Summary of David Gergen's Hearts Touched with Fire

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of David Gergen's Hearts Touched with Fire in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: As nations careen from one crisis to the next, there is a growing cry for fresh leadership. Those in charge have repeatedly fallen short, and trust in institutions has plummeted. So, what does great leadership look like? And how are great leaders made?

David Gergen, a leader in the public arena for more than half a century, draws from his experiences as a White House adviser to four presidents, his decades as a trusted voice on national issues, and years of teaching and mentoring young people to offer a stirring playbook for the next generation of change-makers.

To uncover the fundamental elements of effective leadership, Gergen traces the journeys of iconic leaders past and present, from pathbreakers like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, John McCain, and Harvey Milk to historic icons like Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, to contemporary game changers like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350063431

IRB Media

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Summary of David Gergen’s Hearts Touched with Fire

Contents

Overview

The Hero’s Journey

Self-awareness

Self-Mastery

Your Gathering Years

Surviving Hardships

Turning Adversity into Purpose

Learning to Lead

Leading Your Team

Finding Your Voice

When Leaders Lose Their Way

Leading Through a Crisis

Answering the Call

About the Author

Overview

We live in a time of great uncertainty. With every new crisis we face, it becomes more and more clear that we desperately need fresh minds to guide us. In Hearts Touched with Fire (2022), David Gergen, who has been an adviser to four US presidents, details the qualities of great leadership and what the rising generation of leaders must do to achieve it. Using examples of legendary leaders, Gergen offers a complete guide to effective leadership.

The Hero’s Journey

The United States is facing one of its most difficult periods since its founding. We live in a time of immense volatility with crises hitting us from all directions. It is increasingly clear that we need an infusion of strong, fresh minds to help us navigate safely. There is hope for the future if we can learn from our history and prepare younger generations for lives of service and leadership.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, leaders must be endlessly attentive and adaptive, actively engaging with followers and collaborators. To safely navigate challenges, leaders must steer by a moral compass. If we look at history, most great leaders were idealists who were committed to a higher truth. They stuck to their course, unwilling to compromise their values and vision no matter how brutal reality became.

The development of a leader can be divided into two parts. First