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Leading from Within: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Lead

Published: 9/17/2008

Written By: Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner, editors

The book's thesis is that true leadership comes not from the sound of a commanding voice but from the nudging of an inner voice. . . 

I return over and over again to this favorite book. 

Leaders across a spectrum - pastors, teachers, volunteers, corporate officers - were invited to submit a poem that inspired them and a short narrative of witness in this regard. 

The result is wondrous. As E. B. White wrote, "A poet is a person who "lets drop a line that gets remembered in the morning." Those who submitted poetry gave witness to the resonance of their favorites in their lives as encouragement, beauty, inspiration. 

The concluding chapter is called "Leading with Fire: Using Poetry in Our Life and Work."  Poetry helps leaders find and listen to their inner voice, to listen and attend to others, to tell stories and inspire shared vision, to cultivate creative imagination, to evoke conversations that matter, to foster renewal. 

Rather than "beating it with a hose to find out what it really means," poet Billy Collins invites us to approach poety "like a color slide held to the light" and to "water-ski across the surface of a poem." 

So try it:  use poems as companions, wake yourself up with a poem or read one before you drift into sleep. Write favorite lines and place them where you will see them often. Memorize artful lines and repeat them often. Enjoy!

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