From Ashes to Influence: Leadership Forged by Fire and Faith

What happens when the very traits that helped you survive are quietly shaping the leader you’ve become?In From Ashes to Influence, senior executive leader and Chief People Officer Stacy Winsett delivers a rare and unflinching memoir about what it truly costs to lead — and what it demands of you to lead with integrity when the stakes are highest.Drawing from decades of executive experience across Fortune 500 companies — including American Airlines, Herc Rentals, Weir Oil & Gas, Gates Corporation, Orica and RATP Dev — Stacy traces the invisible thread between early adversity and the boardroom. She shows how the survival skills we develop in crisis — vigilance, emotional control, hyper-responsibility, speed — don’t disappear when the danger does. They follow us into the C-suite, into labor negotiations, into moments where silence becomes complicity.This is not a book about endurance. It is a book about stewardship — the disciplined, ethical use of authority in service of people, truth, and lasting impact. With trauma-informed clarity and faith-rooted wisdom, Stacy challenges leaders to examine not just what they have overcome, but what they are now responsible for becoming.In these pages, you will discover:How adversity and trauma silently shape leadership behavior — and how to reclaim intentional authorityWhy resilience alone is not enough — and what moves leaders from endurance to ethical influenceThe cost of silence in organizations — and the moral courage required to break itHow faith, boundaries, and self-awareness can become the foundation of sustainable, servant leadership“I could not put this book down. From Ashes to Influence is raw, gripping, and ultimately empowering. It is the kind of story that changes how you see your own life and leadership.”— Valerie M. Grubb, Leadership Keynote Speaker & Executive CoachWhether you lead a team of five or an organization of fifty thousand, From Ashes to Influence will challenge you to lead not from what you have survived, but from who you are committed to becoming. Read more