Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development


Susan R. Komives - 2009
    It is a book for students, faculty, and everyone who engages in leadership for social change for a better world. It is an inspiring and liberating book in that it validates each one of us as we discover and practice the gifts we have been given." --Helen S. Astin, professor emerita of higher education and senior scholar, Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA"While simple schemes and models of leadership can have their appeal, the more challenging view proposed in Leadership for a Better World is not only more realistic but infinitely more fulfilling. This form of leadership calls us to look at our own deep yearnings and then respect those of others in the amazing global community of the twenty-first century." --Denny Roberts, assistant vice president for faculty and student services, Qatar Foundation"Positing that social change is at the heart of the leadership experience, Leadership for a Better World answers the question of 'leadership for what purpose?' Grounded in student experiences, this book includes student voices, stories, and contemporary case studies. Written in an informed and approachable tone, it provides a coherent set of guiding principles about how knowing oneself, meaningfully engaging with others, and adopting a systems perspective can promote the socially responsible leadership so needed in the world today." --Julie E. Owen, assistant professor, Leadership and Integrative Studies, George Mason University

Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation


Floyd Cobb - 2019
    Even with access to compelling theories and approaches such as multicultural education, culturally responsive teaching, culturally relevant instruction, culturally sustaining pedagogy, schools still struggle to implement equitable change that reshapes the academic experiences of students marginalized by the prevailing history, culture, and traditions in public education. Instead of getting it right with equity implementation, many schools and districts remain trapped in a cycle of equity dysfunction.In Belonging through a Culture of Dignity, Cobb and Krownapple argue that the cause of these struggles are largely based on the failure of educators to consider the foundational elements upon which educational equity is based, belonging and dignity. Through this work, the authors make these concepts accessible and explain their importance in the implementation of educational equity initiatives.Though the importance of dignity and belonging might appear to be self-evident at first glance, it's not until these concepts are truly unpacked, that educators realize the dire need for belonging through dignity. Once these fundamental human needs are understood, educators can gain clarity of the barriers to meaningful student relationships, especially across dimensions of difference such as race, class, and culture. Even the most relational and responsive educators need this clarity due to the normalization of what the authors refer to as dignity distortions. Cobb and Krownapple challenge that normalization and offer three concepts as keys to successful equity initiatives: inclusion, belonging, and dignity. Through their work, the authors aim to equip educators with the tools necessary to deliver the promise of democracy through schools by breaking the cycle of equity dysfunction once and for all.

Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons


David Bollier - 2014
    Think Like a Commoner dispels such prejudices by explaining the rich history and promising future of the commons—an ageless paradigm of cooperation and fairness that is re-making our world.With graceful prose and dozens of fascinating stories, David Bollier describes the quiet revolution that is pioneering practical forms of self-governance and production controlled by people themselves. Think Like a Commoner explains how the commons:Is an exploding field of DIY innovation ranging from Wikipedia and seed-sharing to community forests, collaborative consumption, and beyond Challenges the standard narrative of market economics by explaining how cooperation generates significant value and human fulfillment Provides a framework of law and social action that can help us move beyond the pathologies of neoliberal capitalismWe have a choice: ignore the commons and suffer the ongoing private plunder of our common wealth, or Think Like a Commoner and learn how to rebuild our society and reclaim our shared inheritance. This accessible, comprehensive introduction to the commons will surprise and enlighten you, and provoke you to action.David Bollier is an author, activist, blogger, and independent scholar. He is the author of six books on different aspects of the commons, including Green Governance, The Wealth of the Commons, and Viral Spiral, and is a frequent speaker at conferences, colleges and universities, and policy workshops.

The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair


Christina Baldwin - 1987
    As organizations of all kinds move increasingly toward shared and rotating leadership, they are calling on the circle model to form sustainable teams and adopt circle-driven group processes such as World Café, Open Space, and Art of Hosting. Meetings in the round have become the preferred tool for moving individual commitment into group action. This book lays out the structure of circle conversation, based on the original work of the co-authors who have studied and standardized the essential elements that constitute circle practice. It takes readers through a circle visual (the Components of Circle) and presents both structure and story so that readers understand how these elements come into play and how they interrelate and interact.  It also embeds circle process experience in stories and examples drawing on the authors’ 15 years of experience as global thought leaders and originators of this form, and it presents detailed instructions and suggestions for getting started, setting goals, and solving conflicts.

