Forged in crisis: the power of courageous leadership in turbulent times

Description

“An enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights, Forged in Crisis, by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson. What do such disparate figures have in common? Why do their extraordinary stories continue to amaze and inspire? In delivering the answers to those questions, Nancy Koehn offers a remarkable template by which to judge those in our own time to whom the public has given its trust. She begins each of the book’s five sections by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe; Lincoln on the verge of seeing the Union collapse; escaped slave Douglass facing possible capture; Bonhoeffer agonizing over how to counter absolute evil with faith; Carson racing against the cancer ravaging her in a bid to save the planet. The narrative then reaches back to each person’s childhood and shows the individual growing into the person he or she will ultimately become. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power to lead courageously resides in each of us.”--Back cover.;Introduction: The call of history -- Bring the team home alive: Ernest Shackleton's challenge -- Save and transform the nation: Abraham Lincoln's challenge -- End slavery forever: Frederick Douglass's challenge -- Resist Nazi evil: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's challenge -- Protect the Earth and its creatures: Rachel Carson's challenge -- Conclusion: The power of courageous leadership. Introduction: The call of history -- Bring the team home alive: Ernest Shackleton's challenge -- Save and transform the nation: Abraham Lincoln's challenge -- End slavery forever: Frederick Douglass's challenge -- Resist Nazi evil: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's challenge -- Protect the Earth and its creatures: Rachel Carson's challenge -- Conclusion: The power of courageous leadership.