1st Edition

The Servant Leader How to Create a Productive Organization By Serving Those Being Led

By Robert B. Camp Copyright 2025
214 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Productivity Press

214 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Productivity Press

214 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
by Productivity Press

This book details the way servant leaders think and act. It emphasizes the role of humility in the work of great leaders. Servant leaders see it as their job to grow their people and to remove obstacles from their paths. The servant leader looks ahead and sets out a path for the rest of the organization to follow. We see that dynamic occur as Thomas (the book’s central character) embraces Total... Read more

About the author

introduction

Chapter 1 – The Promotion        

Chapter 2 – Begin at the Beginning      

Chapter 3 – Who’s Who In the Zoo?     

Chapter 4 – The Mission   

Chapter 5 – Seeking help 

Chapter 6 – Developing a Common Mind       

Chapter 7 – The First Event         

Chapter 8 – One Down     

Chapter 9 – Friedman       

Chapter 10 – Heads or Tails?      

Chapter 11 – The Tour      

Chapter 12 – And Then …  

Chapter 13 – Climbing the Curve          

Chapter 14 – Baby Steps   

Chapter 15 – A Giant Step

Chapter 16 – Airplanes and Progress 

Chapter 17 – OEE    

Chapter 18 – Employee Morale 

Chapter 19 – Meeting Customer Demand       

Chapter 20 – The wheels Come off the bus     

Chapter 21 – Optimizing the Airplane game  

Chapter 22 – Year Two     

Chapter 23 – Contemplating Reorganization         

Chapter 24 – Purchasing New Equipment      

Chapter 25 - Standard Work     

Chapter 26 – If this, then that   

Chapter 27 – Growing People    

Chapter 28 – Growing Suppliers           

Chapter 29 -  Moonshining         

Chapter 30 – Breakthrough!     

Chapter 31 – Succession Planning & Skills Matrix  

Chapter 32 – Always At the Beginning of the Path 

Index 

Biography

A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, Robert Camp began his career in one of this country’s foremost schools of leadership. Yet, like most, he gained his real impression of the skill by watching leaders. He came to realize that leadership is a precious gift that far too many fail to recognize.

In the mid-1980s, as Americans began to watch markets they had created be penetrated, then dominated by Japan, Robert started reading the literature trickling out of that country. Each new book pointed to a new technique. "Statistical process control (SPC) is how they’re doing it!" proclaimed some. "It’s quality circles," countered others. Still others claimed it was just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing. As it turned out, none was right; all were right. Over time, as a more complete picture formed, Robert learned that it was the combination of those tools that gave the Japanese their considerable edge. Still, the picture was not quite complete, and it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the world came to realize that the tools alone would never make an organization Lean, because their results couldn’t be sustained.

By then, Robert had made Lean a full-time profession. Over and over he transformed organizations. Some succeeded, but most failed. He tried to make heads or tails of the circumstances that made the difference. The answer, he discovered, was right under his nose all the time. The difference was leadership. He learned that many have been content to manage and call it leadership. Management, however, isn’t leadership. In fact, it’s a far cry from there. Management faces backward, analyzing yesterday’s data and perfecting it today. It’s an extremely valuable skill and much-needed, but it’s not leadership.

Leadership, as Robert sees it, is the ability to look forward, over the horizon, and through the haze of battle, to define, then communicate, a new course of action and compel others to follow. Robert has had the good fortune to work for some of this country’s biggest and most successful organizations. Throughout his career, he’s been afforded the privilege of working under great men and women who have taught him both in word and deed.