Confronting Our Freedom
Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging
1. Edition February 2023
192 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
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.
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
Parenting is the origin story of management and leadership
Shifting the historical context
Philosophic insight in the world of organized effort
The existential understanding
I The Power and Structure of Freedom
Rewards
Freedom, reality, choice, and will
Accepting our freedom
The fundamental insight
Implications: The Forms of Freedom
Choice, reality, and will
II The Potential of Anxiety
The fruits of your patience
Solving anxiety
The promise of anxiety
The language of freedom: It is 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
The permanent condition
Being conscious
III 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
Final facts
The presence of evil
Denying the reality of evil
Do no harm
Implications: failure, fear, death, and evil
IV Fully Human Organizations
Guilty as chosen and guilty as charged
The Sound 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
Epilogue
References and Background Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
About Designed Learning
PETER KOESTENBAUM is a renowned existential philosopher and the founder and chairman of Philosophy in Business and the Koestenbaum Institute. After a career in academia, he worked as a business consultant and leadership coach for major companies around the world, including Ford, IBM, Novartis, Citibank, Volvo, Amoco, and more. His most recent book-length work includes The Heart of Business: Ethics, Power, and Philosophy and Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness.
