A Unique Leadership Book Takes Leaders On An Uncommon Journey Of Reflection And Self-Awareness
Leadership roles rarely come with playbooks, even less so in today’s complex and uncertain world. When confronted with 21st-century challenges, quandaries, dilemmas and paradoxes — which often require choices between right vs. right or wrong vs. more wrong — where do leaders turn for guidance?
Not to the brilliance of their executive minds or to best-practice recipes taught by traditional leadership training courses, but to the rootedness of their humanity — who they are, what they stand for, what they are willing to fight for and what they are willing to walk away from.
What matters most is not what’s in leaders’ heads, but what lies within their souls that guides what’s in their heads, says Gaurav Bhalla, author, educator and CEO of Knowledge Kinetics.
Bhalla’s new book, Awakening A Leader’s Soul: Learnings Through Immortal Poems, is about “Soulful Leadership,” a new human-centric narrative that reimagines the purpose of leadership. It takes current and future leaders on a transformative journey of reflection and self-awareness to help them better understand their own humanity and that of the worlds in which they live through the wisdom of a new set of teachers.
Using the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare, Whitman, Dickinson and many others, the book showcases critical leadership lessons, such as the perils of an over-inflated ego; the importance of authenticity, trust and integrity; the significance of perseverance; and the value of doubting – of not being too sure – all vital for imagining and engineering meaningful leadership journeys in the 21st century. The reason for using poetry is that not only do new time require new narratives, but new teachers as well. And immortal poems are peerless in helping us see and hear ourselves in new and unimagined ways.
Through a selection of interrelated and connected essays, the book creates an inner awakening concerning an important issue – all leadership decisions ultimately require sacrificing something or someone, including planetary resources. Managing these sacrifices in a way that increases the wellbeing and prosperity of the greatest many is visionary. It’s also the hallmark of Soulful Leadership, which today’s world greatly needs.
Author Gaurav Bhalla holds a Ph.D. in marketing and strategy from the University of Kansas and is a globally acclaimed educator, speaker and consultant. CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, he and his company are committed to helping organizations develop visionary leaders and practice customer-first thinking.
He is also the author of Collaboration and Co-Creation: New Platforms for Marketing and Innovation (2010), the much-acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, “Rethinking Marketing,” and a historical-fiction novel, The Curse and the Cup (2014). And a screenplay, Cross Bat (2015).
Bhalla asserts that “The head may be smart, but the soul is smarter…and… wise,” and works every day to advance his core philosophy that a person’s humanity is a more enduring asset than his or her executive brilliance.
For more information, please visit www.soulfulleadership.world/ and www.gauravbhalla.com
Awakening A Leader’s Soul: Learnings Through Immortal Poems
Release date: September 7, 2017
Motivational Press
ISBN-10: 162865421X
ISBN-13: 978-1628654219
Available for pre-order on www.Amazon.com and other online book sellers.
From the Back Cover:
Awakening A Leader’s Soul: Learnings Through Immortal Poems is about “Soulful Leadership,” a new human-centric narrative that reimagines the purpose of leadership. This new narrative believes that in today’s complex and uncertain world the humanity of leaders is significantly more important than their executive brilliance. Accordingly, with the help of different teachers – the timeless wisdom of immortal poems – the book takes current and future leaders on a transformative journey of reflection and self-awareness to help them understand their own humanity and that of the worlds in which they live, so their leadership journeys can increase the wellbeing and prosperity of the greatest many, including planet earth.
And yet the world is different from what it seems to be
and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.
Czeslaw Milosz, “Ars Poetica”
The Book has been receiving rave reviews from almost all those that matter:
Columbia Review: “Highly recommended! … Awakening A Leader’s Soul: Learnings Through Immortal Poems by Gaurav Bhalla, Ph.D., is a unique business leadership book that bypasses the usual offerings of practical business advice and decision-making skills in favor of centering on the leader’s humanity and, by extension, taking readers on a fascinating journey of self-discovery and deeper awareness. … For anyone reading today’s news headlines, the author’s audacious leap of unconventional spirit in this book could not be more timely. … It makes for a wonderful read, provokes deep introspection and occasionally rises to soaring heights of insight, discernment and prose. … This is an excellent, life-changing book for anyone seeking the true essence of great leadership.”
Kirkus Review: “ . . . [Author] believes that people are living in a “VUCA” world: “Volatile,” “Uncertain,” “Complex,” and “Ambiguous.” . . . The only way to navigate this new world is through soulful leadership, he says, which he defines as “a conscious desire to use power and resources to increase the well-being and prosperity of the greater many, not just the privileged few.” . . . “Forward-thinking organizations will find these concepts to be timely and useful. An inspirational perspective on an unusual leadership style.”
Foreword Review: Awakening a Leader’s Soul…is a solid business book from the mind of a poet… The book seeks to help transition leaders of all stripes into more thoughtful, humble, and inspired people. It focuses on several areas of leadership development, including defining who the leader is and how they think and act, then looking beyond to the leader’s world. Each of these areas is then considered using a mix of psychology and real-world examples and is supported by a piece of poetry.… Other books have trod similar ground, but this one has a great whole-world focus that embraces the world’s diversity.… Awakening a Leader’s Soul resonates so strongly because the world needs more leaders like those the book seeks to create.
BlueInk Review: “…Along with being well-organized and professionally produced, there’s much viable inspiration and practical advice between these attractively designed covers… And for those who might want to sidestep the sometimes-uncomfortable process of implementing change, each chapter ends with brief, intriguing “Think About It/ Talk About It/ Act on It” nuggets… It will appeal to anyone looking to transform the world through thoughtful, soul-oriented leadership.”