Bøger af Alexandre Havard

Drawing on the lives of some of the greatest political, intellectual and religious leaders of modern times, and the author's personal experience, Virtuous Leadership demonstrates that leadership and virtue are not only compatible, they are actually synonymous. Virtuous Leadership defines each of the classical human virtues most essential to leadership - magnanimity, humility, prudence, courage, self-control and justice. It demonstrates how these virtues promote personal transformation and the attainment of self-fulfillment. It also considers the Christian supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity without which no study of leadership can be complete. The book's final section, Towards Victory, offers a methodology for the achievement of interior growth tailored to the needs of busy, professional people intent on imbuing their lives with a transcendent purpose. Thus, the aim of Virtuous Leadership is ultimately practical. It is meant to be your guidebook in the quest for excellence.

No attempt to practice Virtuous Leadership can succeed without a basic understanding of temperament and character, which, together, constitute human personality. The Virtuous Leadership approach to temperament affirms the legitimate diversity of our physiological and psychological makeup, and proposes that temperament, rightly understood, undergirds the efforts of all persons to flourish and achieve excellence. It recognizes that temperament does not determine goals (much less outcomes), but instead gives shape and color to the efforts of human beings to flourish through mastering the habits of excellence. In doing so, the habits of excellence - the virtues - become second-nature to us, part and parcel of our very selves. And thus, we ascend from temperament to character, and are no longer slaves to our natural inclinations but have achieved self-mastery in true human freedom.