Artful Leadership - (Building Leadership Bridges) by Alicia D Crumpton (Paperback)

About the Book

Leaders are invited to discover within themselves sources of creativity and inspiration using the lens of philosophy, the humanities, the arts, and ecology. Leaders will develop strategies through reflection and practical exercises to tap into creative expression and imagination.

Book Synopsis

Leaders are not immune from their societal context including their pursuit of meaning, belonging, and contribution. Presently, leaders talk about wanting to quit, not knowing what to do, experiencing feelings of burnout and being tired of it all. People desire to feel connected and rooted, filled with imagination, mystery, and awe. This book is an invitation for leaders who long for inspiration and a renewed sense of possibility and creativity. Leaders are invited to discover within themselves sources of creativity and inspiration using the lens of philosophy, the humanities, the arts, and ecology. Leaders will develop strategies through reflection and practical exercises to tap into creative expression and imagination.

ILA´s Building Leadership Bridges series captures the best contemporary thinking about leadership from a diverse range of scholars, practitioners and educators working around the globe.

In keeping with the mission of the ILA the book series builds connections between how people research, imagine and experience leadership across cultures.

Review Quotes

Artful Leadership: Retreat, Recenter, Rewild is a must for everyone who cares about how the world should work -- and wants to know why it does not. Rightly positioning leadership as an art, the book's three parts revision leaders as authentic, wise, compassionate, collaborative, spiritual, ecological, integrative, and transformational. Above all, Artful Leadership means relinquishing the ego of Western modernity and recovering the arts of being and knowing through creativity and imagination. In a brilliant exposition, the artful leader retreats to quest for inner truthfulness, recenters collectively through collaboration and the sacred, and rewilds so that human beings can come home to nature. This book is a supremely practical "how to" with a vivid and accessible "why to." It will guide readers and leaders into the art of engaged, mindful, creative life. Artful Leadership demonstrates that humans find joy through the art of visioning the world as it ought to be.

--Susan Rowland, Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute

Alicia D. Crumpton always does thoughtful, unique work with credible scholarship. Her unfailing judgment has provided the field of leadership studies with valuable perspectives, especially at the confluence of spirituality and art. This volume gathers overdue voices on overdue themes, importing into the literature more of the humanities and the creative arts. Leadership is ultimately a performance and thus more of an art than science. Scholars will read in these pages more of what is possible as we study this phenomenon, and practitioners can reimagine their calling, lifting them from the quotidian into the truly visionary. And while they are at it, maybe both groups can recover a neglected sense of fun.

--Nathan Harter, Christopher Newport University (emeritus)

As the world we live in seems to be more chaotic and unpredictable by the day, we need a voice that calls us to a more beautiful way amid the ugliness. In Artful Leadership, Dr. Alicia D. Crumpton has given us a diversity of voices which invite us, both in theory and practice, on a journey toward an imaginative, courageous, and holistic way of living and leading in a world that is not as it was intended to be. May we heed the call.

--Mark Nelson, Executive Director, Three Rivers Collaborative

The ensemble of thinkers, creators, and leaders featured in Artful Leadership reveal the surprising affinities between leadership, the arts and humanities, and creative expression. We are only surprised because our ideas (and experiences) of leadership so often center on hierarchies, unquestioned assumptions, competition, and control rather than on collaboration, curiosity, creativity, and spontaneity. Each essay in this book illuminates, in its own way, the oftentimes ignored, yet vital role of an "aesthetic sensibility" or a "sincere cultural attunement" for cultivating genuinely innovative, effective-and most importantly, moral leadership. In fact, the entire notion of "leadership" is examined and shown to be related in many ways to acts of creative expression; at their best, both are offerings, acts of service that transform our world.

--Mary Antonia Wood, PhD, Chair, MA Depth Psychology and Creativity Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA. Author of The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create

The focus on theoretical frameworks, evolving paradigms, and practical strategies within leadership literature often neglects the less tangible elements of humanity within the individual and community that serve as the foundation for leadership practice. Artful Leadership: Retreat, Recenter, Rewild employs a holistic leadership approach by inviting leaders to consider the importance of art and creativity in their own lives and experiences. Artful Leadership effectively explores this topic through diverse perspectives and modalities of expression, inviting the reader to consider how creativity and the interconnectedness of our world might transform their lives and leadership. Challenging and inspiring, this work enhances the conversation surrounding what it means to be a leader.

--Christopher B. Beard, PhD, Director - EdD in Organizational Leadership, Abilene Christian University

It is far too common for good leaders to become tired from endless activities, deadlines, and expectations, all at risk of losing themselves in the process. This book arrives as a lifeline weaving together artistic approaches, mindful practices, and ecological wisdom. Contributors share perspectives and practices not found in the traditional leadership literature on why and how leaders should and can take time to be still to reorient their souls. Practical exercises move beyond theory to immediate application, practices to help you develop presence, spark imagination, and rediscover joy in your leadership role. The book invites leaders to better understand and attend to their humanity, which as the authors demonstrate, is core to good leadership.--John R. Shoup, PhD, Professor, Leadership Studies, Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business, California Baptist University Artful Leadership Endorsements

About the Author

Alicia D. Crumpton - Kaliedo Venture LLC, USA.