The Existential Leader

The Existential Leader: An Authentic Leader For Our Uncertain Times invites us to reconsider our preconceptions about leadership, introducing a new model more in line with our uncertain times: existential leadership. Monica Hanaway presents an illuminating overview of existential thinking and describes how an understanding of philosophy can improve leadership, drawing on existing leadership theories to show how this new model is more fitting for the challenges of today. The approach is primarily philosophical, rather than systemic or behavioural. It invites us to re-examine what we think about leaders, whether we really need leaders at all, and, if so, which existential concerns leaders must address. The book offers an introduction to the development of existential thinking and main concerns, including meaningfulness, anxiety, loneliness, freedom, choice and responsibility, authenticity, and values and beliefs. These are explored in the leadership context, with practical approaches for using these in everyday leadership dilemmas. Unique and accessible, The Existential Leader paves a way for modern leadership perfectly suited to the challenging times we live in. Innovative, theoretical and applicable to our changing world landscape, this book will appeal to coaches, HR and L&D professionals, executives, business consultants, and current and future leaders. It will also be of interest to academics and students of coaching psychology, applied philosophy and psychology.

In An Existential Approach to Leadership Challenges, Monica Hanaway progresses us forward from a brief, introductory understanding of existential thought to considering how this approach can positively address the practical leadership challenges our twenty-first century leaders face today. Hanaway presents a practical framework to tackle the greatest challenges in leadership, such as creating an inspiring and authentic vision, recruiting, retaining and developing staff and dealing with conflict. In Part I, she presents an overview of existential thought and what existentialism can bring to leadership, helping resolve issues of uncertainty, authenticity, relatedness, freedom and meaning making. In Part II, she explores how to work practically with an existential leadership approach, showing how existentialism can help communicate a vision, examining the vision statements of existing businesses as case studies and explaining the importance of this in recruiting, developing and retaining staff. Finally, she explores how the existential approach is beneficial in preventing, managing and dealing with conflict, defining what conflict is and introducing existentially informed conflict coaching and psychologically informed mediation practice. Combining philosophical and practical thinking, Hanaway has made existentialism an accessible resource for all leaders. This book will appeal to future leaders in practice and in training, and anyone in a leadership role. It will also be of interest to academics and students of coaching and coaching psychology, as well as to those interested in applied philosophy and psychology.

Written at a time of global pandemic, when we have been forced to confront age-old existential questions—Why are we here? Where are we going?—perhaps for the first time, Quo Vadis? is extraordinarily relevant to leaders, managers and anyone who wants to bring meaning and authenticity into their work and life. Manfred Kets de Vries argues that we need to address these fundamental and disturbing questions if we are to live fully and meaningfully. Too many people wake up on a Monday morning and do the same things they have done every Monday. They go to work and function on autopilot without questioning their purpose. But how can we make sure our lives are rich and fulfilling? How do we know we’re on the right track? This is a book about death and the fear of death, about angst and absurdity; but it is also about endurance, honesty, well-being, responsibility, living with hard truths, creating meaning—and happiness. Quo Vadis? makes us look full on at the things we prefer not to see. It is a short book that pulls no punches but is far from bleak. Instead, Kets de Vries shows that our life is enriched, and our ability to make meaning and find happiness is increased, when we acknowledge the inevitable price we have to pay for knowing our own mind and understanding our inevitable end.

This book examines the theoretical foundations relevant to existential issues in educational leadership and management, taking inspiration from Munch’s painting The Scream. The book considers internationally relevant topics such as the growth of neoliberalism, globalisation, cultural shifts, forced migration and the digitalisation of the socio-cultural sphere and uniquely positions these crises as existential threats, rather than simply political, cultural, or social. The volume explores this complex set of dimensions in existential experience and outlines the implications for research and teaching in educational leadership. By exemplifying the narrative and introspective nature of existential research, the book addresses major aspects of the field including the impact such threats have on organisational studies, policy, administrative structures and practices, and leadership. This timely collection on existential issues in administration and leadership will appeal to academics, scholars, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. It will also be of great interest for students in teacher education programmes and graduate courses in educational administration and leadership, organisation studies, and educational ethics for broad international use.

