In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) With Israel Galindo

Hello, everyone – and welcome to Books Worth Reading, conversations with Columbia faculty and friends who have authored books you should have on your shelves!  I’m joined today by Israel Galindo; he has served as a pastor, a principal, a chaplain, a dean, and, most recently, as associate dean for lifelong learning here at Columbia.  His most recent book, and the one we are discussing today, is called The Virtuous Leader:  Lessons from the Stoics and Bowen Systems Theory.  It was named the 2026 Book of the Year by Healthy Congregations. If you exercise leadership in any organization, you’re going to want this on your shelf next to all the other volumes you might have and will probably find yourself reaching for it more frequently than the others.  If you’re new to Bowen Family Systems Theory and Stoicism, it’s a great primer.   

Welcome, Israel!  It’s great to have you here.  Let’s begin by assuming that not everyone is familiar with Bowen Theory and Stoicism.  Can you give us a couple of sentences to describe the theories and how they illuminate and support each other? 

Israel:  You know, for me, both Stoicism and Bowen Theory help me answer the question, “How do I want to live my life?”  It’s much more overt in Stoicism than Bowen theory, but both theories help answer that question.  We live our lives in relationship to other people and within relationship systems.  Many of us wind up in some leadership capacity, and that brings a whole different set of questions in terms of “What kind of leader do I want to be?” or, simply, “How do I survive being a leader in this context?” 

For me, the deeper questions are about how I want to live my life and what the guiding principles and values are.  How do I interpret life and my experiences in the context and the relationships I’m in?   

Stoicism focuses on how to manage ourselves, control our emotions, and approach life and its challenges.  Bowen’s theory grounds itself in the natural sciences to understand the dynamics that govern all of human life and relationships.  Stoicism offers an ethical framework that is very helpful when discussing Bowen theory and its cornerstone concept, the differentiation of self.  One key ingredient in [differentiation] is a clearly articulated set of values and principles that guide your life and behavior.  And Stoicism gives us that right from the get-go. …Stoicism has a lot of wisdom in terms of leadership and self-development and how to be much more intentional in your own functioning in relationships with other people in the systems you are in and how to deal with challenges. 

Missed this conversation? Join the next one here!