Leading Wholly — Nathan Murfield
New Book · September 2026
Leading
Wholly
The Case for Leading with Curiosity,
Courage, and Imperfection

Leadership feels harder than it should.

Not because you're missing a skill — but because leadership has been reduced to pieces that were never meant to stand alone. Leading Wholly shows how to integrate the dimensions that actually make leadership work: curiosity, courage, emotional intelligence, diverse perspectives, and team expertise. Because leadership isn't about mastering one trait. It's about bringing them together.

Ideapress Publishing · September 2026
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Leading Wholly by Nathan Murfield — book cover
The Core Idea Great leaders don't choose between traits.
They combine curiosity with discipline. Confidence with humility. Courage with empathy.

They don't toggle between modes — they lead as whole people. That's what makes leadership resilient instead of fragile. Adaptive instead of reactive. Human instead of mechanical.

The Framework
The Six Aspects
of Leading Wholly.
Leadership isn't one-dimensional — it's built on six integrated aspects.
i Embrace Diversity
Seek and include a wide range of identities, perspectives, and lived experiences — not as a policy, but as a leadership practice.
ii Reject Rigid Models
Let go of outdated ideals of power, perfection, and control. The leader you're supposed to be is often the leader least worth following.
iii Commit to Lifelong Learning
Stay curious, flexible, and open to growth no matter your title. The best leaders are learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls.
iv Lead with Emotional Intelligence
Practice empathy, self-awareness, and emotional agility — not as soft skills, but as the strategic foundation of effective leadership.
v Foster Team Expertise
Create space for others to lead, grow, and contribute their full capabilities. Your job is to make everyone around you better.
vi Bring Your Whole Self to Work
Lead with honesty, imperfection, and full-person presence. The parts of you that feel like liabilities are often your greatest leadership assets.
What Changes
When You Lead Wholly.
This isn't about adding more tools. It's about changing how you show up.

Leadership becomes less about performing — and more about integrating. The shift is subtle but the results are measurable: stronger teams, better decisions, and a leadership identity that holds up under pressure.

→
You stop trying to fit into a narrow definition of leadership
→
You make clearer decisions under pressure
→
You build teams rooted in trust and accountability
→
You adapt without losing direction
→
You lead with consistency, even in complexity
Inside the Book
What You'll Find.
Research, real-world experience, and practical application — not abstract ideas.
Real Scenarios
Stories from complex, high-stakes leadership environments — the places where leadership is actually tested, not the case studies where it always works out.
A Grounded Framework
The six-aspect framework built on lived leadership experience across multinational engineering teams, industrial operations, and executive roles.
Reflection Prompts
Questions that challenge how you think and lead — designed to be returned to as you grow, not answered once and set aside.
Practical Approaches
Concrete ways to build trust, resilience, and alignment in the real conditions of your leadership — not an idealized version of it.
What Early Readers Are Saying
The Response.
From leaders and scholars who've read the manuscript.

"Nathan Murfield's Leading Wholly offers a refreshing view of leadership grounded in curiosity, humility, and lifelong learning. His chapter on curiosity is particularly compelling, showing that the most effective leaders are not 'know-it-alls' but 'learn-it-alls' who ask better questions and stay open to growth. It powerfully reinforces a core truth: curiosity is the engine of coachability, keeping leaders receptive to feedback, learning, and continuous improvement."

KW
Kevin D. Wilde Author, Coachability: The Leadership Superpower · Executive Leadership Fellow, University of Minnesota

"Leading Wholly offers a refreshing and honest perspective on leadership. Drawing on insights from multiple disciplines, it reminds me that strength comes not from perfection, but from embracing the full human experience behind every decision."

PL
Pascale Lahoud, PhD Concept Creator and Host, My Journey من الأوّل · LBCI
About the Author
Nathan Murfield, PhD
Nathan Murfield, PhD

Nathan Murfield is an engineering executive, leadership strategist, and author of Leading Wholly.

Across industrial operations, engineering teams, and complex organizations, he has spent his career studying how leaders navigate pressure, uncertainty, and change. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, an MBA, and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

His work sits at the intersection of systems thinking and human behavior — grounded in real-world leadership experience and shaped by a central observation: leadership rarely fails because of a lack of expertise. It fails when leaders become disconnected from the human dimensions of their work.

Leading Wholly is the result of that insight.

Leadership isn't about becoming someone else. It's about becoming whole.
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