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Leading Good Schools to Greatness
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Leading Good Schools to Greatness
Mastering What Great Principals Do Well

Foreword by George Manthey


Other Titles in:
Leadership | School Management

September 2010 | 208 pages | Corwin

"This book is right on target with its thought-provoking ideas and concepts on the characteristics of successful educational leaders."
—Thomas F. Leahy, Consultant, Executive Search Department, Illinois Association of School Boards

"Our best teachers obtain great results by building positive relationships with their students. Gray and Streshly show how our best principals do the same thing and how these behaviors can be learned and practiced."
—Kevin Singer, Superintendent, Topeka Public Schools, KS

Build your capacity to lead your school to greatness!

Great leaders are made, not born. Written by the authors of From Good Schools to Great Schools, this sequel shows how great school leaders can be developed and how leaders can acquire the powerful personal leadership characteristics that the best administrators use to lead their schools to greatness.

Based on sound strategies and the work of Jim Collins, Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly tackle how to build relationships, communicate effectively, exercise your personal will with humility, face brutal facts, get faculty on board, and build a school culture of self-discipline. Chapters include:

  • Case studies that provide an ongoing context for professional learning
  • Self-assessments that reveal your inherent leadership dispositions
  • Interviews and tips from exceptional principals in the field
  • Strategies for developing specific leadership qualities
  • Application exercises that reinforce how to put the strategies into action
  • Reflection activities that encourage professional growth

Appropriate for both individual and group professional development, Leading Good Schools to Greatness reveals how leadership skills can be learned and used to take your school to the next level.


 
List of Figures and Tables
 
Foreword by George Manthey
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. The Skills for Leading Good Schools to Greatness Can Be Learned
Applying Good to Great Research to School Principals

 
Conversations With Highly Successful Principals

 
Administrator Preparation Program Reform

 
Reflection

 
 
2. First, Build Relationships
Reflection

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
A Behavior Different From That of Effective Private Sector Executives

 
The Three Key Elements Needed to Build Relationships

 
Constructing Your Personal Profile of a Highly Effective Principal

 
Part I: Building Trust

 
Part II: Engaging in Effective Interpersonal Communication

 
Part III: Encouraging Constructive Conflict Around Ideas

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
3. How to Exercise Your Professional Will With Humility
Reflection

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
Research on the Risks of Charismatic Leadership For Schools

 
Distinguishing Personal Humility Is Not So Easy

 
What Highly Successful Principals Say Conveying a Duality of Professional Will and Personal Humility

 
Strategies for Exhibiting Professional Will While Remaining Humble

 
Practical Application of Strategies for Exhibiting a Duality of Professional Will and Personal Humility

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
4. How to Face the Brutal Facts…Then Do Something about Them
Reflection

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
The Research on Confronting the Brutal Facts and Unwavering Resolve

 
What Highly Successful Principals Say About Confronting the Brutal Facts

 
Strategies for Confronting the Brutal Facts and Then Doing Something About Them

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
5. How to Get the Right Faculty on Board
Reflection

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
The Research on Getting the Right People

 
What the Right Place for the Right People Is

 
The Wrong People for the School

 
What Highly Successful Principals Say about Getting the Right People

 
Strategies for Getting (and Keeping) the Right People

 
Practical Application of Strategies for Getting the Right Faculty on Board

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
6. How to Find and Promote the Hedgehog Concept in Your School
Reflection

 
Educators Differ from CEOs

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
Research on the Hedgehog Concept

 
Highly Successful Principals Exhibit the Hedgehog Concept

 
Strategies for Understanding and Executing the Hedgehog Concept in Schools

 
One School’s Process for Developing New Mission and Vision Statements

 
Practical Application of Strategies for Finding and Promoting the Hedgehog Concept

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
7. How to Build a School-Wide Culture of Self-Discipline
Reflection

 
Assess Your Leadership Capacity

 
The Research on a Culture of Self-Discipline

 
What Highly Successful Principals Do to Build a School-Wide Culture of Self-Discipline

 
Practical Application of Strategies for Building a Culture of Self-Discipline

 
Ask an Effective Principal

 
Reflection

 
 
8. The Road Ahead
Research on Leadership Preparation

 
What to Look for in a Principal Preparation Program

 
Tips to Help New Principals Succeed

 
A Final Word

 
 
Resource A: Research Methodology
 
Resource B: Interview Participant Selection
 
Resource C: Principal Interview Questions Derived From Collins’ (2001) CEO Interview Questions and Demographic Questionnaire
 
References
 
Suggested Readings
 
Index

"Our best teachers obtain great results by building positive relationships with their students. Gray and Streshly show how our best principals do the same thing and how these behaviors can be learned and practiced."

Kevin Singer, Superintendent
Topeka Public Schools, KS

“This book synthesizes the research and provides activities and reflections that guide leaders to master the art of leading good schools to greatness in a practical, thoughtful way.”

Sandra Harris, Professor, Lamar University
Author, Learning From the Best

"This book is right on target with its thought-provoking ideas and concepts on the characteristics of successful educational leaders. It would have been so helpful for me to have this tool when I began working in educational leadership 37 years ago.”

Thomas F. Leahy, Consultant, Executive Search Department
Illinois Association of School Boards

"This book is a must-read for anyone who would like to take the necessary steps to improve their schools, instructional practices, and skill in leadership."

Robyn Fette
OAESA Principal Navigator magazine, Winter 2011
Key features
Real school scenarios are presented. As the reader moves to focusing on each characteristic and behavior of effective school leadership, new problems and challenges are presented as the scenarios continue to unfold. A variety of strategies and activities will be introduced to foster principal leadership that promotes positive shared results.

Purchasing options

For large school/district orders, volume discounts, availability and shipping times contact customer service at 800-233-9936
or order@corwin.com.

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ISBN: 9781412979788
CAD$ 58.95

For large school/district orders, volume discounts, availability and shipping times contact customer service at 800-233-9936
or order@corwin.com.

For instructors

This book is not available as an inspection copy. For more information contact your local sales representative.

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