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Courage to Lead
The complexity of our world can paralyze even the most committed individuals in their efforts to bring about social change. But being an agent of change does not mean we have to start a revolution-it can be done in small ways, wherever and whenever.
The Courage to Lead provides a matrix for examining one's relationship to life, self, the world, and society in order to become effective leaders. Filled with amusing and moving anecdotes, this empowering work will appeal to all seeking a better understanding of social change pioneering.
R. Brian Stanfield is the Director of Research at The Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs and the author of The Art of Focused Conversation (New Society Publishers). He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
The Courage to Lead provides a matrix for examining one's relationship to life, self, the world, and society in order to become effective leaders. Filled with amusing and moving anecdotes, this empowering work will appeal to all seeking a better understanding of social change pioneering.
R. Brian Stanfield is the Director of Research at The Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs and the author of The Art of Focused Conversation (New Society Publishers). He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2000
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July 14, 2022
I thought this book was a bit boring and not that insightful. This book is broken down into 4 sections, relation to life, relation to self, relation to the world, and relation to society. The first section, relation to life, talks about care being everywhere, we need to say yes to all of life, and accept life as it is.
I found the third section, relation to the world, to be of some philosophical interest. Chapter 9 he talks about inclusive responsibility. He references Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Ethics. Bonhoeffer was involved in counter-espionage in Germany and was eventually executed by the Nazis. Author references in Bonhoeffer's book the idea that obligation and freedom are held together by responsibility. I think there is something to this concept because in our culture, we seem obsessed with the idea of freedom, especially during Covid, however, to me, freedom involves not only choice but consequences and responsibility.
I liked on page 177 how the author says there is no limit to obligation and responsibility after sharing a story about how he felt this sense of responsibility and obligation while boating and trying to keep his passengers safe, even though they were unaware of the dangers he was navigating. He says further on that people will say in regards to global need, "That's none of my business," however for the author, all of it is his business. I'm not sure I agree with that because part of achieving in life means saying no to things. You only have so much time and resources.
On page 178, he continues to talk about freedom and says, "Freedom means that we create our own morality." I think I've heard this said in other books and I agree with it. Freedom, creativity, morality, responsibility; these are all connected to each other.
At the end of chapter 9, he has a list of questions/exercises and one included making a timeline for tasks to work on that you consider important. I thought this was odd to incorporate because there are a lot of productivity books out there that cover this and I didn't see what connection he was trying to make between basically time management, decision making, & goal setting to our relation to the world. To me, being decisive, responsible, and making good use of your time isn't something that belongs in the "Relation to the World" section. This belongs in the "Relation to the Self" section. It seems like the author missed an opportunity to state early on that good leaders practice good self-regulation skills.
The last section, "Relation to Society" he talks about in chapter 10 about the idea of being a social pioneer. At the end of this chapter, he has an exercise called "Being a Social Pioneer" and that involves coming up with a vision statement of how the situation would look if problem was solved, ask what is blocking the solution to the problem, and come up with a simple 3-4 point plan to deal with it. I thought this was pretty basic. Most social pioneering involves doing this process several times. Also you can't possibly come up with a full plan. Yes perhaps a few steps to get going but with real problems, they can require a lot of investigation and data to understand what's going on. The author makes it seem like being a social pioneer is easy. This exercise was basically an ivory tower version of how to be a pioneer. I think it has some use but it would be a first step.
In chapter 11, he continues with the theme of relating to society. He talks about on pages 214-215 that having a vision is not enough because we will run into what he calls, contradictions. I don't actually like his use of this word. He really means blocks. He says, "Although a contradiction can be the source of great pain for many people, a contradiction is not negative. In fact, it can become the doorway to the future for us." I agree with him on this because an obstacle is really just a judgement we are making. It is neither good or bad, it just exists.
Overall, this book was meh for me. It had a few good points but wasn't enough for me to justify giving it three stars. I didn't think there was enough material about courage and how to lead.
I found the third section, relation to the world, to be of some philosophical interest. Chapter 9 he talks about inclusive responsibility. He references Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Ethics. Bonhoeffer was involved in counter-espionage in Germany and was eventually executed by the Nazis. Author references in Bonhoeffer's book the idea that obligation and freedom are held together by responsibility. I think there is something to this concept because in our culture, we seem obsessed with the idea of freedom, especially during Covid, however, to me, freedom involves not only choice but consequences and responsibility.
I liked on page 177 how the author says there is no limit to obligation and responsibility after sharing a story about how he felt this sense of responsibility and obligation while boating and trying to keep his passengers safe, even though they were unaware of the dangers he was navigating. He says further on that people will say in regards to global need, "That's none of my business," however for the author, all of it is his business. I'm not sure I agree with that because part of achieving in life means saying no to things. You only have so much time and resources.
On page 178, he continues to talk about freedom and says, "Freedom means that we create our own morality." I think I've heard this said in other books and I agree with it. Freedom, creativity, morality, responsibility; these are all connected to each other.
At the end of chapter 9, he has a list of questions/exercises and one included making a timeline for tasks to work on that you consider important. I thought this was odd to incorporate because there are a lot of productivity books out there that cover this and I didn't see what connection he was trying to make between basically time management, decision making, & goal setting to our relation to the world. To me, being decisive, responsible, and making good use of your time isn't something that belongs in the "Relation to the World" section. This belongs in the "Relation to the Self" section. It seems like the author missed an opportunity to state early on that good leaders practice good self-regulation skills.
The last section, "Relation to Society" he talks about in chapter 10 about the idea of being a social pioneer. At the end of this chapter, he has an exercise called "Being a Social Pioneer" and that involves coming up with a vision statement of how the situation would look if problem was solved, ask what is blocking the solution to the problem, and come up with a simple 3-4 point plan to deal with it. I thought this was pretty basic. Most social pioneering involves doing this process several times. Also you can't possibly come up with a full plan. Yes perhaps a few steps to get going but with real problems, they can require a lot of investigation and data to understand what's going on. The author makes it seem like being a social pioneer is easy. This exercise was basically an ivory tower version of how to be a pioneer. I think it has some use but it would be a first step.
In chapter 11, he continues with the theme of relating to society. He talks about on pages 214-215 that having a vision is not enough because we will run into what he calls, contradictions. I don't actually like his use of this word. He really means blocks. He says, "Although a contradiction can be the source of great pain for many people, a contradiction is not negative. In fact, it can become the doorway to the future for us." I agree with him on this because an obstacle is really just a judgement we are making. It is neither good or bad, it just exists.
Overall, this book was meh for me. It had a few good points but wasn't enough for me to justify giving it three stars. I didn't think there was enough material about courage and how to lead.
Displaying 1 of 1 review