The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found


Angela Williams Gorrell - 2021
    Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant—completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in. But joy was closer at hand than it seemed. As she began volunteering at a women’s maximum-security prison, she met people who suffered extensively yet still showed a tremendous capacity for joy. Talking with these women, many of whom had struggled with addiction and suicidal thoughts themselves, she realized: “Joy doesn’t obliterate grief. . . . Instead, joy has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and even—sometimes most especially—in the midst of suffering.” This is the story of Angela’s discovery of an authentic, grounded Christian joy. But even more, it is an invitation for others to seize upon this more resilient joy as a counteragent to the twenty-first-century epidemics of despair, addiction, and suicide—a call to action for communities that yearn to find joy and are willing to “walk together through the shadows” to find it.

Tribe of Millionaires: What if one choice could change everything?


David Osborn - 2019
    Traveling to a tropical island with the mysterious "Tribe of Millionaires," Ethan finds his whole approach to business and life shifting with each lesson.The more time Ethan spends with the enigmatic members of the tribe, the more he comes to realize that the answers he seeks are, as they are for all of us, hidden in plain sight.

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity


Etienne Wenger - 1998
    Nations worry about the learning of their citizens, companies about the learning of their workers, schools about the learning of their students. But it is not always easy to think about how to foster learning in innovative ways. This book presents a framework for doing that, with a social theory of learning that is ground-breaking yet accessible, with profound implications not only for research, but also for all those who have to foster learning as part of their responsibilites at work, at home, at school.

Warren Buffett: 43 Lessons for Business & Life


Keith Lard - 2018
    Buffett has managed to rise to the top of the ranks in stellar fashion, confounding the critics and earning the adulation of millions.As a leader, entrepreneur, potential investor, student, or whatever your calling may be, you stand to learn from the many life lessons of one of the most successful investors of all time, and one who is still very active and at the top of his game. The wisdom in this book can literally change your life.43 of his most valuable and inspiring life lessons relating to investment, human relationships and overall betterment have been de-constructed and explained including actionable information as to how you can implement the lessons into your day-to-day life.The aim of this book is to be educational and inspirational with actionable principles you can incorporate into your own life straight from the great man himself. Don't wait - grab your copy today!

Lead... for God's Sake!: A Parable for Finding the Heart of Leadership


Todd G. Gongwer - 2010
    If you have ever asked yourself why you do what you do, or wondered what your purpose is in leadership or in life, this book is for you. As the lives of a coach, a CEO, and a janitor intersect in this captivating parable you will journey deep into the heart of leadership where the answers to many of life's most important questions can be found.Whether you're leading in business, sports, or in your own family, this inspiring story will show you how to take the first - and most important - step in becoming the leader you were meant to be. Lead for God's Sake truly is much more than a simple statement. It's a calling!"Seldom have I found this kind of practical wisdom presented in such a delightful, engaging and compelling narrative. As a business leader, I found its "takeaways" right on targettouching life where the rubber meets the road. I wasn't able to put it down. It's that good!"John D. Beckett,

The Agile Church: Spirit-Led Innovation in an Uncertain Age


Dwight J. Zscheile - 2014
    That means embracing processes of trial, failure, and adaptation as they form Christian community with new neighbors. And that means a whole new way of being church. Taking one page from the Bible and another from Silicon Valley, priest and scholar Dwight Zscheile brings theological insights together with cutting-edge thinking on organizational innovation to help churches flourish in a time of profound uncertainty and spiritual opportunity. Picking up where his recent bestseller, People of the Way left off, Zscheile answers urgent and practical questions around how churches become agile and adaptive to meet cultural change. For clergy, congregational leaders, judicatory and denominational executives and staff, seminarians, and church members.

