Peter Block - Stewardship. Choosing Service Over Self-Interest

More praise for the new edition of Stewardship

“Be forewarned: this is a scary read. In the twenty years I have been engaged in collaborative leadership programs, Peter has been a go-to author for challenging the theory and practice of leadership. In this second edition of Stewardship , Peter leaves us nowhere to hide as he takes an in-depth look at what it truly means to lead from the heart in a culture driven by accountability, metrics, and control. Every ‘yes but’ I raised is countered with examples, metaphors, skillful explanation, case studies, quotes, practical suggestions, and Peter’s trademark creativity and faith in our ability to do the right thing for the common good.”

“Like Robert Greenleaf before him, Peter Block’s voice is that of a contemporary prophet. This revised edition of Stewardship is one of the best books ever written. It serves as a powerful source of hope and encouragement for servant-leaders everywhere.”

“Over the past forty years, through Stewardship and other seminal works, Peter Block has articulated the course required for effective leadership in the 21st century. If only more managers and leaders from every sector took note and practiced the principles of stewardship – productivity would rise, people would be healthier, local community life would be flourishing, and the spirit of democracy would be enlivened worldwide. His message is that essential and that scalable.”

“ Stewardship is love in action. It is time for our organizations to rethink how they exercise power and control. In our changing country and world, our capacity for stewardship may be what ultimately saves our democracy and models accountability and freedom, in their real sense, for the rest of the world. As usual, Peter Block points us in the direction of our better selves, living out a better future.”

“This is one of those very rare anomalies: a second edition that is more essential and timely than the first. It spotlights our current dysfunctionalities – such as the literal looting of so many of our organizations by self-serving top levels – and how far we have actually regressed from a pattern of commitment to service and healthy work environments in most corporations. It’s impossible to read this book and then continue to look at current organizational processes as (desirable) ‘business as usual.’”

“As with his other books, the second edition of Stewardship forces the reader to rethink basic assumptions about leadership and change in organizations. Peter always challenges my thinking and offers a perspective that I have never found elsewhere. He makes espoused values come alive. Leading in the way Peter describes requires courage, a virtue missing in many of today’s organization leaders. Peter’s unique ability to pinpoint the true source of power and confront the reader in a way that cuts through defenses makes reading Stewardship a true learning and growth experience.”

“Peter Block is one of the most provocative and iconoclastic thinkers we have on the topics of leadership, business, and organizational design. His insights are still fresh and razor sharp, and he expresses them in a singular, poetic style. The new edition of this foundational text extends the scope of his insights to meet the challenges that have arisen in the last twenty years and shows how to create not just productive and humane workplaces but vibrant communities, an engaged democracy, and a healthy planet.”

“Peter Block’s second edition of Stewardship is even more provocative than the first edition was twenty years ago because we are more fearful about our economic and personal well-being than ever before. Block helps us see our own complicity and interconnectedness with all that goes on around us and, with this updated edition, will help a new generation learn that the way to find meaning and purpose in life is to form partnerships for the common good, empower each other through human understanding, and together, build competent societies.”

M Y PUBLISHING CAREER has spanned more than thirty-five years. For thirty of those years I have been an acquiring editor, and I have served as the lead editor for many hundreds of books. Yet this is the first time I have ever written the foreword for a book.

Why have I chosen to do something for this book that I have never done before? Two reasons. First, as a testament to the importance of this book. And second, because of gratitude for the profound impact of this book on Berrett-Koehler Publishers and on me personally.

Stewardship was published to great acclaim in 1993, and it quickly became a best seller, eventually selling nearly 200,000 copies. Library Journal (June 15, 1993, p. 92) said that “Block transcends all extant leadership literature” and this book “[has] conceived the organizational structure of the 21st century.” Stewardship inspired thousands of leaders and change agents to profoundly rethink how they did their daily work. For example, one educational administrator wrote (in a letter to Peter Block), “I will never look at leadership and organizations the same way again.. I have read the book, reread it, highlighted it, read my highlights, and taken notes on my highlights.” Hundreds of other book authors and change agents were so influenced by Stewardship that they incorporated ideas from it in their work, thereby further spreading its influence. Some of them wrote their own books (such as Abolishing Performance Appraisals and The Future of Staff Groups ) that delved deeper into particular themes of Stewardship . And Peter Block expanded the last chapter of Stewardship into an equally profound book, The Answer to How Is Yes .