Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times
Written by Nancy Koehn
Narrated by Nancy Koehn
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
“Five gritty leaders whose extraordinary passion and perseverance changed history…a gripping read on a timeless and timely topic” —Angela Duckworth, #1 bestselling author of Grit
An enthralling historical narrative filled with critical leadership insights, Forged in Crisis, by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, spotlights five masters of crisis: polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
What do such disparate figures have in common? Why do their extraordinary stories continue to amaze and inspire? In delivering the answers to those questions, Nancy Koehn offers a remarkable template by which to judge those in our own time to whom the public has given its trust.
She begins each of the book’s five sections by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe; Lincoln on the verge of seeing the Union collapse; escaped slave Douglass facing possible capture; Bonhoeffer agonizing over how to counter absolute evil with faith; Carson racing against the cancer ravaging her in a bid to save the planet. The narrative then reaches back to each person’s childhood and shows the individual growing—step by step—into the person he or she will ultimately become. Significantly, as we follow each leader’s against-all-odds journey, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power to lead courageously resides in each of us.
Whether it’s read as a repository of great insight or as exceptionally rendered human drama, Forged in Crisis stands as a towering achievement.
Nancy Koehn
Nancy Koehn is an historian at the Harvard Business School where she holds the James E. Robison chair of Business Administration. She has coached leaders from many organizations and speaks frequently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and the World Business Forum. An accomplished author and scholar (she earned her MA and PhD degrees in history from Harvard), she spent ten years writing Forged in Crisis, her first book aimed at a popular audience. She lives in Concord, Massachusetts, and is a dedicated equestrian.
Related to Forged in Crisis
Related audiobooks
Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Mentors: The Education of a Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mighty and the Almighty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revolutionary Leadership: Essential Lessons from the Men and Women of the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Boardroom: How Leaders Use and Manage Conflict to Reach Greater Levels of Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team of Rivals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrust and Betrayal in the Workplace: Building Effective Relationships in Your Organization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One Thing You Need To Know: ...About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lift: The Fundamental State of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pursuit of Excellence: The Uncommon Behaviors of the World's Most Productive Achievers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master Mentors: 30 Transformative Insights from Our Greatest Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five Graces of Life and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Leader of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Change or Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Politics For You
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of the Wreckage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Forged in Crisis
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There are no hacks to true leadership. This book makes that clear. Well worth listening to and well done by the author, including narration.