One of the values of the W.C. Bradley Co. is to be guided by the tenets of Servant Leadership. This leadership concept is personally explained in The Learning of Love – A Journey Toward Servant Leadership by William “Bill” Turner, former Chairman and CEO of the W.C. Bradley Co. This book chronicles the journey that led him to embrace Servant Leadership. His Christian commitment, along with the models of leadership that he learned from his parents, D.A. and Elizabeth Turner, and his grandfather, W.C. Bradley, have been the values that have guided his life and which he explains in his memoir.
“Leadership is an opportunity for service, not an opportunity for power ... and it must reach outside the organization in many ways to create a caring community and ultimately to build a better world,” states Turner in the book.
Bill Turner found that Servant Leadership was the path to personal fulfillment and the key to unleashing people’s caring and creativity in the workplace. He is renowned as a community leader and in both the manufacturing and financial services arenas. When he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the W.C. Bradley Co., he helped build Char-Broil into a leading marketer of outdoor grills. As Chairman of the Executive Committee of Synovus Bank, he helped lead the company to become a multi-billion-dollar financial services company.
The Learning of Love – A Journey Toward Servant Leadership was written with Delane Chappell and published by Smyth & Helwys Publishing and unveiled at a gathering of friends and family at the W.C. Bradley Co. on December 14, 1999.
The scope of this book’s message was further expanded in December 2007 when The Learning of Love – A Journey Toward Servant Leadership was translated into Mandarin Chinese and distributed in China, and in 2015 when it was translated into Russian and distributed in Russia. Today, this book is required reading for Servant Leadership students at several colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and at Beijing University in China.
To order a copy, contact Smyth & Helwys. Royalties from the book benefit the Pastoral Institute, an organization which is an excellent example of Servant Leadership at work. The Pastoral Institute, based in Columbus, Georgia, is a nonprofit, faith-based, non-denominational counseling, consultation and educational center which serves individuals, families, businesses, and communities.