Your Life is Your Message

Discovering the Core of Transformational Leadership

This book skillfully pulls together important lessons from diverse exemplars who remind us that to lead effectively, we must be willing to listen, learn, value people and be open to challenging our mindsets so that ultimately we can transform local and global systems for a more sustainable future. To be a true leader, one must stay curious and always be learning.

Managers manage, leaders lead and inspirational leaders inspire. It’s a journey all leaders take, some reach the final stage, but why some and not others? Becoming that leader who inspires means that people follow because they believe in something bigger than themselves, the company that they work for and the product or service that they provide. Fulfillment comes in many forms, but finding it in work can be one of life’s greatest pleasures and this book will help many find such fulfillment.

Here is an inspirational examination of a wide range of highly effective leaders—of how their individual growth was shaped by determination, focus, courage and life experience. This instructive, thought-provoking analysis has universal and multigenerational appeal to readers at various stages of their career path. It encourages you to be authentic, embrace your uniqueness with pride and dare to reach beyond your comfort zone.

In today’s hypercompetitive business environment, regardless of industry, culture or geography, defining effective leadership through a lens of bottom line outcomes is misguided and limiting relative to achieving real impact. Blair and Gesner capture what is critically missing by demonstrating the importance of mission-driven leadership, providing a new value proposition in our thinking of what it means to lead inspirationally and intentionally by institutionalizing one’s life mission in our work.

Humility. Respect. Reflection. These are among the principles critically important for meaningful public service; but how do they inform a person’s capacity to be a transformational leader? What this book accomplishes in compelling fashion is to demonstrate that if our leadership isn’t grounded in core values that embrace dignity for ourselves and others, then we not only diminish our influence, we diminish humanity as a whole. Lift up yourself, lift up others, read this book.

In an eloquent, yet conversational style, this volume inspires the ordinary to cross over into the extraordinary space of ‘power-with’ leadership. Interspersing hypothetical conversations of the world’s greatest leaders of all time with the narratives of living leaders who inspire, the authors provoke the readers into making impactful meaning from their own lives. The volume spurs us to live to touch lives, to walk the talk and to leave a footprint.

Achieving the changes our world needs will take leadership. But many of us who care about the common good do not see ourselves as leaders. Blair and Gesner invite us to step back, look at our lives and values, and write ourselves a new story in which we rise to the challenges that matter to us. We have never needed this invitation— and their guidance—more than right now. 

Young entrepreneurs like the ones we support want their work to contribute to society, but they also want to make enough money to create wealth for themselves and their communities. There’s a new generation of leaders like us working to mobilize people, information, resources and capital for the greater good. Applying the lessons in this book can help us achieve the positive influence and impact that we seek.

A thoughtfully crafted resource for personal and professional growth. The authors nailed it in that being a successful leader begins with leading self, first. This book offers relevant examples and stories from real-world leaders and would be a strong supplement to university leadership courses at all levels. Readers will be invited to reflect on their values and behaviors as a means to be in alignment with their authentic self. The book is a reminder that to be successful, we must stay open to learning and unlearning!

Leadership may take different forms around the world, but at its core, transformational leadership is fundamentally the same and can be implemented effectively across geographic regions, disciplines and cultures. Become inspired, as I was, by the insights offered by this diverse mix of industry leaders; examine their common threads and uncover the positive influence that will encourage healthy growth for yourself and the organizations you serve.