Serve to Be Great: Leadership Lessons from a Prison, a Monastery, and a Boardroom

HOW EXTRAORDINARY LEADERS ACHIEVE LASTING SUCCESS INSPIRE GREATNESS IN YOUR TEAM Praise for Serve to Be Great Matt Tenney has a clarity about the world that is remarkable. His experience and the lessons he learned need to be heard by as many people as possible. Simon Sinek, Optimist and author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last Serve to Be Great draws you in with one of the most powerful stories youll ever hear and offers an inspiring path to true greatness as a leader. I encourage anyone who wants to be great to read this book. Jon Gordon, Bestselling author of The Energy Bus, The Carpenter , and The Seed With a gripping narrative about his journey from prisoner to monk to social entrepreneur, Matt Tenney shows how leaders can elevate those around them and make everyone better off in the process. Adam Grant, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Give and Take Learn how you can be of greater service and make a bigger difference as a leader whether you have a tile or not read this book. Mark Sanborn, Bestselling author of The Fred Factor and You Dont Need a Title to Be a Leader Serve to Be Great is one of those rare books that is an enjoyable and inspiring read, and also quite useful for helping you and your team succeed. Chip Conley, Founder and former CEO of Joie de Vivre Hotels and New York Times bestselling author of Peak and Emotional Equations Serve to Be Great provides you with powerful tools for becoming an extraordinary leader who gets results and makes our world a better place. This inspiring book is a must–read for leaders at all levels. Chade–Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google, and New York Times bestselling author of Search Inside Yourself The insights from [Matts] journey and the examples he shares of truly great leaders will improve your performance, widen your perspective, and raise your leadership game. Skip Prichard, CEO of OCLC and blogger at www.SkipPrichard.com This is an outstanding book full of truly powerful ideas, tools, stories, and advice. I strongly recommend you read and apply the lessons of Serve to Be Great . John Spence, named one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America by Trust Across America and author of Awesomely Simple

Foreword Jon Gordon xv Introduction xix Part 1 MY JOURNEY FROMPRISONER TO MONK TO SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR 1 1 My Greatest Failure 3 Finding Opportunity in Disaster 8 2 From Selfish to Servant 13 The Practice That Changed My Life 20 What If Businesses Operated in This Way? 21 The Power of Servant Leadership 22 The Essence of Leadership 25 Serving by Helping Organizations Develop Extraordinary Leaders 26 Part 2 SERVE TO BE GREAT: THE BUSINESS CASE 29 3 Winning theWar for Talent 31 Attracting Top Talent 36 Fully Engaged People 37 Improving Retention 39 4 Creating a Highly Innovative Culture 41 Linking Innovation Directly to Profit 41 What Does Being Innovative Actually Mean? 47 Building a Highly Innovative Culture 49 Why Serving and Caring for People Results in a Highly Innovative Culture 52 5 Delivering World–Class Customer Service 57 Quantifying the ROI in Customer Service 61 How Great Leaders Inspire World–Class Customer Service 63 Developing Employees Who Wow Your Customers 66 6 Why Serving Others Is a Highly Effective Marketing Tactic 71 Smarter, More Enjoyable Marketing 78 Marketing with the Spirit of Service 81 Part 3 MAKING THE SHIFT: BECOMING THE ULTIMATE LEADER 89 7 Making Serving a Habit 91 An EasyWay to Jump in to the Top 1 Percent 93 Action Is Most Important 95 The Habit of Serving Others 96 The Little Things Matter 99 What a Teenager Dying of Cancer Taught Me about Leadership 101 8 Grow by Empowering Others 105 Empowered People Equal Better Results 107 Empowering Others Helps Us Become the Ultimate Leaders 109 9 Inspire Greatness 121 Start with Why 123 The Gift of Inspiration 125 Values That Inspire and Guide the Way 129 Character That Inspires 131 True Greatness 132 Self–Sacrifice: The Ultimate Test of Character 136 10 Measuring the Right Things 139 Measuring the Intangibles in Business 140 Be Goals versus Do Goals 142 11 Becoming the Ultimate Leader 149 Becoming the Ultimate Leader Is Enjoyable 154 Staying Cool under Pressure 156 The Ultimate Tool for Becoming the Ultimate Leader 157 Making a Profit While Making a Difference 160 Afterword 163 Author’s Note 165 Serve Your Team 167 Connect with Matt 169 About the Author 171 Acknowledgments 173 Appendix: A Quick Start Guide to Mindfulness Training 177 Notes 181 Index 187

MATT TENNEY is an international keynote speaker, a trainer, and a consultant with the prestigious Perth Leadership Institute, whose clients include numerous Fortune 500 companies. He works with companies, associations, universities, and nonprofits to develop highly effective leaders who achieve lasting success by focusing on serving and inspiring greatness in the people around them. Matt envisions a world where the vast majority of people realize that effectively serving others is the key to true greatness. When hes not traveling for speaking engagements, he can often be found in Nashville, TN.