Figure 1 Publishing

Business + Leadership

Dare to Un-Lead

The Art of Relational Leadership in a Fragmented World

2022 Porchlight Leadership & Strategy Book of the Year

Shortlisted for the 2023 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for Leadership

A 2023 Thinkers50 Best New Management Book

“Sweeping and intelligent, this book is an extraordinary contribution, deeply researched and penetratingly insightful. Céline Schillinger puts broad societal trends into historical perspective to explain the present moment. She explains what’s at stake for the world and why it’s urgent that we act now.”

—Amy Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School and best-selling author of The Fearless Organization and Teaming

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“With Dare to Un-Lead, Céline Schillinger masterfully captures the essence of the leadership revolution to come in a post-knowledge, post-disruption economy.”

 

—Brice Challamel, Vice-President, Technology, Innovation & Transformation at Moderna

Book Description

A transformational book for trying times, Dare to Un-Lead will challenge the way you think and feel about the role of leadership in your life.

What is revered as leadership today is often nothing more than a destructive set of obsolete behaviors and systems evolved from the centuries-old industrial theories popularized by Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford. This mode of leadership harms individuals and societies and must be reinvented to better reflect the way we live, trade, and work in the 21st century.

Dare to Un-Lead explores how contemporary organizations can transform leadership from a top-down hegemony to one that empowers people to lead together through the concepts of liberty, equality, and community.

Kotter affiliate and global engagement leadership specialist Céline Schillinger combines her experience enacting digital-enabled, people-focused collective work practices in global corporate structures with a deep analysis of leadership—studied through multiple lenses and timely sources of knowledge—to provide original insights into why these practices work.

The result is a series of evidence-based approaches for reinventing collective performance across organizations in a post-pandemic world.

From large corporations to small businesses, the lessons learned in this landmark book, implemented individually and collectively over time, will make our workplaces more equal, our jobs more gratifying, and our economies more profitable. And that will make the world a better place.

Author

Press

“Brave and of breathtakingly vast scope, the emancipatory ideas offered in Dare to Un-Lead deserve to be read by all.”

Work Futures

“Dare to un-lead: The art of relational leadership”

Nature of Work podcast

“35 top women keynote speakers about all things innovation you need to follow right now”

Nexxworks

“The Great Resignation & The Future Of Work: Author Céline Schillinger On How Employers and Employees Are Reworking Work Together”

Authority Magazine

Authority Magazine

Leadership Now Podcast

“Do You Dare To Un-Lead?”

Forbes

“I Think We All Crave Control. We Want to Know What Happens Next, Especially Leaders with Responsibilities, with a Lot of Accountability.”

Continuum Innovation

“This book must be read by everyone, especially those who are exercising their leadership and management skills.”

Readers’ Favorite

“What is certain: Developing deep, long-term, diverse connections is neither obvious nor easy. This requires, for most people, shifting into a new mindset and practice.”

Continuum Innovation

“Leadership follows a curious mathematical rule,” explains leadership consultant Céline Schillinger in her just-published book Dare to Un-Lead: The Art of Relational Leadership in a Fragmented World: “The more you share it, the bigger it grows.”

Charter – In partnership with Time

Activate Learning book review

Céline Schillinger On How We Need To Adjust To The Future Of Work

Thrive Global

How Community Building Can Go Beyond Language (Interview with Tony Martignetti)

Inspired Purpose Coach

Book Release

Real KM

“Sparking the entrepreneurial spirit begins with reinventing what leadership is and what it does. The challenge is worth the effort.”

Drucker Forum

Dare to Un-Lead with Celine Schillinger

Campion Consultants Podcast

Rebooting Leadership: We Are Not The Employees We Used To Be

HR Leadership Excellence

On Courage, Corporate Leaders & Change: A Leadership Journey

We Lead Comms

Principles & Leadership in Business Podcast

Ben Morton Leadership Podcast

The Best New Management Booklist for 2023

Thinkers50

Les Echos

tes Magazine

Upcoming Events

Praise

“Sweeping and intelligent, this book is an extraordinary contribution, deeply researched and penetratingly insightful. Céline Schillinger puts broad societal trends into historical perspective to explain the present moment. She explains what’s at stake for the world and why it’s urgent that we act now.”

