Intelligent Courage

A new book for natural resource professionals wishing to create careers

of meaning, purpose, and conservation accomplishment.

Natural Resource Careers

That Make a Difference

by Michael Fraidenburg

"This is a must-read book for those aspiring to a career in public sector, natural resource management. It is the distillation of hundreds of years of experience in management mastery, a mastery that comes only from ‘time on the ground,’ . . . This book has captured the essence of what it takes to create and maintain an ethical and socially responsible public service career in natural resource management." - From the Foreword by Jeff DeBonis

"I am highly recommending this great book to my friends and students!"

- Estella B. Leopold

This book will interest professionals who work with wildlife, forestry, fisheries, water, range lands, parks, and other natural resource conservation and environmental stewardship issues.

Why do some natural resource professionals get more done than others?

How do you handle the tough spots in a career?

Intelligent Courage analyzes the careers of eight distinguished professionals to answer these and other important career management questions.

"A good biologist picks up a lot of street smarts during a career."

This is how my colleagues describe a successful professional. Careers are learning experiences. This rich and diverse learning is not available as a book for students and professionals. Intelligent Courage closes this gap. It is a book about (and for) effective natural resource professionals.

"We believe that this will be a very important book that will help young professionals prepare for and effectively navigate through their careers."

- Western Division

American Fisheries Society

Audience:

For Students-- Intelligent Courage encourages students to anticipate their work environment.

For employed professionals-- Intelligent Courage is a catalyst for directing careers toward greater effectiveness.

For professors-- Intelligent Courage is like inviting eight pros to give guest lectures about what they learned in their career that they were not taught in college.

Approach:

The backbone of Intelligent Courage is in-depth interviews of seasoned professionals who analyze their careers as learning experiences. By introducing readers to these distinguished professionals Intelligent Courage accelerates learning of ‘street smarts.’

Why Intelligent Courage?

Above all, Intelligent Courage is an accessible and practical book presenting wisdom and workable ideas for succeeding in the real-world work environment of natural resource professionals.

How is Intelligent Courage different?

Intelligent Courage focuses on the professional's personal career experience. It identifies difficult career situations encountered by professionals and provides advice from the people who lived these work experiences. Intelligent Courage differs from business administration books because the narrators are public-sector managers whose working environment is radically different from that of the private sector (e.g., inability to exclude customers, public access to decisions, competing objectives instead of a single profit motive, the economics of public goods, oversight by legislative bodies). It goes beyond the telling of 'war stories' by identifying core dilemmas professionals encounter and by offering prescriptive advice.