New York Times-best selling author David Gergen - White House adviser to four presidents of different parties, CNN senior political analyst, and founder of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School - presents an inspiring and practical guide for emerging young leaders as well as seasoned change makers. In HEARTS TOUCHED WITH FIRE: How Great Leaders are Made (Simon & Schuster; May 10, 2022; 978-1-9821-7057-8; $29.00 hardcover), he draws on vivid examples from personal experience, history and recent headlines - from Churchill to AOC and dozens more across the public landscape - to shine a light on pathways forward.



Gergen describes himself as a short-term pessimist but a long-term optimist. The next several years are likely to be rough in America, he believes, but the long-term outlook holds much greater promise. Our prospects for success, he argues, now rest heavily upon preparing rising generations for lives of service and leadership.



As a White House adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, Gergen gathered invaluable lessons on leadership that he has shared for more than two decades with students at the Harvard Kennedy School. But he has long hoped to write a book that would spread those lessons more widely. In the past few years, that dream has taken on greater urgency, with growing threats to democracy at home and abroad.



"Who would have believed," Gergen writes, "that for the first time since the Civil War, we would begin tearing ourselves apart? Who would have imagined that our democracy - and long-standing democratic traditions across the world - might be on the brink of collapse? But here we are. It feels as if we are driving on the side of a cliff in the middle of the night with our lights out. We all know it, but we cant seem to stop it."



A Historic Passing of the Torch



What we are witnessing, he notes, is an historic passing of the torch from Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation to Millennials and Gen Zers. The latter two generations, born between 1982 and 2009, are the biggest and diverse cohort in our history - and will soon be the most powerful. They have faced profound challenges in just the first two decades of the 21st century - including terrorism, deep recessions, climate disasters, racial and gender inequities, a deadly global pandemic and a poisonous polarization of our politics.



The Millennials and Gen Zers are changing the face of leadership in many ways. Gergen shows how in the journeys of climate activist Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students fighting for gun sanity, Pakistani female education advocate Malala, and the organizers of the MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. They are leading from the bottom up as well as the top down, skillfully using the power of social media and protest marches. Their experiments in leadership have brought out the biggest numbers in history in protests over women's rights, racial equity, voter suppression, gun rights and gay rights.



Even as ways to exercise leadership are evolving, Gergen points out, some qualities and skills remain eternal. Courage and character, for example, have been prerequisites for great leadership through millennia, from the classical Greeks and Romans down to Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Gergen worked early in the White House for both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Both had courage but the first lacked character and was driven out by scandal; the second was a man of character who looks better and better through the rear view mirror.



The Leader's Journey: Inner and Outer



Gergen begins with a consideration of some of the most profound questions in understanding leadership. Does leadership really matter, after all? Why do we need great leaders? What are their most important qualities or traits? Why, in our society, has leadership largely been restricted in the past to white men? How can we best accelerate the spread of diversity?



Gergen then describes the development of a leader in two parts: an inner journey and an outer journey. An effective leader, he argues, must first become self-aware and then achiever self-mastery. It is not enough just to be smart and talented. You must be able to master yourself before you can serve others. Your inner work should help you identify your core values and your True North. In sum, Gergen tells us how to become "author of your own life", as leadership guru and dear friend Warren Bennis puts it.



Unfortunately, almost every rising leader suffers from harsh, unexpected blows - crucibles as they are called in leadership circles. They can take many shapes and forms, and they can destroy your professional as well as personal life. Yet with the right outlook, grit and perseverance, some of our most celebrated leaders have emerged stronger from such hardships. Crucibles also have the potential to instill in us great moral purpose and an opportunity to solidify our goals.



As a rising leader conquers her inner journey, they must also make a transition from internal preparation to rubbing up against the outside world. In this outer journey, you must learn how to lead up, down and sideways - managing your boss, building your team, collaborating with others outside your team. Then again, how do you find a mentor? Or a sponsor? What's the difference between them? Importantly, how can you master the arts of public persuasion and deeply social media? As journey towards leadership isn't completed overnight; most fine it the work of a lifetime.



Leadership in Action



As the leader's inner and outer journeys converge, leadership must be put into action. You do not become a good leader, Gergen says, by studying under a lamp or earning a third or fourth academic degree. You must be "in the arena," as Theodore Roosevelt famously put it. Gergen explains why leaders must learn to lead in a crisis-making time to prepare when they can, then acting smartly when the crisis hits. Conversely, he also looks at the darkness that can descend when a leader abandons their True North and self-destructs.



Finally, Gergen incorporates three of his favorite, but often overlooked, aspects of leadership: learning from history, a wicked sense of humor, and the creation of an integrated life so you have joy as well as passion. In addition, he appends a list of twenty key takeaways-an executive summary for people on the run-including such items as: Have Three Objectives Early, You're Never Too Young to Lead, and Maintain a Celestial Spark.

In HEARTS TOUCHED WITH FIRE, David Gergen shares vital lessons on leadership gained from his remarkable half century in the public arena. It is not only a fitting graduation gift, but also a powerful assurance that we have every reason to be hopeful about the future if we remember who we are, take heart from the past, and unleash the idealism of today's passionate young leaders.



ABOUT DAVID GERGEN



David Gergen has devoted more than half a century to public service. Coming off a Navy stint, he served as a White House adviser to four US presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He recounted those experiences in a New York Times bestseller, Eyewitness to Power. In the 1980s, he began a second career, serving as the editor of US News & World Report and for five years a regular Friday night partner with Mark Shields as a PBS commentator on McNeil/Lehrer. Since 1999, he has served as a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School. For more than two decades, he has also been a senior political analyst for CNN, where he is a respected voice in national and international affairs.

Book Available on Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Touched-Fire-Great-Leaders/dp/1982170573