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Announcing My New Book for Changemakers
Heart-centered tools for social change leaders to build their well of courage, harness momentum, and power up their leadership
In the face of complex challenges, capable leaders need more than a simple box of leadership tools. They need an internal system of leadership, a tested operating system to help them navigate successfully through forces of oppression, while staying connected to their purpose, values, and vision.
In Choosing to Lead Against the Current, award-winning movement leader, social change strategist, and executive director Eveline Shen shares her Courageous Operating System, a revolutionary system designed to help positive transformation leaders cultivate their power, sustain themselves both mentally and physically, and create lasting conditions for success.
With inspiring stories and case-studies drawn from her own experiences, as well as, from her work with other change leaders, topics include how to:
- Turn encounters with adversity into sources of strength
- Redefine success on one’s own terms
- Build creative momentum against forces of oppression
- Transform failures into progress
- Prioritize short and long-term self-care
Shen’s system has been taught to leaders in over 200 organizations across the U.S. and global South. It’s holistic in nature, with different elements designed to work as one. Choosing to Lead Against the Current takes readers through the system’s components, with exercises at the end of each chapter to help integrate them into any leadership style.
Shen’s offering teaches anyone leading against the current how to harness their full
leadership power to build a future that values the liberation of all people and life on this planet.
This is the blueprint we need to lead with audacity, transform oppression into power, and ignite a future rooted in collective liberation.
Lateefah Simon, US Congress member and MacArthur Genius Fellow
This is an important and accessible resource that new and experienced changemakers can use to strengthen their own leadership and their organizations.
Lourdes A. Rivera, President, Pregnancy Justice
Shen masterfully weaves wisdom from her decades of experience as a social change leader with inspiring stories and actionable practices, creating a must-read resource for those committed to leading with purpose.
Dimple Abichandani, Philanthropic Advisor and Author of A New Era of Philanthropy
This book encourages us to discover and honor the unique gifts we each bring to our leadership, as we make the change we so urgently need in this moment. This book is for any leader working to envision a better world.
Heather McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
This book centers the humanity of those we serve, those we work alongside, and ourselves in decision-making and response to conflict, threats, and obstacles. This book demonstrates that leading with integrity can get us to better outcomes that do not compromise our commitment to liberation. I look forward to sharing this book with other leaders of color who are navigating their leadership while making radical change in an unjust world.”
Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director, Feminist Center, Atlanta Georgia
Eveline is one of the rare leaders in our movement who has achieved tremendous success in bringing people together to create structural change while embracing the challenges that often hold us back. Her commitment to addressing these difficulties has made our movements stronger and more adaptive. I am deeply grateful that her practice and approach are now accessible to so many others through this inspiring and practical guide.
Taj James, Founder of the Movement Strategy Center and Full Spectrum Capital
Hi, I’m Eveline Shen.
I work with women, non-binary and trans leaders of color to fuel their superpowers and become the vibrant, authentic, and bold leaders they are meant to be, using the Courageous Operating System.
Because in these dangerous political times, connecting to your courage in a systematic way is the most effective means of stepping into your full power and amplifying your leadership.
We do that through Courageous Operating System coaching and experiential workshops that bring together leaders from across the country who are hungry to grow and build together.
Ready to learn how to lead more courageously? Click here to get started!
Keep reading to learn more about Eveline’s approach and impact, and the framework she created just for leaders like you.
Ev has been a lifeline for me — to able to call her up and say ‘I’m struggling.’ She is a gracious, amazing powerful, grounded, experienced, humble, compassionate leader who holds a vision of what we can all become with the ability to lay the foundational stones to help us get there. She brings that calming fierceness to everything that is reproductive justice, women, families LGBTQA … a wholeness of community.
Corrine Sanchez, Executive Director, Tewa Women United
Ev is a mentor, leader, educator, movement builder, and somebody who negotiates movement spaces with grace and kindness. I’m proud to have been under her tutelage in my formative years.
Shanelle Mathews, Communications Director, Movement for Black Lives
The Courageous Operating System
I designed the COS out of love for the leaders who are doing the hard work day in and day out, making the kind of change our communities need. I have experienced the daily doses of racism, sexism, and homophobia as well as the isolation, the never ending sprint and self doubt that can undermine our leadership.
This system helps leaders connect to their courage, stay true to their purpose and values, and leverage their unique set of strengths as they step into their power and amplify their impact. The Courageous Operating System helps leaders navigate through challenging situations and achieve a meaningful, sustainable, and impactful life while making deep change on the individual, community and movement levels.
Ev’s coaching…helped me prepare to lead my organization, and not just lead it in an ‘I am responsible’ way, but in an ‘I know we can do it differently’ way. This ultimately led to a very different board that was majority women of color, having been majority white-led and it provided critical support for me to believe in myself and know that I have a right to take up that space.
Wendy Chun Hoon, Director of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor
Signature Trainings
Connecting to Your Leadership
Eveline’s customized interactive virtual workshops are designed to help leaders connect to their courage and purpose while building community. These unique trainings incorporate small group discussions, mind-body practice, and music.
Stepping Into Power
In 2014, Eveline and Forward Together started Stepping Into Power for BIWOC, non-binary and trans leaders of color in the Reproductive and Social Justice Movements. Since then, she has trained hundreds of social change leaders across the country and the Global South.
Contact us to learn more about our signature trainings!
It’s a hard time in this world and its was so helpful to have this space that Ev created. Ev’s facilitation and trainings are so amazing! We were able to build in a deep way with other folks and deepen our understanding of leadership, purpose, and how to deal with conflict. Its hard to find a space like this in philanthropy. I had many aha moments and am transformed by this experience!
Kiyomi Fujikawa, Co-Director, Third Wave Foundation
She has always taught me to think about not just the present, but the long term, and to envision what is possible, to dream about what is possible for our communities.
Rocio Cordoba, Executive Director, Funders For Reproductive Equity
About Eveline
Eveline Shen is an award-winning leader and principal at Leading Courageously where she supports BIPOC women, trans and non-binary leaders to step into their power. She recently left Forward Together, where she was the Executive for 22 years. Since Eveline’s leadership began in 1999, Forward Together has become widely recognized for its innovative leadership role in the Reproductive Justice Movement. Eveline has created numerous experiential trainings which has engaged hundreds of BIPOC leaders domestically and globally. She has a forthcoming book on the Courageous Operating System, a framework she developed to help leaders of color face challenging situations with courage, confidence and strength.
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