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A review by pauloandre
Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude by Michael S. Erwin, Raymond M. Kethledge
5.0
Not so long ago, solitude (not to be confused with loneliness) was easy to attain. But that’s been taken away by technology. Which is no wonder since the brightest minds of our generation have spent considerable time and effort figuring out how to get us addicted to it. The result is that we’re always on.
By every conceivable metric, though, we live a (much) wealthier life than 50 years ago. In the United States, according to the Russell Sage Foundation, the median family income adjusted for inflation was $29,000 in 1955. In 2019 it was over $62,000. This allowed for a lifestyle that previously just wasn’t possible.
But we are paying a heavy toll. Knowledge work largely made this possible but that’s work that happens in our heads — and we never leave our heads. Work never really stops.
Lead Yourself First is about keeping our sanity through reclaiming solitude and acknowledging that you can’t lead others adequately if you can’t lead yourself first. That’s why, for example, Jeff Weiner talks about the importance of scheduling nothing, and Bill Gates goes on his famous “think weeks”.
Using the stories of multiple inspiring historical figures (Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, to name a couple) as backdrop, authors Kethledge and Erwin portray solitude as the main character: what it is, why it matters, and how to leverage it. As an example, I loved the idea of thinking of solitude as who we are minus the many inputs we are exposed to — which we can (and absolutely must) consciously control.
This is a great read if you’re mindful that there’s an inherent issue here and you are looking for ways to push back. And if you’re a leader at work, I’d go ahead and say this is essential reading. Myself, I come back regularly to this one, both for intellectual and, particularly, inspiration value. And what better solitude activity than reading a good book?
(Originally published in The Weekly Hagakure)
By every conceivable metric, though, we live a (much) wealthier life than 50 years ago. In the United States, according to the Russell Sage Foundation, the median family income adjusted for inflation was $29,000 in 1955. In 2019 it was over $62,000. This allowed for a lifestyle that previously just wasn’t possible.
But we are paying a heavy toll. Knowledge work largely made this possible but that’s work that happens in our heads — and we never leave our heads. Work never really stops.
Lead Yourself First is about keeping our sanity through reclaiming solitude and acknowledging that you can’t lead others adequately if you can’t lead yourself first. That’s why, for example, Jeff Weiner talks about the importance of scheduling nothing, and Bill Gates goes on his famous “think weeks”.
Using the stories of multiple inspiring historical figures (Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, to name a couple) as backdrop, authors Kethledge and Erwin portray solitude as the main character: what it is, why it matters, and how to leverage it. As an example, I loved the idea of thinking of solitude as who we are minus the many inputs we are exposed to — which we can (and absolutely must) consciously control.
This is a great read if you’re mindful that there’s an inherent issue here and you are looking for ways to push back. And if you’re a leader at work, I’d go ahead and say this is essential reading. Myself, I come back regularly to this one, both for intellectual and, particularly, inspiration value. And what better solitude activity than reading a good book?
(Originally published in The Weekly Hagakure)