—Amy Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School and best-selling author of The Fearless Organization and Teaming

“With Dare to Un-Lead, Céline Schillinger masterfully captures the essence of the leadership revolution to come in a post-knowledge, post-disruption economy.”

—Brice Challamel, Vice-President, Technology, Innovation & Transformation at Moderna

“I was designing a leadership program for Walmart. Céline Schillinger opened my eyes. I now see leadership as unleashing the power and potential of millions of people.”

 —James Cameron CBE, Vice President of Global Leadership Development at Walmart

“Céline Schillinger drove a successful movement for safer vaccines, leveraging 4,000 volunteers, inside of pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. How’d she do it? Through informal power, through relationships, and by daring to un-lead. Read, reflect, and learn.”

 —Whitney Johnson, Top #10 Management Thinkers, Thinkers50, LinkedIn Top Voice 2020, bestselling author, Disrupt Yourself

“Traditional leadership theory promotes a set of restrictive and hierarchical rules. Through a sharp analysis of world events and a generous dose of personal stories, Céline Schillinger demonstrates how this structure is not only outdated and self-serving, but it is ultimately dangerous and self-destructing. Dare to Un-Lead is an invitation to ‘rock the boat’ without capsizing it. It is also a call to aspiring leaders. The time has come to take on the role of steward of change by creating a safe room for fraternity, community, and agency.”

—Eliana Castillo, Head of Finance, M&A, Integration, Transformation at Twilio Inc.

“Compelling and inspirational, Céline Schillinger’s ideas on leadership show us that stepping back with humility so that our teams can freely ideate and innovate is the way to thrive in our rapidly emerging new world.”

—David Ford, Chief Human Resources Officer at Intercept Pharmaceuticals

“Céline Schillinger has written an insightful and timely synthesis of people-centered change principles, enabled by technology, powered by “Un-Leadership”. Impactful.”

—Rick Western, CEO, Kotter

“It takes courage to Un-Lead, but it is totally worth it. The paths identified by Céline Schillinger are not just attractive ideas, they dramatically increase people’s engagement at work and the velocity of change in our organizations. A highly valuable read.”

—Dorothea von Boxberg, CEO, Lufthansa Cargo

“Brave and of breathtakingly vast scope, the emancipatory ideas offered in Dare to Un-Lead deserve to be read by all.”

—Stowe Boyd, Managing Director & Founder, Work Futures

“It was when I started to Un-Lead that my team became motivated, engaged, and delivered beyond
expectations. We can waste time pleasing the top management, or we can learn about authentic leadership
instead: Celine Schillinger offers brilliant pathways in that regard. Realize the future of leadership now, from this smart and passionate book!”

—Zsuzsanna Devecseri, Vice President, Head of Global Oncology Medical Affairs at Sanofi Genzyme

Dare to Un-Lead is an opus on the origins and possible solutions for the world’s current issues through the lens of leadership. Bringing together wisdom from an amazing array of writers, Céline Schillinger crafts a clear message that without inclusivity, respect and dignity, we will not succeed.”

—Anita Burrell, Chair, Global Committee Council at Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association

“This is the book you read when you’re done with the formulaic could-have-been-an-article change management and change-adjacent books. It’s not an instruction manual, nor is it a success story. It doesn’t really have lists to speak of, no models, no frameworks. It doesn’t need them. . . . Céline has done a great service to experienced change practitioners all over the world by writing this book. . . . I expected to read about leadership and I did, but this book is really about the immense power of community and the complex task that is change.”

—Gilbert Kruidenier, Consultant, Purpose At Work

“Céline Schillinger takes aim at the flaws of traditional management and does not miss. With a depth of hardwon experience in creating change internationally, she reveals how to bring forth change, agency, and
engagement by combining the power of networks and community with new models of leadership to foster
liberty, equality and fraternity at work.”

—Simon Terry, Chief Growth Officer, InLoop, & Change Agent at Change Agents Worldwide

 

BOOK DETAILS

  • Hardcover
  • 6 × 9 inches
  • 336 pages
  • 978-1-77327-182-8
  • $36.95 CDN / $29.95 USD
  • May 2022