Why leaders need solitude

CEOs and other leaders do well to get on companionable terms with solitude, according authors Raymond M. Kethledge, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, and Michael S. Erwin, a leadership development consultant and assistant professor at West Point. In their book “Lead Yourself First” (Bloomsbury, 2017), the authors make an extended argument that leaders should reserve some alone time. 

Bloomsbury

Solitude can nurture different aspects of clarity, creativity, emotional balance, and moral courage, illustrated by many more well-told tales of famous and not-so-famous leaders – including primatologist Jane Goodall or U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln – who stepped away from noise and stress to enhance those traits. “It adds up to a compelling, if perhaps overly long, exposition on the role of solitude in leadership,” according to a review in Strategy & Business.

CEOs and other leaders do well to get on companionable terms with solitude, according authors Raymond M. Kethledge, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, and Michael S. Erwin, a leadership development consultant and assistant professor at West Point. In their book “Lead Yourself First” (Bloomsbury, 2017), the authors make an extended argument that leaders should reserve some alone time. Solitude can nurture different aspects of clarity, creativity, emotional balance, and moral courage, illustrated by many more well-told tales of famous and not-so-famous leaders – including primatologist Jane Goodall or U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln – who stepped away from noise and stress to enhance those traits. “It adds up to a compelling, if perhaps overly long, exposition on the role of solitude in leadership,” according to a review in Strategy & Business

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Barbara Bierach