What Leaders Are Saying about The Transforming Leader
“A book for people who want to develop their potential as transformative leaders, full of stories that show what wonderful things happen when one’s inner life merges with an outward mission and how just such a development is necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
—Bill Bradley, former US Senator
“An important and persuasive alternative view of leadership. Carol Pearson has brought together an impressive range of contributions into a coherent and highly readable account that is deeply relevant to today’s world.”
—Michael Walton, Lecturer in International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and former Chief Economist, The World Bank
“A comprehensive guide to the latest thinking in leadership communications that explores new ways of thinking about leadership, building charisma, and entering rich interactive relationships with listeners.”
—Steve Denning, former Program Director, Knowledge Management, The World Bank, and author of The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management, The Secret Language of Leadership, and The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling
“The challenges the world faces in the 21st century can’t be addressed with traditional policy and management practices…Pearson has assembled some of the best minds in the field to examine how transformational leadership models can help us update the structures of our thinking, optimize innovative capacity, and harvest the wisdom of groups we lead.”
—Kenneth S. Apfel, Professor of the Practice and Director, Management, Finance, and Leadership Program, University of Maryland, and former Commissioner, Social Security Administration
“If you’ve wondered how to successfully transform leadership to meet the emerging issues of today, look no more. Pearson and her colleagues have imbued each chapter with inspiration and examples that offer hope and simultaneously demand the heavy lifting required to transform leaders. Leading is rocket science, a science that is growing and changing. This book is a must-read for all who aspire to the work.”
—JoAn Knight Herren, former Chief of Training and Technical Assistance, Office of Head Start, US Department of Health and Human Services
“We are reminded daily that leadership strategies that worked in the past are generally inadequate for 21st-century challenges. The Transforming Leader offers leaders—and those who develop and support them—new insights about personal and organizational leadership approaches and pathways to achieving positive and lasting change.”
—Shelly Wilsey, Director, International Leadership Association
“The Transforming Leader is an important book. It is brilliant and insightful and speaks to our future. I highly recommend it to my friends, associates, and others who want to engage in crafting a new and better world.”
—Harvey Bottelsen, Chairman of the Board, James S. Bower Foundation
“Ours is an age of cascading threshold crossings. The Transforming Leader is the field guide to this kaleidoscope landscape, where leadership emerges as a property of our interdependence.”
—Matthew J. Rezac, Director of Rural Community Partnerships, Sherwood Foundation
What Leadership Educators Are Saying about The Transforming Leader
“From helping the reader to think through what transformational leadership is in its many forms, to integrating psychological, spiritual, cultural, and scientific perspectives about our deepest sense of being and purpose, to discussing the art of applying leadership from individuals to societies, this valuable book expands the territory of transformation and what it means for leaders to deeply engage in leadership for our interdependent world.”
—John B. McGuire, Senior Faculty Member, Center for Creative Leadership, and coauthor of Transforming Your Leadership Culture
“Steeped in nature, poetry, and music, the gatherings in the beautiful, wooded Fetzer Institute provided a perfect setting for the germination of ideas on the transforming leader in this book. It reads like a symphony. Read it. Enjoy it. Live it, and become the transforming leader.”
—Cynthia Cherrey, Vice President for Campus Life, Princeton University, and President, International Leadership Association
“A must-read for individuals or groups starting or deepening their inner journey to the authenticity that becomes leadership that transforms. Reading this book is a gift to your head, heart, soul, and spirit.”
—Susan R. Komives, Professor of Student Affairs, University of Maryland, and former President, American College Personnel Association
“The Transforming Leader illuminates, transcends, provokes, and enhances much of what has been said, written, and thought about leadership. Dr. Pearson and her colleagues provide a way to see leadership from the inside out—building on the ever-increasing understanding of what it means to be leaders who are aware and mindful not only of the skills, knowledge, and experience they need but also of the sense of purpose and meaning they need to bring to their worldview. It is a must-read for all who are, plan to be, and have been leaders of their time.”
