Product Description: Leading from Within is a wonderful collection of ninety-three poems from well-loved poets, each of which is accompanied by a brief personal commentary from a leader explaining the significance and meaning of the poem in his or her life and work. The contributors represent a wide range of professions including Vanguard Group founder John Bogle, MoveOn.org cofounder Joan Blades, several members of Congress, Christian activist Brian McLaren, business guru Peter Senge, and many other leaders from business, medicine, education, nonprofits, law, politics and government, and religion. In their reflections, these leaders explore how they have been inspired by poets such as T.S. Eliot, Mary Oliver, William Stafford, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Robert Frost, Rumi, May Sarton, Wallace Stevens, Wendell Berry, and Rainer Maria Rilke.
"Leading from Within is perhaps the most soulful treatment of leadership ever composed. Leadership is first an inner quest, and there is absolutely no better place to explore your inner territory than in the pages of this book. This is an evocative work of art; do yourself an immense favor, and engage with these amazing and diverse leaders and their poems."—Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and A Leader's Legacy
"Leading from Within makes brilliant use of the world's great poets to inspire us to lead with our hearts as well as our heads. It calls to the deeper purpose and meaning within all of us to use our gifts to serve others." —Bill George, author, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
"This is a superb collection of poems and deeply personal reflections from a wide range of real leaders. It is a gift to all of us who believe in bringing our hearts to our work." —Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)
"The entries in this wonderful anthology are a joy to read and all the more interesting because of their special meaning to the leaders who recommended them. It is a book that every nonprofit leader should place among those they draw upon for inspiration every day."—Diana Aviv, president and CEO, Independent Sector
"Leading from Within offers a candid view straight into the heart and soul of leaders striving to do good and effective work in the world. The poems and commentaries remind us that leadership is always deeply personal and chock-full of dilemmas that must be addressed by creativity, passion, imagination, and courage."—Jeff Swartz, president and CEO, Timberland
Leading from Within is the poetic way to leadership The Poetry of Business
When I created The Poetry of Business - working from the inside out - I was using poetry to take a person through their career for the purpose of self examination and enlightenment. Poetry is one of the most powerful mediums to penetrate to the core of your beingness and invoke innate emotions and creativity. Leading from within is a great use of poetry and commentary used to inspire leadership, and I think it is exactly what it promoted itself as. I was thrilled to see another book combining poetry and its impact in the working culture. In addition it is a fundamental direction for the nurturing of poetry within, and the furthering of poetry in society. Tracy Repchuk Bestselling author of 31 Days to Millionaire Marketing Miracles President and Founder of the Canadian Federation of Poets Founder and Editor of Poetry Canada Magazine
A unique devotional resource There are many devotional resources, most of which serve us well in our faith formation. This book however has been a unique resource for me as a United Methodist pastor. It is a book filled with poems that have been selected by various individuals, some well known, others not. The individual gives a reflection on the meaning of the poem for her/him and then the poem following.
For me, I turn to this book at the end of the day, sitting in my easy chair I flip through the book in no particular order. I find myself reading the reflection by an individual. I then read the poem, allowing the person's reflection to "color" my perception of the poem. And then I sit in silence. No difficult/complex process. Just reflection, poem, silence.
As we are reminded in the Courage & Renewal work, the soul/spirit comes to us "at a slant". It is in the silence that I feel a particular sense of the sacred. This book is a rich resource to be read one poem/one reflection at a time. It is food for the long journey.
A Double Treat This wonderful anthology gives pleasure two ways: first, as a source of a wide variety of new and interesting poets and poems you may not have encountered before, always an important service for an anthology to perform. Second, however, the brief introductions that each contributor offers to his or her poem are a revelation and often as powerful as the poem itself. Who would have guessed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, would both find inspiration in Tennyson's "Ulysses"? Or that a Congresswoman would be touched by Naomi Shihab Nye's "Kindness".
If you are expecting a collection of sentimental poetic candies, fear not. A few old chestnuts are here: "Invictus", for example, offered by a philosophy professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, but when you read his reason for including it, you read the poem with a new appreciation. Poets like William Stafford, Mary Oliver, and Langston Hughes are cited multiple times, and much-anthologized poets like Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot are here too, but so are poets new to me: William Ayot, Carol Zippert, or Ezzeddin Nasafi. Mystics like Rumi, Hafiz, and William Blake. Public figures like Eugene McCarthy and Martin Luther King Jr.
The 93 poems are thoughtfully grouped into eight sections with intriguing titles that will make sense to anyone who's been in a position of leadership: "Called", "Defining Moments", "Sometimes It Aches", "Pay Attention", "The Real Bottom Line", "Dare to Endure", "Leading Together", "Back At It". The editors have clearly paid attention to the poems and clearly thought deeply about leadership. We expect much of our leaders and project upon them powers and motives that only compound the responsibility they already carry. We hope they will inspire us, but we seldom think about where they find inspiration. This anthology offers their testimony and the result is an anthology that rewards multiple readings. Whether you lead a large corporation or a school PTA, you'll find it inspiring to listen to leaders praise the poems that inspire them.
Leading from Within- Poetry that sustains the Courage to Lead The richness of the poetry in Leading for Within will resonate with anyone who faces challenges in leadership. And the well chosen poetry is enhanced by personal reflections of remarkably wise leaders who have contributed to this wonderful book. It has become my trusted resource -used frequently for personal sustenance in legal academia. It's a perfect gift to inspire and comfort those who embrace leadership day in and day out.
A book to savor I have come late in life to poetry. I learned in high school how to dissect and wrestle a poem to the ground not how to savor and take a poem into my heart for my own use. This book of poetry and reflections is one I can savor. I so enjoy reading how others have found inspiration in a poem that I too have come to love like the poem "Lost" by David Wagoner with a reflection by Peter Senge. I highly recommend this book.
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