In a recent Garrison Institute Fellowship Forum, leadership scholar Dr. Max Klau joined Fellowship Director Dr. Angel Acosta to explore what it means to lead with wholeness in a time of deep division. Their conversation moved from personal practice to organizational culture and to the wider civic sphere, making a simple but timely case: inner work is public work.
Klau offered a clear definition that anchors the whole inquiry:
“Courageous wholeness is a practice of owning our light, confronting our shadow, and serving others.”
From years building scalable leadership development at City Year and the New Politics Leadership Academy, Klau has seen a pattern repeat. When leaders avoid difficult inner material—anger, fear, shame, the impulse to control—those dynamics reappear in teams and institutions. The result is fragmentation, burnout, and polarization. Wholeness work does not remove conflict. It gives people the capacity to meet conflict honestly and act with integrity.
“The world around us is a reflection of the world within us. When we shift our way of being, we start calling forth a different world.”
To make this perspective practical, Klau shared a four-part view of development: culture and values, what we do, what we know, and who we are. Several related programs focus on knowledge and action. Courageous wholeness cultivates the inner life that guides both, then invites people to translate that growth into service.
The Forum also introduced Klau’s Center for Courageous Wholeness, which supports individuals and organizations with workshops, community gatherings, and resources. His forthcoming book, Developing Servant Leaders at Scale: How to Do It and Why It Matters, outlines a tested path for weaving inner development into mission-driven work without losing momentum or accountability.
This session is part of the Garrison Institute Fellowship Forum series, which brings together contemplative changemakers to explore the intersection of spirituality, justice, leadership, and social transformation.
Keep exploring: Watch the conversation and subscribe to the Garrison Institute newsletter for future dialogues on contemplative changemakers, leadership, and civic renewal.
