A solid manual that explores the metaphysics and psychology of leadership.
Leaders are urged to connect to ancient wisdom and to know themselves in this debut self-help book.
In this guide, Chickering draws on her background as an outdoorswoman, corporate leader, and consultant to advise readers on fulfilling their leadership potential by developing self-mastery and a sense of flow as well as understanding the connections among management, spirituality, and nature. The book is structured around the “Native American experience of Seven Directions,” which the author defines as “North, South, East, West, and sometimes Above, Below, and Within,” using each one as the theme of a chapter. Employing examples from her own career and people she has advised, Chickering encourages readers to understand the difference between being and doing, to be present and mindful, to develop a sense of respect, and to strengthen their emotional agility. “Explore, Engage, Experiment” callout boxes throughout the book offer suggestions for concrete applications of the concepts discussed in the text. An appendix provides an annotated bibliography of resources for further reading. The author’s enthusiasm for her subject is palpable, and readers interested in developing a stronger connection with their emotions and intuition will find the manual particularly useful. For instance, she suggests that anger “signals an unseen truth about something, someone, or ourselves,” which readers can determine by analyzing the emotion’s deeper meaning. The guide’s many examples—ranging from Chickering’s mountain-climbing experiences to the rebuilding of relationships among executives—do an excellent job of illustrating its ideas. Some readers may find the general notions valid but the text too credulous in its embrace of metaphysical concepts (for instance, the author attributes a seemingly unprovoked emotional meltdown to the 9/11 attacks, which she was unaware of at the time). But on the whole, the book comes across as thoughtful and authentic. Chickering displays a clear understanding of the subjects she discusses as well as a genuine interest in encouraging readers to embrace the “Seven Directions” concept and strengthen both their connections to others and their performance in personal and professional settings.
A solid manual that explores the metaphysics and psychology of leadership.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-151-9
Page Count: 232
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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