The Leadership Dojo: Build Your Foundation as an Exemplary Leader


Richard Strozzi-Heckler - 2007
    The first book of its kind to base business and management strength on integral body awareness, the book presents key principles such as shugyo, or self-cultivation, as crucial in developing the individual responsibility, social commitment, and moral and spiritual vision required to lead with authority and efficacy. The Leadership Dojo is based on three questions: What does a leader do? What are the character values most essential to exemplary leadership? How do you teach these values? Drawing on the wisdom of ages from Plato to the Bhagavad-Gita, from Thucydides to the Abidharma, the book asserts that understanding and answering these questions holds the key to superior leadership skills. Strozzi-Heckler teaches with real-world examples based on his wide experience training decision-makers at companies like AT&T and Microsoft. The book’s multifaceted approach helps readers establish a powerful Leadership Presence, a platform from which they can take ethical action with compassion and pragmatic wisdom.

Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World


Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi - 2003
    Christianity is not merely about isolated individuals going to heaven. It's about God transforming the entire world and making things right. Sicknesses will be healed, sins will be forgiven, injustice will be eradicated, and all creation will be redeemed. But this is not merely a distant future. It's happening now through what Jesus came to establish--the kingdom of God. Allen Wakabayashi reawakens you to the world-changing reality of the kingdom of God. With clear, biblical insight, he unpacks what Jesus proclaimed about the good news of the kingdom and spells out the implications for you today. Focusing on the kingdom of God will revolutionize how you live out your faith, how you think about your world and how you explain the good news about Jesus. Ultimately, understanding yourself as a citizen of the kingdom will empower you to be one of God's change agents in the world. God is at work to restore everything to be the way he intended it to be, and you can be a part of what he is doing! Get a glimpse of the kingdom coming, and experience his will being done--on earth as it is in heaven.

A Welcome Misfortune (Sworn Sisters #1)


Kay BrattKay Bratt - 2020
    In 1867 an infant girl called Luli is born into a middle-class Chinese family on the mainland. Her fate is altered when instead of being put to the breast of her mother, her father declares her a misfortune and she is left at the famous Chaozhou wall where many parents and grandparents abandon their unwanted girls. But the child’s mother is desperate to save her and beseeches one of her sons to step in and deliver the baby to safety.At the same time in the affluent house of a scholar on the island of Hong Kong, house slaves Sun Ling and Jingwei are sworn sisters, bound by their shared struggles. When the hardship and abuse become too much too bear, the girls escape and make a run for freedom, then find themselves on a ship bound for the western coast of the Americas. When the paths of these three forgotten girls of China meet, the ocean journey is treacherous and not for the faint-hearted. In the midst of monumental difficulties, their lives converge, and they traverse many obstacles, but will do anything for one another in their oath to stay together and fulfill their hope for a better future in Chinatown, on the shores of San Francisco.

The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door


Jay Pathak - 2012
    They talked to them, had cook-outs with them, and went to church with them. In our time of unprecedented mobility and increasing isolationism, it's hard to make lasting connections with those who live right outside our front door. We have hundreds of "friends" through online social networking, but we often don't even know the full name of the person who lives right next door.This unique and inspiring book asks the question: What is the most loving thing I can do for the people who live on my street or in my apartment building? Through compelling true stories of lives impacted, the authors show readers how to create genuine friendships with the people who live in closest proximity to them. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter make this book perfect for small groups or individual study.

Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation: How to Work Smart, Build Collaboration, and Close the Achievement Gap


Kim Marshall - 2009
    Marshall proposes a broader framework for supervision and evaluation that enlists teachers in improving the performance of all students. Emphasizing trust-building and teamwork, Marshall's innovative, four-part framework shifts the focus from periodically evaluating teaching to continuously analyzing learning. This book offers school principals a guide for implementing Marshall's framework and shows how to make frequent, informal classroom visits followed by candid feedback to each teacher; work with teacher teams to plan thoughtful curriculum units rather than focusing on individual lessons; get teachers as teams involved in low-stakes analysis of interim assessment results to fine-tune their teaching and help struggling students; and use compact rubrics for summative teacher evaluation.This vital resource also includes extensive tools and advice for managing time as well as ideas for using supervision and evaluation practices to foster teacher professional development.