of life and was enormously influential. Everyone who knew Jeff admired him. And though he was relatively young, lived and ate sensibly, and was in excellent physical shape, Jeff died of a heart attack.

No one felt his loss more keenly than his only son, Blake, a young man soon to graduate from college with a degree in business administration and ambitions to land his first job. He could not forget the last words his father said to him: “You can be a leader.”

Blake never thought of himself as a potential leader, so his father’s words stayed with him because his dad never said anything lightly. Blake made a commitment to explore the meaning of leadership and how he might apply that meaning to his life.

Dear Debbie

Jeff Brown had mentored Debbie Brewster, and she told Blake to contact her if he ever needed help. Blake sought her out. “Your dad made such a difference in my life. . .It would be an honor to help you in any way I can,” Debbie said when she agreed to meet...

About the Authors

Ken Blanchard is a best-selling author of more than 50 books, with more than 20 million copies in print. Mark Miller is the vice president of training and development at the restaurant chain Chick-fil-A.

Comment on this summary

  • Avatar
    Sign in to share your opinion
  • Avatar
    K. T. 7 years ago
    Clarity and easy to apply
  • Avatar
    A. 8 years ago
    Clarity of the summary makes it easy to relate to personal experiences and challenges. Upon reflection, in general, I have had two types of leaders: inspirational who embraced disruption and differences of opinion; as those who were self-absorbed. Through the years, I have paid particular attention to the career trajectory of both profiles. In the end, the insecurities of the narcissist wins out and their legacy is mocked and exile cheered as they more often than not slip into obscurity. Unfortunately, not at the pace that most of the abused might have hoped. To Blanchard's point, if you're not growing, your dying!
  • Avatar
    J. S. 1 decade ago
    as per many Blanchard books written in a fable style - engaging and easy to apply