In An Introduction to Existential Coaching Yannick Jacob provides an accessible and practical overview of existential thought and its value for coaches and clients. Jacob begins with an introduction to coaching as a powerful tool for change, growth, understanding and transformation before exploring existential philosophy and how it may be integrated into coaching practice. The book goes on to examine key themes in existentialism and how they show up in the coaching space, including practical models as well as their application to organisations and leadership. Jacob concludes by evaluating ethical dimensions of working existentially and offers guidance on how to establish an existential coaching practice, including how to gain clients and build relationships with strategic partners. With reflective questions, exercises, interventions and activities throughout, An Introduction to Existential Coaching will be invaluable for anyone wanting to live and work at greater depth or to succeed as an existential coach. Accessibly written and with a wide selection of references and resources, An Introduction to Existential Coaching is a vital guide for coaches in training as well as an inspiring addition to the repertoir of experienced practitioners. It serves academics and students to understand existential philosophy and allows professionals with coaching responsibilities to access more meaningful conversations.

As the methodology for coaching supervision has grown and developed in recent years, so too has the need for comprehensive engagement with the needs of supervisees. This ground-breaking and much-needed new book from Monica Hanaway presents a unique existential approach to coaching supervision. This book includes an introduction to the model, with emphasis on the philosophical focus of the existential coaching approach and concepts such as uncertainty, freedom, emotions, values and beliefs, meaning, and relatedness. Hanaway offers supervisors ways of working with their supervisees on each of the key existential themes, as well as a comparison with other coaching supervision models. This book describes how a supervisor can bring an existential approach into their work, both with existential coaches and with those working in different modalities who are interested in adding to their portfolio of service. It will be of immense value to academics and students of coaching psychology.

Existential-humanistic psychology recognizes that an essential part of becoming a good therapist is developing a way of being that is healing. This makes the journey to becoming an existential-humanistic therapist a personal and transforming journey. In Becoming an Existential-Humanistic Therapist, editors Julia Falk and Louis Hoffman have collected the stories of 11 influential existential-humanistic therapists, including Kirk Schneider, Lisa Xochitl Vallejos, Ed Mendelowitz, Katerina Zymnis, Mark Yang, Myrtle Heery, Nathaniel Granger, Orah Krug, Xuefu Wang, Kathleen Galvin, and Shawn Rubin. As these prominent leaders share their stories of becoming, they also consider what it means to be an existential-humanistic therapist and their vision for the future of this school of psychotherapy. Alongside these stories, HeeSun Park reviews two important research studies on becoming an existential-humanistic therapist while Falk and Hoffman highlight the central themes emerging from the narratives. Park, Falk, and Hoffman also share their own stories of becoming. The book concludes with reflective exercises for individuals considering pursuing a career as an existential-humanistic counselor or therapist, as well as exercises for current therapists to reflect upon their own journey. Whether already an existential-humanistic therapist wanting to reflect upon your journey or a student considering pursuing becoming an existential-humanistic therapist, this volume is essential reading to clarify and deepen one’s journey.

This book investigates the lived experience of CEOs in their quest for wholeness and presents a model of spiritual intelligence for contemporary leadership. The experience of ethical and spiritual crisis in the post-modern society especially in organizational leadership, calls for deeper quest and spiritual intelligence. Four essential themes emerged from the analysis of the in-depth interviews with top leaders of different organizations across the globe: (1) Sensing Crisis, (2) Embracing Crisis (3) Awakening Hidden Wholeness, (4) and Serving Greater Good. From the analysis of the themes, a model of spiritual intelligence and leadership wholeness is constructed. This Spiritual Intelligence Model portrays the intra-dynamics of leaders’ ongoing quest for wholeness penetrating through their existential, learning, spiritual, and moral dimensions of being and the five ethical dimensions of wholeness permeating through the personal, organizational, social, global, and environmental spheres of life. This book gives a fresh perspective on spiritual intelligence and leadership practice today.