—Donna Shavlik, former Director, Office of Women in Higher Education, American Council on Education, and board member, National Council for Research on Women
“The Transforming Leader should be required reading for every leader, leadership scholar, and leadership consultant because of its scope and depth. The many brilliant contributors help us think anew about models of transforming leadership, as well as plumb the depths of our own consciousness as leaders. Then, if that weren’t incredible enough, they show us how to use this powerful ‘inner/outer dynamic’ to transform the world.”
—Jean Lipman-Blumen, Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Organizational Behavior, Claremont Graduate University, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, and author of Connective Leadership and The Allure of Toxic Leaders
“Packed full of the latest research and ancient wisdom, The Transforming Leader honors the past while creating great vision. It is simultaneously scientific and spiritual, full of intuition and deeply practical!”
—Valerie Shangreaux, Director of Leadership, Blandin Foundation
“I wish I had this book to read for my first experience as a leader—and each one thereafter! Fortunately, Carol Pearson and her colleagues have provided this remarkable set of essays in time to help current and future leaders in organizations and in the classroom transform their inner thoughts and emotions into powerful leadership actions in the service of others.”
—Robert J. Thomas, Professor of Marketing and former Dean, School of Continuing Studies, Georgetown University
“The current leadership discourse seems to agree that a big change, a transformation, is required for 21st-century leaders. This refreshing book brings together creative thought and artistic science to offer a hopeful model for the leaders of the future.”
—Eliat Aram, PhD, CEO, The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
“The Transforming Leader is a comprehensive and elegantly integrated guide to the latest thinking in the study of leadership. It offers opportunities for deep exploration within a clear, accessible structure and can be used by leaders to deepen their humanity while developing their efficacy.”
—Hélène Smit, Program Director, National Diploma in Facilitation, South African College of Applied Psychology, and author of Beneath
“Carol Pearson and her colleagues give us the inspiration, the confidence, and the tools to bring our leadership visions and skills to the fore. These essays are so insightful and imaginative that readers will want to turn to them again and again to inform their leadership practice as it evolves in new contexts and with new challenges.”
—Julie L. Ramsey, EdD, Vice President for College Life and Dean of Students, Gettysburg College
“There has been much discussion on transformational leadership since Jim Burns wrote his tome in the 1970s. Much of it is structural and theoretical with little application to ordinary businesses and people’s lives. This book changes that. If you are serious about transforming your business or yourself…read this work.”
—Mark Grandstaff, PhD, co-editor of Strategic Leadership and former Clinton appointee to the leadership team, Commission on National Service
“Carol Pearson has assembled a collection of innovative thinkers and writers who present new, refreshing, and challenging ideas about leadership. Engaging and actionable—this is not your ‘flavor of the month’ volume.”
—Hile Rutledge, President, Otto Kroeger Associates
What Psychologists Are Saying about The Transforming Leader
“This compelling recount of historical and contemporary narratives of transformative leaders will inspire, educate, and enlighten anyone who may seek to lead others through the valley of shadows and fears.”
—Dexter Freeman, DSW, LCSW, Director, Army–Fayetteville State University Master of Social Work Program
“The synthetic scope of this collection brings the spiritual and the scientific into dialogue in a manner that will carry us deeply into the 21st century. A must-read for all who recognize the importance of true leadership.”
—Joseph Cambray, PhD, President, International Association for Analytical Psychology
“Carol Pearson, a leading light in fusing the psychological and the corporate, has once again done us all a favor. Gathered together in this insightful book is a wide array of authors who shed light on the complexities and nuances needed for leadership. Their insights are eagerly welcome at a time when we are hungry and searching for new leaders.”
—Aryeh Maidenbaum, PhD, Director, New York Center for Jungian Studies
“There are rare moments in time when truly pioneering spirits emerge. Through their work, insights, and the vastness of their vision and nature, we suddenly become aware of a world far greater than what we have previously experienced, and at such moments, a new paradigm is created. Such is the work, life, and influence of Carol Pearson.”
—Michael Conforti, PhD, Jungian analyst and founder and Director, Assisi Institute