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Dain Dunston
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Being Essential: Seven Questions for Living and Leading with Radical Self-Awareness Paperback – March 8, 2022

by Dain Dunston (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    196 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Disruption Books
  4. Publication date
    March 8, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1633310590
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1633310599
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential 9781633310599

Being Essential

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Disruption Books (March 8, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 196 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1633310590
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1633310599
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 29 ratings

About the author

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Dain Dunston

Dain Dunston

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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 Wimberley, Texas.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
29 global ratings
It's a gem!
5 Stars
It's a gem!
I bracketed this past weekend so I could finally read (and digest) Dain Dunston's new book. I love Dain's writing but I wasn't prepared for what was inside these covers.This book is more than a gem.Dain takes the reader on a deeply felt, immersive journey into his own psyche - his story - as he serves himself up to answer each of the questions essential to, well, Being Essential. What better gift can an author provide than to take his readers down a delightful wormhole of self-discovery by exploring his own questions for self-discovery ...and - quite important to me - all without a whiff of narcissism.The questions are critical for anyone who makes a living as an executive coach, and if you're doing this work, that's reason enough to get the book and devour it. But beyond professional development, it's a joy to read and savor afterward. I found myself staring at some quotes I had never heard read or heard before, taking time to take them in. I don't do that, normally.I found myself pulling out a pad of paper and doodling my own responses to some of the questions as I was reading. I don't do that kind of thing.Days after reading Being Essential, I continued to think about the questions and the deeper and richer rationales for why the questions were being asked. Dain does this kind of thing.It's a weekend read but I know I'll be reading it again. And again.This is a book for those who want to explore 'where they are,' and where they need to go, and for those professionals helping the rest of us figure this out.
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Top reviews from the United States

Mark Lipton
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a gem!
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
I bracketed this past weekend so I could finally read (and digest) Dain Dunston's new book. I love Dain's writing but I wasn't prepared for what was inside these covers.
This book is more than a gem.
Dain takes the reader on a deeply felt, immersive journey into his own psyche - his story - as he serves himself up to answer each of the questions essential to, well, Being Essential. What better gift can an author provide than to take his readers down a delightful wormhole of self-discovery by exploring his own questions for self-discovery ...and - quite important to me - all without a whiff of narcissism.
The questions are critical for anyone who makes a living as an executive coach, and if you're doing this work, that's reason enough to get the book and devour it. But beyond professional development, it's a joy to read and savor afterward. I found myself staring at some quotes I had never heard read or heard before, taking time to take them in. I don't do that, normally.
I found myself pulling out a pad of paper and doodling my own responses to some of the questions as I was reading. I don't do that kind of thing.
Days after reading Being Essential, I continued to think about the questions and the deeper and richer rationales for why the questions were being asked. Dain does this kind of thing.
It's a weekend read but I know I'll be reading it again. And again.

This is a book for those who want to explore 'where they are,' and where they need to go, and for those professionals helping the rest of us figure this out.
Customer image
Mark Lipton
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a gem!
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2022
I bracketed this past weekend so I could finally read (and digest) Dain Dunston's new book. I love Dain's writing but I wasn't prepared for what was inside these covers.
This book is more than a gem.
Dain takes the reader on a deeply felt, immersive journey into his own psyche - his story - as he serves himself up to answer each of the questions essential to, well, Being Essential. What better gift can an author provide than to take his readers down a delightful wormhole of self-discovery by exploring his own questions for self-discovery ...and - quite important to me - all without a whiff of narcissism.
The questions are critical for anyone who makes a living as an executive coach, and if you're doing this work, that's reason enough to get the book and devour it. But beyond professional development, it's a joy to read and savor afterward. I found myself staring at some quotes I had never heard read or heard before, taking time to take them in. I don't do that, normally.
I found myself pulling out a pad of paper and doodling my own responses to some of the questions as I was reading. I don't do that kind of thing.
Days after reading Being Essential, I continued to think about the questions and the deeper and richer rationales for why the questions were being asked. Dain does this kind of thing.
It's a weekend read but I know I'll be reading it again. And again.

