Artful Leadership

It is far too common for good leaders to become tired from endless activities, deadlines, and expectations, all at risk of losing themselves in the process. This book arrives as a lifeline weaving together artistic approaches, mindful practices, and ecological wisdom. Contributors share perspectives and practices not found in the traditional leadership literature on why and how leaders should and can take time to be still to reorient their souls. Practical exercises move beyond theory to immediate application, practices to help you develop presence, spark imagination, and rediscover joy in your leadership role. The book invites leaders to better understand and attend to their humanity, which as the authors demonstrate, is core to good leadership. -- John R. Shoup, PhD, Professor, Leadership Studies, Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business, California Baptist University Artful Leadership Endorsements

The focus on theoretical frameworks, evolving paradigms, and practical strategies within leadership literature often neglects the less tangible elements of humanity within the individual and community that serve as the foundation for leadership practice. Artful Leadership: Retreat, Recenter, Rewild employs a holistic leadership approach by inviting leaders to consider the importance of art and creativity in their own lives and experiences. Artful Leadership effectively explores this topic through diverse perspectives and modalities of expression, inviting the reader to consider how creativity and the interconnectedness of our world might transform their lives and leadership. Challenging and inspiring, this work enhances the conversation surrounding what it means to be a leader.

-- Christopher B. Beard, PhD, Director - EdD in Organizational Leadership, Abilene Christian University

As the world we live in seems to be more chaotic and unpredictable by the day, we need a voice that calls us to a more beautiful way amid the ugliness. In Artful Leadership, Dr. Alicia D. Crumpton has given us a diversity of voices which invite us, both in theory and practice, on a journey toward an imaginative, courageous, and holistic way of living and leading in a world that is not as it was intended to be. May we heed the call.

-- Mark Nelson, Executive Director, Three Rivers Collaborative

Alicia D. Crumpton always does thoughtful, unique work with credible scholarship. Her unfailing judgment has provided the field of leadership studies with valuable perspectives, especially at the confluence of spirituality and art. This volume gathers overdue voices on overdue themes, importing into the literature more of the humanities and the creative arts. Leadership is ultimately a performance and thus more of an art than science. Scholars will read in these pages more of what is possible as we study this phenomenon, and practitioners can reimagine their calling, lifting them from the quotidian into the truly visionary. And while they are at it, maybe both groups can recover a neglected sense of fun. 

-- Nathan Harter, Christopher Newport University (emeritus)

Artful Leadership: Retreat, Recenter, Rewild is a breathtakingly original and deeply needed contribution to the field of leadership studies. Edited by scholar, creative, and entrepreneur Alicia D. Crumpton, this interdisciplinary volume invites readers into a transformative journey—one that is not merely intellectual, but spiritual, creative, and embodied. In a world weary from disconnection, crisis, and over-reliance on mechanistic models of leadership, this book offers a healing alternative rooted in imagination, wholeness, and interconnection.

Divided into three thematic movements—Retreat, Recenter, Rewild—the book offers a graceful unfolding of leadership as a sacred practice. “Retreat” invites leaders to turn inward, to cultivate silence and solitude as necessary conditions for wisdom. “Recenter” explores how identity, creativity, and values come into alignment, while “Rewild” dares us to recover our place within the larger ecology of life. Each chapter is accompanied by somatic, creative, and reflective practices that help readers integrate insights into lived experience.

Crumpton has assembled a remarkable group of contributors—scholars, poets, artists, spiritual directors, and educators—each bringing a unique lens to the question of what it means to lead in these uncertain times. From Charlotte Hardie’s exploration of equine relationality to Julian Norris’s systems leadership lessons drawn from wolves, the essays speak not just to the mind, but to the soul. Brendan Ellis Williams’ closing chapter, a philosophical and spiritual tour de force, reframes leadership as a metaphysical act of rewilding—one that calls us back to relationality, wonder, and the sacredness of all being.

This book is not leadership theory as usual. It challenges readers to move beyond linear thinking, transactional strategies, and individualistic paradigms. It dares us to approach leadership as art, as poetry, as spiritual practice. Leaders are encouraged to embrace creativity, silence, awe, improvisation, narrative ethics, and the ecological self—not as optional extras, but as essential dimensions of leading well.

What makes Artful Leadership truly remarkable is its capacity to hold both depth and accessibility. The tone is invitational, not dogmatic. The practices are adaptable, not prescriptive. And the language throughout is infused with poetic clarity and theological resonance. Crumpton has curated not only a book, but a space—a sanctuary for reflection and renewal.

In a time when many are asking what leadership can look like on the other side of exhaustion and disillusionment, Artful Leadership provides a compelling vision. It reminds us that leading artfully is not about perfection or control, but about presence, authenticity, and deep participation in the unfolding story of life.

I wholeheartedly commend this book to leaders, educators, spiritual guides, and culture-shapers of all kinds. It is a gift, a guide, and a gentle revolution. If you are ready to lead not just more effectively, but more soulfully, let this book be your companion.

I highly recommend it.

-- Gary David Stratton, PhD, Author of The Jesus Climb: Journeying from Student to Disciple. University Professor of Spiritual Formation and Cultural Leadership, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Johnson University

Artful Leadership: Retreat, Recenter, Rewild is a must for everyone who cares about how the world should work — and wants to know why it does not. Rightly positioning leadership as an art, the book’s three parts revision leaders as authentic, wise, compassionate, collaborative, spiritual, ecological, integrative, and transformational. Above all, Artful Leadership means relinquishing the ego of Western modernity and recovering the arts of being and knowing through creativity and imagination. In a brilliant exposition, the artful leader retreats to quest for inner truthfulness, recenters collectively through collaboration and the sacred, and rewilds so that human beings can come home to nature. This book is a supremely practical “how to” with a vivid and accessible “why to.” It will guide readers and leaders into the art of engaged, mindful, creative life. Artful Leadership demonstrates that humans find joy through the art of visioning the world as it ought to be.

-- Susan Rowland, Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute

The ensemble of thinkers, creators, and leaders featured in Artful Leadership reveal the surprising affinities between leadership, the arts and humanities, and creative expression. We are only surprised because our ideas (and experiences) of leadership so often center on hierarchies, unquestioned assumptions, competition, and control rather than on collaboration, curiosity, creativity, and spontaneity. Each essay in this book illuminates, in its own way, the oftentimes ignored, yet vital role of an “aesthetic sensibility” or a “sincere cultural attunement” for cultivating genuinely innovative, effective–and most importantly, moral leadership. In fact, the entire notion of “leadership” is examined and shown to be related in many ways to acts of creative expression; at their best, both are offerings, acts of service that transform our world.

-- Mary Antonia Wood, PhD, Chair, MA Depth Psychology and Creativity Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA. Author of The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create