The Book
A Leader Within
A new book from David Bernard-Stevens
You are today a summation of your past choices. You will be tomorrow and into the future what you choose to do now. Lead Yourself First
Though it may be simple to say, it requires a new way of thinking.
Discover a different way of viewing yourself and the world around you.
Embark on a journey that will help you sense the true power within you.
Create your future and forge ahead to greatly impact your world.
Reviews
Short, train-of-thought manual for understanding leadership.
Leadership coach Bernard-Stevens has a blunt message for those who want to be a leader—you must lead yourself before you can lead others. His brief book is essentially an extended conversation (which he calls “musings”) about the author’s philosophy of self-will. Bernard-Stevens believes that “the power to lead is and always has been within each of us.” He explores how personal choice creates reality—the reality that each individual can think or feel whatever he or she wants. This results in “a sense of absolute freedom,” writes the author, though he cautions that “along with that comes total accountability as well.” Bernard-Stevens’point is that control of one’s life is the first essential step toward self-leadership and eventually leading others. Rambling at times and superficial at others, he does raise interesting issues for those on the road to self-leadership. The author urges the reader to list his or her beliefs and “assault them” with such questions as “Do we truly know these things to be true?” and “What do we actually know about this ‘truth’ and are those bits of information valid or are they merely assumptions?” This is an important exercise, he writes, since it represents “finding your core values and knowing exactly what they mean to you” To Bernard-Stevens, determining core values—and aligning actions with them—is the basis for being a leader. While this may be somewhat of an oversimplification, it does present a good perspective that other books on leadership might overlook—that leadership begins with leading oneself rather than others.
A quick read that still conveys some good advice about introspection and even better advice about what it takes to be a grounded and well-rounded leader.
from Kirkus Reviews
To download this book of musings and find out what leadership should have been all along… click below to order for only $16
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Reading your book, I was immediately in that learning conversation. “A Leader Within” is, for me, a true learning experience, a thought provoker that can be read through randomly, or linearly, many times and still produce new thinking. Thanks, and more please!
David: It is very late and I finished the book and I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading it. I love your ability to convey such important concepts on leadership through the medium of musing. I love how you use humour in pointing us to our human habits and limiting ways of thinking to entertaining a new perspective of choice and the power to act upon that which brings us joy.
I honour you for taking the step in making your voice heard and to have an opinion for the sake of creating a ripple that potentially/possibly has an impact in the world…. Michael Duhaney