Based on the work of best-selling author Parker Palmer and his Center for Courage & Renewal, this exploration of the inner life of leadership shows how to become a better leader by orienting yourself, your life, and your work toward greater courage, wholeness, and integrity.
Shelly L. Francis has been the marketing and communications
director at the Center for Courage & Renewal since mid-2012. The
common thread throughout her career has been bringing to light
"best-kept secrets"--technology, services, resources, ideas--while
bringing people together to facilitate collective impact and good
work.
The Center for Courage & Renewal, a nonprofit founded in 1997 by
Parker J. Palmer, aims to create a more just, compassionate, and
healthy world by nurturing personal and professional integrity and
the courage to act on it. It has a network of nearly 300
facilitators worldwide. More than 5,000 people participate in
Courage & Renewal programs and retreats each year.
“Shelly Francis has written a beautiful and important book. Of all
the requisite virtues of conscious leaders, courage is one of the
most essential—the courage to do what is needed to promote human
flourishing and growth and the courage to withstand the inevitable
pressures to conform to business-as-usual and to treat people as
disposable and interchangeable objects. This book is the finest
treatment I know of this vital subject.”
—Raj Sisodia, F. W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global
Business, Babson College, and cofounder and Chairman Emeritus,
Conscious Capitalism Inc.
“Our culture and our planet are in crisis. Not shying away from
this truth requires courage. Stopping the rat race we are all
caught in to discern how we are called to respond requires courage.
Acting on that knowing requires courage. How come the word
‘courage’ is almost completely absent from leadership literature,
then? Perhaps because we too often reduce leadership to becoming
successful and making it to the top. I’m relieved to find a book
that holds us to a higher standard and offers guidance as we
wonder: in these peculiar times, how can we find the courage to
live the life that wants to be lived through us?”
—Frederic Laloux, author of Reinventing Organizations
“For many years, the Center for Courage & Renewal has been
preparing us for this ‘post-truth’ era when courageous action is
demanded from leaders who care about people and planet. We need
leaders who put service over self, who know what they stand for and
stand there. We need leaders who are committed to serving people,
who recognize what is being lost in the haste to dominate, ignore,
and abuse the human spirit. I am deeply grateful for this book as a
guide and support for moral leadership as we face the darkening
future.”
—Margaret Wheatley, author of nine books including, most recently,
Who Do We Choose to Be?
“This is the book that won’t claim to change your life, which is
exactly why you can trust that it probably will. What you will find
in these pages is no less than the technology to tune into your
true self—your real intuitions and outrage and intelligence—and a
sense of how to show up in community with that revitalized
understanding of your own power. In a cacophonous world like the
one we’re living in, I can think of no more critical or renewing
opportunity.”
—Courtney E. Martin, author of The New Better Off
“The Courage Way gives us a much-needed social technology for
self-expression and authentic relationships. With intimate
leadership stories, it shows how integrating purpose and
cultivating community can be a powerful catalyst for change.”
—Aaron Hurst, author of The Purpose Economy and Fast Company’s
Purposeful CEO Series; cofounder and CEO, Imperative; and founder
of the Taproot Foundation
"Leading with integrity and empathy requires vision and a
connection to your deepest self. Yet leading people and businesses
also requires immense effort and dedication that can isolate you,
exhaust you, and even pull you away from your vision and deep
connection. Enter The Courage Way, which offers tools, stories, and
ideas to help you cultivate your vision and your ability to lead
with courage, kindness, humor, and dignity. Shelly Francis
illuminates the work of Parker J. Palmer with wit and grace.”
—Karla McLaren, M.Ed, author of The Language of Emotions and The
Art of Empathy
“In this troubled world today, we need to check our moral
preferences as leaders and commit to what we value and will defend.
In healthcare, I have learned that the secret to quality is love.
It is also justice, which is the manifestation of love in our
public policies and conduct. The Courage Way offers stories and
practices of how the hearts of leaders can stay connected with
their moral compass and courage. It shows that what we create
collectively arises from the wholeness and compassion we locate
within.”
—Donald M. Berwick, MD, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow,
Institute for Healthcare Improvement; former Administrator of the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
“At a time when civil discourse reflects a lack of trust in
leadership and when the integrity of our leaders seems in doubt,
Shelly Francis offers us a path to renewal. Her insights into
cultivating courage through daily practice provide a much-needed
guide to authentic leadership aimed at prosperity and flourishing.
Essential reading in today’s world!”
—Chris Laszlo, PhD, Chair and Chuck Fowler Professor of Business as
an Agent of World Benefit, Department of Organizational Behavior,
Weatherhead School of Management; Faculty Executive Director, The
Fowler Center, Case Western Reserve University; and coauthor (with
Judy Sorum Brown) of Flourishing Enterprise
“The Courage Way will nourish that part of you that cares deeply
about the world. A soulful approach for helping you harness your
inner strength to become the kind of leader the world needs now—in
every dimension of your life.”
—Jono Fisher, founder of WakeUpProject.com
“Everyone should read this book. The Courage Way is a powerful
tonic for our challenging times. Keep it close at hand so you can
savor its life-giving music again and again.”
—Dr. Gloria J. Burgess, distinguished scholar, professor of
transformational leadership, and author of Dare to Wear Your Soul
on the Outside, Pass It On!, and Flawless Leadership
“The Courage Way forever expands the way we think about courage,
bringing its many manifestations to life and proving that acts of
courage, whether physical, moral, creative, or otherwise, have
their seeds within each and every one of us. The poignant stories
that Shelly Francis shares make the heroic qualities of courage
more understandable and accessible than ever before. This would be
an important book at any time, but at this moment, when America is
divided and hurting, it illuminates the courage within that
promises a way through. Read and re-energize!”
—Billy Shore, founder and CEO, Share Our Strength, and author of
The Cathedral Within and The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men
“This is an important read for leaders at all levels. I am inspired
by the promise and potential of leaders and organizations as forces
for good, and this has never been more important in the world. The
Courage Way shares time-tested tools, reflections, and guiding
principles that every leader can learn and practice. This can move
leaders and their organizations toward flourishing through creating
human-centered cultures guided by strong ethics and integrity.”
—Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds,
University of Wisconsin–Madison, and coauthor (with Daniel Goleman)
of Altered Traits
“The Courage Way by Shelly Francis is a wonderfully written book
for all those who wish to lead their personal and professional
lives in alignment with what truly matters. Happiness is
unthinkable without courage, yet until now, little has been written
about how to muster this great virtue. The book is a must-have
resource —inspiring!
—Andrea F. Polard, PsyD, founder of Zen Psychology Therapy and
author of A Unified Theory of Happiness
“What would you do with more courage? From that first provocative
question to the last story of people learning to lead and live in
deeper alignment with themselves, The Courage Way is a surprising
and counterintuitive remedy for the heart-sore. My calling is to
sit with those whose hearts have been broken open by their calling,
by their deep desire to live life in synchronicity with their
truest values, beliefs, wishes, and dreams. The Courage Way offers
a way to do that gently, yet it fiercely offers ways forward.
Shelly Francis and the Center for Courage & Renewal have again
demonstrated their ability to lead each of us into a new way of
being.”
—Jerry Colonna, Co-founder and CEO of Reboot.io
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