Being Essential: Seven Questions for Living and Leading with Radical Self-Awareness

by Dain Dunston

Overview

Being Essential presents the seven questions that will help any leader discover an authentic path to the true self and master a virtuous cycle of self-awareness that fosters purpose, value, and joy at work and in life.

Leaders often know what they need to do, but don’t have a clue who they need to be. Without a true essence of self, their leadership can feel void of purpose and confidence, affecting both teams and stakeholders. But when leaders discover their essential selves—who they are at their cores and why they show up—it enables them to reach a state of “radical self-awareness,” a game-changing skill that unlocks a more effective, commanding, agile approach to leadership.

For more than thirty years Dain Dunston has been coaching top executives to find the essence of their personal and professional journeys. Now readers can learn the holistic method he uses to calibrate leaders’ minds for radical self-awareness and help them achieve more satisfying professional experiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633310599
Publisher:	Disruption Books
Publication date:	03/08/2022
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Dain Dunston has spent thirty years as an advisor and coach to leaders, helping them frame the foundation of their personal and professional journeys. He is a founding partner of Reservoir LLC, a coalition of executive coaches, and is a frequent speaker on leadership, culture, and coaching topics. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Looking for Moments of Grace

QUESTION 1: Where Are You?

QUESTION 2: Why Are You Here?

QUESTION 3: Who Are You Being?

QUESTION 4: What Do You Want?

QUESTION 5: What Wants to Happen?

QUESTION 6: What Don't I Know?

QUESTION 7: How Does This Feel?

CONCLUSION: The Practice of Essential Being

Editorial Reviews

"Dunston encapsulates his corporate coaching practice with a concise guide to becoming a more effective leader by understanding oneself better…A persuasive business-oriented case for the benefits of greater self-awareness."
—Kirkus Reviews


"If Malcolm Gladwell and Carl Jung had a baby, it would be Dain Dunston. This book took me on a profound journey of self-discovery and personal insight."
—Vince Poscente, New York Times bestselling author of The Earthquake


“This is a powerful and provocative guide for anyone wanting to live a bigger, richer, fuller life."
—Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, coauthors of NUTS!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success


"Avoiding management fads and corporate-speak, Dunston cuts to the heart of what it means to be an effective leader and a grounded person in today’s fast-changing world. I can think of no better companion for a personal leadership journey than this book.”
—Eric J. McNulty, coauthor of You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When it Matters Most and Associate Director, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard

From the Publisher

"If Malcolm Gladwell and Carl Jung had a baby, it would be Dain Dunston. This book took me on a profound journey of self-discovery and personal insight."
—Vince Poscente, New York Times bestselling author of The Earthquake

Vince Poscente

"This is a powerful and provocative guide for anyone wanting to live a bigger, richer, fuller life."
—Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, coauthors of NUTS!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success

Kevin and Jackie Freiberg

"Avoiding management fads and corporate-speak, Dunston cuts to the heart of what it means to be an effective leader and a grounded person in today’s fast-changing world. I can think of no better companion for a personal leadership journey than this book.”
—Eric J. McNulty, coauthor of You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When it Matters Most and Associate Director, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard

Eric J. McNulty

2022-03-04
A holistic approach to developing leadership abilities through self-knowledge.

Executive coach and novelist Dunston encapsulates his corporate coaching practice with a concise guide to becoming a more effective leader by understanding oneself better. The use of the term essential, in this case, refers to identifying and understanding the authentic essence of one’s identity. The book explores what it means to be a leader, investigates the opposing concepts of the “Synthetic Self” and the “Essential Self,” and instructs readers on recognizing their “Essential Child” (having “an experience of being totally present in the moment”). He also presents a series of seven questions, including “Why are you here?” and “What don’t you know?” which are intended to guide readers through the process of understanding themselves, their relationship to the world, and the extent of their knowledge. The book draws heavily on existing work regarding mindfulness, positive psychology, and metaphysics, and the author effectively synthesizes an extensive body of research. Dunston, a former corporate speechwriter, knows how to present ideas in a compelling way, and his prose is straightforward, highly readable, and seasoned with occasional plays on words: “Navel gazing, although related to the general area of the stomach, does not fill us up.” The book’s structure is easy to follow, and one can easily consume the whole work in one sitting or simply refer to relevant sections as needed with no loss of comprehension. Dunston avoids making excessive claims about what one can accomplish through self-awareness (“Identifying that you want to go to medical school doesn't make you a doctor”), although he offers several stories of clients who found success by following his framework. By focusing on the practical benefits of self-knowledge, the book may also be of interest to readers who are generally skeptical of mindfulness literature. It also succeeds in making self-awareness seem, if not exactly easy, certainly achievable without overwhelming effort.

A persuasive business-oriented case for the benefits of greater self-awareness.

Kirkus Reviews