Advisor of Leadership at Google and former vice president of leadership at LinkedIn claims that the biggest driver of motivation is the chance to serve a larger purpose beyond our careers and ourselves, rather than salary, benefits, bonuses, or other material incentives; companies that are able to successfully focus their people, their teams, and their culture around meaning outperform their competition. Fred Kofman's approach to leadership has little to do with the standard practices taught in business school and traditional books. Bringing together economics and business theory, communications and conflict resolution, family counseling and mindfulness mediation, Kofman argues in The Meaning Revolution that our most deep-seated, unspoken, and universal anxiety stems from our fear that our life is being wasted--that the end of life will overtake us when our song is still unsung. Material incentives--salary and benefits--account for perhaps 15 percent of employees' motivation at work. The other 85 percent is driven by a need to belong, a feeling that what we do day in and day out makes a difference, that how we spend our time on earth serves a larger purpose beyond just ourselves. Kofman claims that transcendental leaders, wherever they are in the hierarchy, are able to put aside their self-interests and help others to feel connected with others on a team or in an organization on a great mission and part of an ennobling purpose. He argues that every organization involved in work that is nonviolent and non addictive has what he calls an "immortality project" at its core. And the challenge for leaders is to identify and expand on that core, to inspire all stakeholders to take part.

Is there a process to provide the opportunity for people to connect in the essence of "spiritual humanism" to undertake great and difficult tasks, provide holistic contexts from which we can create our future together, and cause us to take charge of our own evolution as we transcend? Could this be the true nature of leadership? The purpose of this book is to suggest that leadership theories are inadequate unless they include transcendence as an essential element influencing human behavior. "It is believed that if transcendence is included in leadership theories, an ebb and flow relationship will exist, providing opportunities where introspection and reflection of one’s role can cause individual transcendence to a higher level of consciousness, while at the same time causing transforming change in the individual and the organization." This book examines theories of the evolution of consciousness as the context for understanding transcendence. Utilizing the elements of transcendence and consciousness as a foundation, these concepts could help further not only the study, but the practice of leadership as well.

As we strive for good, through our fear and sense of lack, we inadvertently give power to a coalition that infuses cultures in a philosophy of eternal conflict and domination as a means of preserving civic order, that is controlled by promises of greater good while guiding policies and actions protect and produces a world of haves and have-nots. The deeper impulse of the Soul to thrive and transform itself into loving is an eternal force and is unstoppable in the long run. Though ominous, these times embody a great opportunity for humanity to change the narrative. To do so we need to rise above the inversion layer of shadows into transcendent realms and resources. Prophecy portends a “new day and new dawn.” We are that promise. We live in a time that invites a vision for humanity and leadership based on integrity and spiritual awakening. Remember. As we incarnate into the human condition, the most essential and most forgotten element of life for each of us is that we are the ones that bring love. In our first breath, we encounter an overwhelming challenge to identify with the world in which we find ourselves and forget the world of love from whence we came. I invite you to engage in an exploration of Self that is continuous and reveals the truth of life without fear, inspired by Soul and guided by love. Consider perhaps that the promise of a “new day and new dawn” refers simply to a change of heart. Transcendental Leadership occurs when we connect to our visionary nature, awaken to an integral perspective, and apply our greater virtue and spiritual depth in response to the challenges and callings of life.

Yoga, karma, meditation, guru—these terms, once obscure, are now a part of the American lexicon. Combining Hinduism with Western concepts and values, a new hybrid form of religion has developed in the United States over the past century. In Transcendent in America, Lola Williamson traces the history of various Hindu-inspired movements in America, and argues that together they constitute a discrete category of religious practice, a distinct and identifiable form of new religion. Williamson provides an overview of the emergence of these movements through examining exchanges between Indian Hindus and American intellectuals such as Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and illuminates how Protestant traditions of inner experience paved the way for Hindu-style movements’ acceptance in the West. Williamson focuses on three movements—Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga—as representative of the larger of phenomenon of Hindu-inspired meditation movements. She provides a window into the beliefs and practices of followers of these movements by offering concrete examples from their words and experiences that shed light on their world view, lifestyle, and relationship with their gurus. Drawing on scholarly research, numerous interviews, and decades of personal experience with Hindu-style practices, Williamson makes a convincing case that Hindu-inspired meditation movements are distinct from both immigrant Hinduism and other forms of Asian-influenced or “New Age” groups.

A timely work of contemporary magical realism, about a world plagued by violence, and the girl called upon to be a hero. When terrorists bomb Disney World, seventeen-year-old Iris Spero is as horrified as anyone else. Then a stranger shows up on her stoop in Brooklyn, revealing a secret about the mysterious circumstances surrounding Iris’s birth, and throwing her entire identity into question. Everything she thought she knew about her parents, and about herself, is a lie. Suddenly, the press is confronting Iris with the wild notion that she might be “special.” More than just special: she could be the miracle the world now so desperately needs. Families all across the grieving nation are pinning their hopes on Iris like she is some kind of saint or savior. She’s no longer sure whom she can trust—except for Zane, a homeless boy who long ago abandoned any kind of hope. She knows she can’t possibly be the glorified person everyone wants her to be… but she also can’t go back to being safe and anonymous. When nobody knows her but they all want a piece of her, who is Iris Spero now? And how can she—one teenage girl—possibly heal a broken world?

This book describes concepts of leadership that range from self-leadership and transactional and transformational leadership to transcendental leadership and the intersection of self, group, and organizational leadership. It discusses the paradox of the dual role of leader and follower.