This is a book for those who want to explore 'where they are,' and where they need to go, and for those professionals helping the rest of us figure this out.
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Andrew
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2023
Verified Purchase
I would have given this book 5 stars had there been more if a summary at the end tying everything together. It seemed to just stop. The authir dies a good job of summarizing at the end if each chapter but I had to read this book over a period if time and forgot some of the key points made abd had to go back and look at my notes. It would be nice to have a final book summary at the end.
One person found this helpful
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David Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars A simple book by a complicated writer, about how to live a more "essential" life.
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
Being Essential is not my kind of book. But its author is my kind of guy.

I don’t like self-help books, because they seek to offer simple solutions to life, which is endlessly complicated—and whose infinite mysteries are part of what make it worth living.

But this self-help book is the product of a complicated man—a writer, a counselor, a seeker—who has lived a complicated life, and repeatedly and with increasing frequency found ways to put himself in the right places at the right times, for the right reasons and in the right roles: where he becomes “essential” to a worthy endeavor or to a community or just to his own destiny.

If this is a self-help book, it’s a teeth-gnashing, confessional, relapsing and ever-struggling self-help book. It doesn’t provide answers, but tells you seven questions to pose to yourself, “for living and leading with radical self-awareness.” You must ask the questions not once, but over and over and over again. And you must answer, for yourself.

“There is and always will be a part of me deep down that thinks life is a struggle. And sometimes it is,” Dunston writes. “Being Essential is not a formula or a process. It’s a practice, a constant practice of calling yourself back to now, to this present moment, and checking on where your awareness is. Like any art, the more you practice it, the more beautiful it becomes.”

Clearly, Dunston has practiced his art as he has invented it, for his whole life—as a little boy, as a young man, as a speechwriter and corporate executive and executive coach, as a family man, as a friend.

Beautiful, indeed—and contagious, too.
One person found this helpful
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ServantofGod
3.0 out of 5 stars So so
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2024
To paraphrase pg173, Being Essential is a constant practice of calling yourself back to this present moment, and checking on where your awareness is. Ask yourself who you are when you are at your best. What does it feel like to be you at that moment? What if you could extend that moment to last your whole life? And what if you could be the kind of person who could lead others to live at their best? At work, at home, at any moment, Being Essential.

In case you feel for the above, you may give this philosophical book a try. Otherwise….

p.s. Below please find some favorite passages of mine fyi.
The superpower of metacognition (We can think about the fact that we are thinking) is being keenly conscious of the thoughts, intuitions, and feelings that arise when one faces a challenge. Pg33
One of the most beautiful images in movie history is the tango scene from “Scent of a woman”, because we know that Frank is a deeply lost man who has told us he may soon take his own life. But for the duration of a single song, with a woman he cannot see, on a dance floor he can only feel through the soles of his shoes, he moves with grace and conviction. Because at that moment, he knows where he is. Pg65
Pay attention to your attention. Pg66
To truly live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Pg114
The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself. Pg168
One person found this helpful
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Henry
5.0 out of 5 stars A map for the leadership our future needs
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book takes the position that “the best leaders are simply those who are the best humans.”

If you’re a leader, here you’ll find a practical set of tools to lead better. If you’re a human, you’ll be a better, happier, more fully-realised human after reading.

(If you’re not a human, this book is even more important for you. When the bots take over, we’ll all be better off if they’re familiar with the seven questions in these pages.)

The author has blended a life’s worth of philosophical and spiritual learning with his own lessons from the C-suite and the successes and failures there. The result is a radically authentic guide to the one thing every leader needs most—inner understanding.

Being Essential is a quick read…except that you’ll want to read it again, and again, and again.
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Teri Dryden
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressed Reader
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2022
Dain Dunston’s book is an essential handbook for leaders, true; but it is also a powerful guidebook for anyone who wants to remove the masks they unconsciously wear and become their Essential Self. Being Essential gave me valuable, practical tools for leveling with myself and navigating the world from a place of strength and honesty.
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Top reviews from other countries

Carmen Gu
5.0 out of 5 stars Good quality
Reviewed in Canada on December 23, 2022
Verified Purchase
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