Choosing to Lead Against the Current: The Courageous Operating System for Changemakers--Empowering Leaders to Transform the World with Integrity, Impa

Heart-centered tools for social change leaders to foster courage, keep momentum, and manage burnout

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.

Author: Eveline Shen
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 08/05/2025
Pages: 330
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
ISBN: 9798889842118

About the Author
Eveline Shen has worked with hundreds of leaders of color from over forty states. In 2010, Shen launched the Strong Families Initiative, galvanizing over 200 organizations to change the way people think, feel, and act in support of families. In 2016, Shen created Stepping Into Power, a movement-wide fellowship, which brought hundreds of leaders across the country to find and hone their courageous leadership. She has also created numerous other trainings and seminars on the Courageous Operating System for youth activists (ages 16-20), leaders in philanthropy (trustees, CEOs, and senior directors), women of color in public office, and BIPOC mental health professionals (therapist, educators, and social workers). Shen was awarded the 2015 San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award, and the Lani Shaw Award for Courage and Compassion in the Pursuit of Reproductive Justice by the Funders for Reproductive Equity in 2017.