Lives of Moral Leadership

Quiet leadership can sometimes make the greatest impact, according to Coles, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Children of Crisis) and a professor at both Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Medical School. Though many of Coles's 50 books have focused on children, this new work is one with direct relevance for leaders in public spheres, including business. Through portraits of people who have inspired him, from Robert Kennedy and social-justice crusader Dorothy Day, through "ordinary" people who dare to challenge the status quo, Coles reveals important and enduring qualities of true leaders. "These are people," writes Coles, "whose acts, ideals and ordeals, ideas and thoughts, whose affirmed, visible commitments, have in one way or another had meaning or worth to others, have enabled others to see their own aspirations and dreams brought to life."