Growing Leaders Within

Growing Leaders Within: A Process toward Teacher Leadership will aid school administrators in the task of growing and empowering teacher leaders. The goal of growing teacher leaders is to grow a school culture of shared decision-making and collaborative leadership. It is through this transformation that teacher leaders help school administrators to create a laser focus on student success. The underpinnings of the book are based on academic research resulting in a seven-step process to growing teacher leaders, which is distinctive from other books about teacher leadership. Schools may have several teacher leader candidates, but it is the responsibility of the school administration to ensure that the right individuals are chosen to become part of the school’s leadership team. The role of teacher leadership can be diminished if the wrong individuals are selected. In response to this, the book offers school administrators a research-based, pragmatic growth process that ensures the right teachers are chosen to enter the leadership ranks at any school. Growing and empowering teachers to be leaders is now critical in all schools.

Cultivating Leaders from Within describes the power of respect, communication, listening, and feedback and shows how a powerful and meaningful working relationship can help develop an organizations greatest strengths. New knowledge workers are looking for leaders who can communicate with and listen to them, they want to know that they are not just a number but a partner who can be depended on. Building solid relationships can be a lasting determining factor that can propel the organization to the next level of greatness. Leaders must understand the connection between employee behavior and innovation. Innovation needs a performing culture, a culture that encourages employees to start building diverse and inclusive teams. For innovation to work and be meaningful, the leaders must be a coach and a developer. The leader must be a facilitator and a teacher, recognizing that employees are the most valuable resources. Employees must see themselves as part of the team and that their contributions are meaningful and valued by the leaders. This book looks at factors that can be implemented by the organization to help improve participation, engagement, and healing.

Successful leaders don't rest on the laurels. Leadership must be a living process, and life means growth. "Great Leaders Grow" shows leaders and aspiring leaders precisely which areas to focus on so they can remain effective throughout their lives.

One of America’s most accomplished landscaping professionals reveals his methods for cultivating greatness. Nowadays, greatness tends to be measured by shortest or longest times, highest heights, medals won, honors given. But as Aristotle taught us, greatness is what we can do every day, without recognition or reward, for the satisfaction that comes from meeting the challenge, creating a team, and overcoming the odds. Under Jeff McManus’s leadership as Director of Landscape Services, the Ole Miss campus has won professional awards—and been cited by Newsweek and Princeton Review as America’s “most beautiful campus.” In Growing Weeders into Leaders, he relates the principles behind his team’s success. It is an entertaining and thoughtful look into the hearts and the workday lives of ordinary people who tapped into their inner greatness in pursuit of a vision. Creating one of America’s most beautiful college campuses at the University of Mississippi did not happen overnight and, inside these pages, McManus describes the joys, the defeats, the brilliant problem-solving and the best laid plans that are proven worthless . . . until the bigger picture appears. This is the bigger picture as viewed from the ground level—taking you through the practical applications of empowering people to experience not only what it means to grow outstanding landscapes, but also to grow greatness in themselves and encourage it in others. “A straightforward approach to problem-solving and methods to grow individuals into a team.” —Susanne Woodell, CGM Historic Gardens Manager, Biltmore

From executives complaining that their teams don’t contribute ideas to employees giving up because their input isn’t valued--company culture is the culprit. Courageous Cultures provides a road map to build a high-performance, high-engagement culture around sharing ideas, solving problems, and rewarding contributions from all levels. Many leaders are convinced they have an open environment that encourages employees to speak up and are shocked when they learn that employees are holding back. Employees have ideas and want to be heard. Leadership wants to hear them. Too often, however, employees and leaders both feel that no one cares about making things better. The disconnect typically only widens over time, with both sides becoming more firmly entrenched in their viewpoints. Becoming a courageous culture means building teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates working together. In our world of rapid change, a courageous culture is your competitive advantage. It ensures that your company is “sticky” for both customers and employees. In Courageous Cultures, you’ll learn practical tools that help you: Learn the difference between microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates and how they work together. See how the latest research conducted by the authors confirms why organizations struggle when it comes to creating strong cultures where employees are encouraged to contribute their best thinking. Learn proven models and tools that leaders can apply throughout all levels of the organization, to reengage and motivate employees. Understand best practices from companies around the world and learn how to apply these strategies and techniques in your own organization. This book provides you with the practical tools to uncover, leverage, and scale the best ideas from every level of your organization.

This book examines numerous topic areas that are considered to be especially relevant for making a strategic leader development investment. The topics covered are areas that have theoretical and empirical connections to important aspects of growth, change, adult development, and underlying abilities, skills, and competencies needed to lead effectively in times of great complexity. In addition, these are investment areas identified by the U.S. Army--a world-class organization faced with the need for radical transformation--as particularly relevant for success and survival. This book identifies key concerns in developing leaders and leadership, and in transforming organizations to better meet the challenges of a complex world. There are two aspects of this book that distinguish it from the numerous existing volumes on leadership in the scholarly and popular-press literatures. Most important, the overarching focus of the present book is on development. There are many offerings on the topic of leadership, but relatively few that focus on leader development--especially from a scholarly, academic perspective. Also, this volume offers a unique perspective in examining those underlying psychological competencies and processes that are viewed as especially relevant for leader development. The chapters that are collected in this edited volume were originally commissioned by the U.S. Army Research Institute as "white papers" to better help Army officers and researchers understand important issues in leader development. The present organization of the papers is around four central themes: a) Accelerating Leader Development, b) Cognitive Skills Development, c) Developing Practical and Emotional Intelligence, and d) Enhancing Team Skills.

Beginning with an exploration of leadership and moving on to his seven steps to growing leaders, Adair provides unique insight into the heart of leadership, helping readers discover skills in themselves and in those around them.