Shakti Leadership (Embracing Feminine and Masucline Power)

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Too many leaders, men and women alike, have bought into the notion of leadership that exclusively emphasizes traditionally "masculine" qualities: hierarchical, militaristic,win-at-all-costs.The result has been corruption, environmental degradation, social breakdown, stress, depression and a host of other serious problems. But there is another way, one that restores balance to this lopsided way of leading. Reaching into ancient spiritual and mythical teachings, Nilima Bhat and Raj Sisodia revive a "feminine" archetype of leadership: generative, cooperative, creative, empathetic. While these qualities are often thought of as feminine, we all have them; however, for people in leadership positions, they tend to be undervalued and underdeveloped. In the Indian yogic tradition, this feminine principle is recognized as supremely intelligent and responsive. It is personified as the Great Mother or Goddess Shakti and is the source that powers the cycle of life.

Using exercises and inspirational examples, Bhat and Sisodia guide us through our own heroic journey to discover and responsibly access this source of infinite energy and lead with our whole selves. Leaders who understand and practise Shakti Leadership act from a consciousness of caring, creativity and sustainability to achieve self-mastery internally and be of selfless service to the world. When leaders across genders learn to embrace this mindset, they can restore sanity, elevate humanity and heal the planet by evolving joyously and consciously together.

Nilima Bhat is director of the leadership consulting firm Roots & Wings and founder of the integrative medicine practice Sampurnah (wholeness). She speaks and consults globally on organizational culture, women's leadership, self-awareness and wellness and is the co-author of My Cancer Is Me.

Nilima's work leverages her corporate experience and seventeen years of consciousness-based health and growth practices to help build enduring institutions and change agents, especially women, who can lead the planet to sustainable solutions and positive impact. Nilima has delivered leadership training and facilitation for Microsoft, Whole Foods Market, Tata, Societe Generale Bank, Vodafone and YPO, as well as academic institutions and developmental organizations such as Indus International School and SKS Microfinance.

Raj Sisodia is the F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College. He is also co-founder and co-chairman of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., and the co-author of Conscious Capitalism, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller that has sold over 110,000 copies.

In 2003, he was cited as one of "50 Leading Marketing Thinkers" and added to the "Guru Gallery" by the UK-based Chartered Institute of Marketing (the largest marketing association in the world). In 2007, he was honored with the "Award for Excellence in Scholarship" by Bentley University. In 2008, he received the "Bentley University Innovation in Teaching" award.

He was chosen as one of twelve "Outstanding Trailblazers of 2010" by Good Business International, and one of 2010's "Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior" by Trust Across America. Raj is best known as the lead author of Firms of Endearment: HOW World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose.

This remarkable new book comes at a most opportune time, an evolutionary juncture in which reinventing the possibilities of leadership can play a major positive role in all our lives. Shakti Leadership, based on extensive research, artfully summarizes the best of perennial wisdom, while adding powerful, real-world practices to the repertoire of leaders everywhere.

At its core, Shakti is the creative force from which all structures arise. Nilima and Raj unfold its aspects in an accessible and easily assimilated style. They guide you through powerful processes for integrating the best of Shakti Leadership into your life and organization now, such as finding presence in the midst of frenetic activity and replacing competition with partnership and dynamic balance. The book embraces the most urgent and cur-rent questions that most interest both women and men.

We particularly appreciate the interactive components of the book, which engage all aspects of being and doing to integrate the book's wisdom, chapter by chapter. With an enchanting melody of invitation and possibility, Raj and Nilima intuitively rebut the caveats and skepticism that conscious exploration can stir up. The central message really resounds throughout the book: "It's time for us to be bolder." At the heart of Shakti Leadership's message is the liberation of the creative energy curtailed by thousands of years of fearing women's power, by both men and women. You are guided through inner, relational, and structural reinvention activities that both challenge and expand your creativity and your ability to step into the unknown with confidence.

Shakti Leadenthip is written for those willing to step out of hierarchy and into new rhythms of collaboration and invention, moving together rather than against, and welcoming intuition into the boardroom and harmony into our hearts. You experience a new understanding of presence that becomes central to unfolding a different future, and a world in which each person's creative power can flow through an integral and vital structure. In Shakti Leadership you'll find a series or lively dialogues that dance between logic and feeling, logos and mythos, and other dynamics that have intrigued consciousness enthusiasts for centuries. This is a book that brings many rich traditions together so that you can expand your leadership skills in core ways that will make a difference now and into the future.