The Humanitarian Leader in Each of Us
7 Choices That Shape a Socially Responsible Life
Leadership
"A powerful, moving, and substantive book that puts leadership in the hands of every day people. LaFasto and Larson's work is grounded in theory yet crystal clear in describing the core dimensions of humanistic leadership. This book expands the domain of leadership and encourages all of us to make life better in some way for others." - Peter G. Northouse, Western Michigan University
Key Features:
- Thirty stories of real people: The leaders interviewed for this book are a highly diverse group.
- End-of-chapter tools for self-discovery
- Focus on social responsibility, finding one's passion, and seeking personal meaning from one's work
- End-of-book suggestions for getting started: A back-of-the-book section offers concrete suggestions for how to begin one's own journey toward helping others.
A powerful, moving, and substantive book that puts leadership in the hands of everyday people. LaFasto and Larson’s work is grounded in theory yet crystal clear in describing the core dimensions of humanitarian leadership. This book expands the domain of leadership and encourages all of us to make life better in some way for others.
As someone who comes from a long line of public servants, I found the message of service to others in this insightful and original book inspiring and hopeful. The problems we face in our global community are complex and often seemingly intractable, but LaFasto and Larson make a convincing case that individual citizens, of any age and from any walk of life, can have a positive and often lasting impact. So many of us want to help, but don’t know where to begin. The deeply moving stories of the remarkable people profiled in this book help point the way.
“This short book gives me hope that giants continue to walk the earth, lending a hand to those in need of extraordinary help.”
"It is gratifying to see so many of the leaders in this book engaged in the vital work of improving the health of men, women, and children around the globe. The commitment and compassion of these humanitarians make me believe in a future in which people everywhere enjoy long, productive lives."
This book should be required reading for every student in every University in the country. President John F. Kennedy told us “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.” Now La Fasto and Larson have made sense of this position and made it easy for each of us to understand the power we have within us to make a real difference in the real world.
Seems best as a reference book rather than text.
great way to teach social justice through story.
Students loved using this text. Maybe more practical than I have used in other courses, it really served my Civic Engagement class well.
This book is very practical, readable and even pleasant to work through. It's organization and content encourages a great deal of personal reflection, and the book succeeds in providing a true sense of experience to the reader. For a course whose structure and delivery matches it, this book could be a useful component of the required readings.
The book is very well written and practical, but it would be better suited for either a globalization and change course, an ethics in leadership course, or something more specific than the general leadership course I was developing. I will continue to look for the right course to introduce this text, because I think it is an important work.