Title: Dare to Be a Revolutionary Leader: People Are the Solution-Change Your Leadership Style
Author: Charley Swords
Publisher: ‎ PageTurner Press and Media, LLC
ISBN: ‎ 979-8886220766
Pages: 244
Genre: Non-Fiction / Business / Self-Improvement
Reviewed by: David Allen

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With this book, Charley Swords earns her place as a thought leader. Her book, Dare to Be a Revolutionary Leader: People Are the Solution-Change Your Leadership Style, stands out from the rest on at least several counts. Unlike many other how-to books on leadership, this one successfully unites theory with practice. The reader is walked through a brief history of leadership approaches then is taken in hand and given step-by-step advice on how to broker outstanding leadership in his or her own sphere. Second, as Swords explains, self-mastery comes first. Wannabe leaders: know thyself, and to thine own self be true. Truly effective leaders make paradigm leaps, but they stand on the shoulders of giants – those who have come before. This book makes sense out of what could seem an overload of discordant information, and shows how the leaders of tomorrow might easily include the readers of today.

Relevant quotations, citations and germane spiritual truisms are marshalled in the campaign to master individuality, creativity, and the collective effort of organizations as a whole. Work upon the self is a prerequisite for meaningful direction of others. One Ugandan proverb, cited by Swords, goes, If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Swords shows how self-messages and instructions are actualized in the world (and this is a central tenet of Ageless Wisdom and major spiritual traditions.) The author returns again and again to the central question: Are you doing the work you love? This question is all-important because nothing succeeds like commitment to a revered and impassioned goal.

Swords clarifies the very relevant distinction between management and leadership. Managers complete spreadsheets and assign tasks. Leaders motivate, incite to action, and inspire teamwork and hard work and fervor. Leaders empower others, and are remembered for the feelings they inspire in others

Charley Swords is a motivational speaker and consultant and a canny teacher and writer as well. Her writing is fluent, human and speaks to the mind and the heart. ‘Leadership’ is a term that applies to both organizations and to self-mastery (self-leadership) in the individual. In that sense, this book will have broad appeal to most everyone.

This book is a call to action, a handbook for work upon the self. Theodore Roosevelt, cited by Swords: In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Critically relevant qualities of revolutionary leadership include but are not limited to patience, empathy, listening skill, and appreciation of the big picture. Readers without the time or means to get an M.B.A. will appreciate this handy and timely addition to their armamentarium. Organization people of today will also appreciate the book’s inclusion of recent developments including networking, social media, and the increased challenges and opportunities for women and for minorities in the corporate world.