Insightful, engaging, and inspiring.
Feiner, Overbeke, Harris, and Andreasson present a compelling guide to compassionate leadership and living an interconnected life.
Traditional leadership culture, per the authors, has stressed power, profit, and competition. While this approach can yield short-term gains, such success comes at a high price for companies and individuals alike; as teams fight and fragment, underrepresented voices go unheard and employees are reduced to cogs in a corporate machine. The co-authors argue that these toxic cultures have been shaped by aggressively masculine values and winner-take-all dynamics that undervalue empathetic outlooks. Citing qualitative and quantitative research, they demonstrate that empathetic and human-centric leadership empowers collective growth, fosters happier teams, inspires corporate innovation, and increases bottom lines. (“These leaders have achieved profitability and sustainability by fostering relational cultures.”) Despite deriving the idea of “Sixth Level Leadership” from the five ascending levels of U.S. psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the co-authors argue that self-actualization (Maslow’s top tier) is insufficient for lasting satisfaction; instead, they propose a higher form of realization called “Self-in-Relation,” asserting that interconnectedness is the ultimate form of fulfillment. The work’s tone is affirming throughout; the co-authors observe that limiting gender beliefs impedes the fulfillment of men and women equally. Highly analytical and drawing heavily from the fields of psychology and the social sciences, the work may feel more academic than many mainstream leadership books, although the presence of real-world examples, summarizing sections, and reflection questions will help readers of different backgrounds absorb and apply the information. By prioritizing a culture of respect, resilience, and love, the co-authors show that it is possible to create an inclusive leadership ideal that empowers all people to succeed.
Insightful, engaging, and inspiring.Pub Date: March 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781637558560
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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