Explore the nature of modern leadership
In Confronting Our Freedom, a team of dedicated leadership coaches delivers an exciting and engaging new take on management and leadership. Drawing on recent events in the market and in the world, including the Great Resignation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and widespread digital transformation, the authors invite you to reimagine ideas of freedom and accountability in the context of work. You'll explore how freedom of action--for managers and employees--is what gives rise to true accountability, both in the community and in the workplace.
In the book, you'll also find:
Discussions of the power and structure of freedom, including its implications for our own choices and lives Ways to shift the focus of your leadership and management to accountability and freedom Strategies for shifting the illusion of clear roles and expectations to one compatible with fully human organizations
A groundbreaking and incisive approach to managing and leading others in virtual, hybrid, and in-person settings, Confronting Our Freedom will be an eye opener for managers, executives, and other business leaders seeking to improve their ability to inspire others to their fullest potential.
Author(s): Peter Block; Peter Koestenbaum
Publisher: Wiley
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 193
City: Hoboken
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Note to Readers
Contents
Preface
Prologue: Then Was the Moment
The past is not past
What lies ahead
Introduction: The Philosophic Insight
Conversations on freedom and accountability
The view from where we are
The culture
The individual
Organizations and the evolving workplace
Parenting is the origin story of management and leadership
Shifting the historical context
Philosophic insight in the world of organized effort
Real world, really?
Uncertain reality
At work
The existential understanding
Chapter 1 The Power and Structure of Freedom
Rewards
Freedom, reality, choice, and will
Accepting our freedom
The fundamental insight
Implications: The forms of freedom
1. Employees do not need to be motivated
2. Rewards do not explain and drive behavior
3. The organization does not have to develop “its” employees
4. Leadership is abundant, not rare
Choice, reality, and will
Choice and the nature of helplessness
Every act is free
The locus of freedom
Accepting responsibility and accountability
Chapter 2 The Potential of Anxiety
The fruits of your patience
Solving anxiety
The promise of anxiety
The language of freedom: It was an inside job
Shifting the context to freedom and accountability
Implications: Anxiety as an ally of accountability both central to performance in a time of permanent uncertainty
A problem to be solved
Lists and measures
Our wish for certainty
The permanent condition
Being conscious
Chapter 3 Speaking of Death and Evil
Death is an option
A storm in the shelter
Facing reality. Taking charge of our life.
A summary of usefulness of the reality of death
The presence of evil
Denying the reality of evil
Do no harm
Implications: Failure, fear, death, and evil
Small deaths
Time in a bottle
Saying no and the value of dissent
Social responsibility
The leading edge of social responsibility
Chapter 4 Fully Human Organizations
Guilty as chosen and guilty as charged
The sounds of freedom
Reversing the illusion of clear roles and expectations
Not enough
Our expectations
What are we to do?
Real and chosen accountability? Fully human organizations
Last time about guilt
The opportunity of meaning
The entrepreneurial act of creation
Epilogue: Final Words from the Philosopher
References and Background Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
EULA
