Ironies Leaders Navigate, Second Edition

[EPI] "". . . just as one cannot not communicate, you do not have the option of not using power."" [/EPI]

For every definition of leadership, you can find a definition of power that makes the same statement. Hence, every act of leadership is an act of power, and the better we understand power, the better we understand leadership.
And we misunderstand power, scholars lament, in part by under-understanding power. We equate it merely with coercion and competition, but miss how power dynamics define leadership, education, coaching, teamwork, parenting, etc. Here is a brief, contextual, synergistic, occasionally ironic study of power, which provides numerous lenses through which to examine leadership settings, including how they differ.
This study (in specific, framed pages) ultimately focuses on a unique leadership setting--the local church. It ponders distinct challenges faced by church leaders, and by The Church's Leader, Jesus Christ.


""Schuyler Totman presents a slim first book thick with significance . . . Ironies Leaders Navigate analyzes the connection between power and leadership, including the ironies, paradoxes and puzzles this connection reveals, in the church and in families, business, and politics, too.""
--Bruce McNab, author of Finding the Way

""Schuyler Totman examines how power works, and leaders lead, within relationship. He simplifies, yet augments and elevates our awareness of power--as complicated and contextual, as constant and constantly multi-faceted--while illustrating how power dynamics inhabit any act of leadership.""
--Joyce Hocker, co-author with William Wilmot of Interpersonal Conflict

""Power and leadership go hand-in-hand, but are leaders to be trusted with power? Critical to getting leadership right is a proper view of power. In Ironies Leaders Navigate, Schuyler Totman examines the dynamics of power. By identifying a series of ironies inherent in the exercising of leadership, he gives clarity to the issues that should inform our self-awareness and self-regulation of power. Along the way, he delves into unique challenges faced by church leaders and the church's leader, Jesus Christ.""
--Michael McKinney, LeadershipNow.com, Pasadena, CA

""A mentor once told me ""Decisiveness is not a virtue. When you feel the pressure to make quick decisions or actions, it is usually unwise and will produce more problems than it solves."" Ironies Leaders Navigate helps me to understand better why my mentor was correct in how to navigate the wonderful and bewildering complexities of leading people with truth, goodness, and beauty.""
--Dan Russ, author, Flesh and Blood Jesus


An occasional leader and a constant student of leadership, Schuyler Totman is the founder of Same Door Resources, an organization that works with leaders and groups to manage conflict by understanding it before it happens. He also helps prepare expectant fathers to become excellent dads through several hospitals around Denver, Colorado, where he lives with his patient wife Michelle and their two precocious children.