Leading from Within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead
"Like fraternal twins, each pair of facing pages introduces you to magically close companions—an inspired practitioner and a poet who lit the leader's fuse or touched his or her soul. Each touched a deep place in the leader within me.—Dan Mulhern, author, Everyday Leadership: Getting Results in Business, Politics, and Life"Do you want to be a more effective, courageous leader? Then read this book. [You may] realize that you must lead with your heart as well as your mind to inspire people to willingly follow."—Peter Roy, former president, Whole Foods Market, and coauthor, The Book of Hard ChoicesLeadership is more than principles or practices—it requires heart, courage, and wisdom, qualities that can be inspired and informed by poetry.In this beautiful collection of 93 poems, accompanied by a brief personal commentary, leaders reflect on how poetry helps them make sense of the challenges and possibilities in their 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 leaders from business, medicine, education, nonprofits, law, politics, and religion. The poems include works by well-loved poets such as T.S. Eliot, Mary Oliver, William Stafford, Rumi, Langston Hughes, May Sarton, Pablo Neruda, Rainier Maria Rilke, Robert Frost, and Wendell Berry. As they did for teachers in their best-selling book Teaching with Fire, Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner inspire and nourish the hearts and souls of leaders of all kinds in Leading from Within.