Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents

by Monica Sharma

Monica Sharma describes how we can source our inner capacities and wisdom to manifest change that embodies universal values such as dignity, compassion, fairness, and courage. Drawing on more than twenty years of work for the United Nations and elsewhere, she presents a radical new approach to transformational leadership, one that creates systems of change where everyone can engage--not just analysts and policy-makers. Demonstrating that we all can be architects of a new humanity, Monica demystifies policy-making, planning, and implementation so that everyone can play an informed and strategic part in eradicating the world's most intractable problems. Using real-life examples from around the world, she shows how our innate characteristics of universal compassion, equity impulse, and human capability can create new patterns that effectively address major challenges such as gross inequality, unbridled hate, conflicts based on social identity, and the never-enough mindset of greed. Written in a straightforward, accessible style, Radical Transformational Leadership outlines a path-breaking paradigm shift that is already generating equitable and sustainable results across the globe.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Self Help

368 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2017

Reviews

[Coral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Affirming read, though I agree with another review that it could be much shorter and more concise. There is a lot of repetition, but the stories and examples shared throughout the book were very compelling. I appreciate the broad categories of advocacy work the author highlights, and the specificity in her reviews of the programs. It was a slow and chunky read for me, but one I kept coming back to.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could be condensed to half its size. Values inspired leadership is nothing new, but Monica’s conscious full spectrum approach has enough of a unique, inspiring perspective to warrant a book - just not such a repetitive and often tedious one. Many of the examples used are at such a surface level they hardly offer anything concrete to model after - it would have been stronger to pick a handful of people, their stories and in depth reflections of how they applied CFSA to multiple facets of their work rather than the dozens of quick mentions that felt more self aggrandizing than exemplary. Never once at the often stated, ‘[person’s name] whom you met in chapter x’ did I remember who it was after so many pages and other people’s names later.

That being said, there were several moments in the book that gave me pause in a ‘wow, how can I manifest this in my own leadership style’ inspired sense; but I wished at these moments they were further explained or given in depth examples to relate to rather than quick platitudes and constantly repeated buzz words.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenomenal design framework for impactful change making, something I've been feeling instinctively towards my whole life but was never able to articulate until now. Dipping one star because the book is overwhelmed by stories and backing evidence for the system's successful implementation globally, and lacking in practical application instructions for lay users. Still, I will read any and every piece of published material from Monica.

[Aakriti]

The book is repetitive with very little to offer in tools or knowledge. I read it as part of coursework and was extremely disillusioned after reading it since it’s not only a stretch of words but also a stretch of concepts that come very naturally to most human beings who would form part of the audience that this book is intended for. At best, this book should have been a memoir instead of being marketed as a marketing and business book.