Customer Reviews

Leading from the Heart, Choosing courage over fear in the workplace

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Leading From the Heart" came to me when I was looking for a way to radically change my workforce who cared for the elderly. I believe we all want to think our parents will be cared for lovingly by others if we cannot do the jobs ourselves. With only "horror" stories before the general public about nursing home care I knew I had to renew the spirits of my staff members to realize their sacred missions in caring for others. Kay's book did just that-it led me down the path I needed to follow to understand how I could and should lead people in performing sacred work-that of caring for the sick elderly. I have shared the vision with others in what I call "spirit training," and the results have always been more than I could have hoped. She has gelled many of the ideas that so many of us have had in our minds but needed organized. "Leading From the Heart" is the most powerful book I own. It changed my life and has the power to change anyone who will embrace the vision that what connects us and makes us similar will help us rise above our adversities.

Kay Gilley is one of those rare authors whose words reach out and touch the reader in such a personal way that you will think she somehow wrote this book just for you. Kay is intimately in touch with the difficulties and hardships that leaders are experiencing while trying to adjust to today's rapidly change workplace. By now, many leaders feel lost, uncertain about what is expected of them, overwhelemed and overworked, and probably most telling; leaders feel that they've lost touch with who they are and what they want out of life.

Kay Gilley offers a clear-eyed and compelling-if somewhat unconventional-explanation for what has happened to leaders. Her solution is to get in touch with our spirit-that inner source that brings vitality and energy to our lives-and function as a leader from that space. And she provides practical methods for doing so.

Gilley suggests that a spirit-centered leadership model will shift our functioning from a fear-based style that intimidates and disempowers people, to a courage-based style that energizes people and unleashes their creative potential. She supports these ideas with ample evidence that performance will improve dramatically as a result.

Buy this book for yourself, and change your life to be the way you want it to be. Then buy this book for your co-workers and employees. You'll thank yourself for it, and they will love you for it!

Kay Gilley has a vision for leadership in the new millenium. After reading this book, I felt like I had been shown my wings. Her message is powerful but simple: the driving force of leadership is who you are, not what you do. That simple concept freed me from chasing after other people's ideas of "doing" and set me on a path of higher integrity, that of "being" me. Not only does leading this way add meaning to my work, it is actually much more effective. I've given the book to everyone on my team and a lot of others. If I had to tell people they could only read one book on leadership, this would be it!

Kay Gilley challenges leaders to go inside and understand themselves; to unlock the inner voices that have been silenced by our refusal to be still long enough to listen. Leaders who are in touch with their inner self can lead in a spirit respecting manner that leads others to excel, and become more whole in spirit and thus more productive. This is a excellent book that I would recommend to anyone seeking a better way to lead. I can tell you from experience what the author addresses in this book WORKS! There are not many persons alive that are immune to spirit-respecting leadership. When leadership moves away from ego centric fear based relatioships to ones that respect the spirit in each person wonderful things start to happen to those who follow. Productivity will increase,while absenteeism, turnover, and stress related illness will decline. I have personally experienced it. To see people who were down on their jobs, turn it around through the most basic respect, is one of the most thrilling aspects of leadership. To have an employee come and say thanks for caring, is wonderful. To see the bottom line shrink due to improved productivity is rewarding. Kay Gilley's book has become the basis for my leadership style. Peers were not sold, but when the results of spirit respecting behavior became known, they started asking questions and are starting to become believers. After 23 years in leadership positions, a master degree, and dozens of books on leadership Leading from the Heart ranks at the top of my list as one of the most significant and useful books for a leader. It is not easy to be a leader, and this book does not make it easier, it calls for a different skill set then fear based leadership. That can takes lots of work, but the rewards for changing are great and well worth the effort.

This is book is a must read for the manager and/or employee who may be in search of new ways to find renewal in the workplace. Ms. Gilley has excelled at looking at the workplace with new eyes and ears and found the "heart" and spirit of successful organizations. The new leadership models in our new organizations and work environments will certainly benefit from Ms. Gilley insight into why organizations succeed and fail through personal behaviors of leadership and workers. Many techniques for driving fear out of the workplace and how to bring in courage and renewed enthusiasm are delightfully presented.

They say that sometimes your books choose you. Kay Gilley's book crossed my path at a time I was re-arranging my ideas about my own management style and my work. "Leading From the Heart" clarified for me that the work that we do must be an integrated part of the whole of our lives. The book validates the very real imperative of bringing our heart and soul to work with us in order to improve the quality of our own life, and the lives of others we touch. Her discussion about recognizing what we DON'T want about what we THINK we want helped me understand the struggles I had been having in my own work. Although I was "going through the motions" in step with the context we had created in our organization, it was only after I began to examine what I didn't really want about my work that I was able to make the changes I need to pursue my real goals and direction.

This book also helped me recognize the presence of love in the workplace. The service we deliver and the benefits we glean from our human transactions take on a real and fulfilling quality when we act from an open, receptive heart. In the teamwork classes I teach, Gilley's book helps me deliver the message that the courage to choose from our hearts rather than from the traditional ego-structures we build will be the power that energizes the organizations of the future. The practical steps and provocative exercises in this book will change your world!

As a person removed from the corporate world, but immersed in the small business world, I found Kay Gilley's books, "Leading from the Heart" and "The Alchemy of Fear" a wonderful mixture of practical advice and humanistic principles. She provides leading edge know-how on maximizing each individuals abilities in any organization. Gilley manages to bring true heart to the workplace, making her books fascinating reading not just to learn to run a business better, but a life as well.

leading from the heart shows leadership to be a deeply internal and personal process. kay gilley offers insights and an approach to leadership that will stretch business leaders well beyond the bounds of traditional management thought and practice. the results will be a more productive business and a more fulfilling life. if you manage people, read this book. if you know someone who does, buy this book for them as a gift.

The author has honorable intentions. However, Kay Gilley and her editor should be exceedingly embarrassed for the length of the book relative to its content. It escapes me how one can belabor the most simplistic points in an agonizing journey that encourages the reader to embrace Kay's notion of a spirit-respecting workplace.

To Kay Gilley's credit, there are some real "nuggets" in this book. It has a great cover, great title, and a few worthy ideals. However, after suffering through the cover-to-cover journey, I found that the "nuggets" are buried deep the author's obfuscation. Without my trusty highlighting marker, I would have no need to reference this book again and would have stowed it safely in my circular file system.

The publishers must have lost their red pen in the editing process. The book is five times longer than it needs to be. Maybe the author and editor should take the path of courage and be liberal with the strokes of a red pen to prevent the author from drooling on and on with her seemingly endless rambling. Better luck with the next edition, Kay!