Real Leaders Real Schools

Real Leaders, Real Schools tells the stories of five urban public school principals who led their schools through profound and transformative changes. In each of these cases, their efforts resulted in dramatic improvements in student achievement—improvements that occurred within the current environment of high-stakes tests. The revealing and often gripping narratives that form the heart of this remarkable book offer unprecedented insights into the meaning and practice of effective school leadership. The stories themselves are often inspiring but they are never idealized. All of these principals met with frustrations as well as successes, setbacks as well as breakthroughs. All regularly reassessed their policies and practices, and all acknowledged—and learned from—their errors along the way. Yet all believed in their staffs and their students, and all found innovative ways to transform and improve their schools. These are true stories of successful leadership against enormous odds. They provide countless lessons for today’s school leaders and all who are committed to education reform.

This book examines the central role of negotiation in gaining, exercising, and retaining leadership within organizations, large and small, public and private. Its aim is to instruct readers on the way to use negotiation to lead effectively. For far too long conventional wisdom has proposed that strong leaders refuse to negotiate, viewing negotiation as a sign of weakness. Leading people requires charisma, vision, and a commanding presence, not the tricks for making deals. For many executives, negotiation is a tool to use outside the organization to deal with customers, suppliers, and creditors. Inside the organization, it’s strictly “my way or the highway.” Salacuse explains that leaders can increase their effectiveness by using negotiation in each of the three phases of the leadership lifecycle: 1) leadership attainment, 2) leadership action; and 3) leadership preservation and loss. Drawing on experience in wide variety of settings, including the author’s own leadership positions, the book will examine high profile leadership cases such as the rise and fall of Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard, the skillful negotiations by Warren Buffet to save Salomon Brothers from extinction, and the successful efforts by the partners at Goldman Sachs to negotiate a new vision and direction for that financial giant. Leaders and managers should pick up this book to learn how effective negotiation is essential to both gaining and exercising leadership and to overcoming threats to a leader’s position.

Forget leadership gimmicks and catch phrases, “instant” leadership manuals and Stalinesque approaches to bottom-line results. Skip the sharp cuts to cope with tough times, too. Real and effective leaders today—from the executive suite to the assembly line—quietly and consistently follow what Dr. Eich has identified as the seven principles of effective leadership.True leaders know how to make ethical judgments in the face of real-world challenges, and recognize what it takes to win loyalty and respect, motivate through passion, develop positive relationships, and enhance open communication.Real Leaders Don’t Boss is an easy-to-understand, practical guide to leadership in the workplace and in life that can help anyone grasp what it takes to inspire, motivate, and lead. With the help of real-life stories and advice from top leaders, it teaches how, with the right direction and guidance, real leaders quietly stand back and, no matter the economic conditions, observe as others achieve success, which creates their own successes.

Literature on school reform tends to concentrate on the initiation and implementation of reform. This work seeks to provide change agents, policy makers, and students of educational change with advice on the sustaining of change and the scaling up of change to more systemic reform.

Plan your path to leadership with insight from real women at the top In Real Women, Real Leadership, twenty-four women leaders describe their personal journeys to the top, providing deep insight and a fascinating perspective on "making it" as a woman in the male-dominated business environment. They discuss their experiences and offer guidance on topics such as balancing family and career, building alliances, mentoring and being mentored, and overcoming obstacles in the business world which is still dominated by men in the senior levels of management. Drawn from a range of industries including higher education, technology, law, the military, politics, the media, and more, these stories provide the details that every ambitious woman needs to know. You'll learn which skills, attributes, and relationships served these women best, how they overcame the obstacles thrown into their paths, and the people they credit as instrumental along the way. A self-assessment chapter helps you discover your own leadership attributes, and determine which skills you need to acquire as you formulate your own personal roadmap to the top. There are many books about women who have been excellent leaders, but Real Women, Real Leadership provides the personal, relatable testimonials from women who have navigated the opportunities and pitfalls of the business world. Each story sheds light on women's unique leadership attributes, and provides guidance for professional women charting their own professional advancement. Learn from women leaders in a diverse range of industries Discover the leadership attributes that make the biggest impact Gain insight into work/life balance, mentors, relationships, and more Discover your leadership strengths and develop a plan forward Studies have shown that companies with three or more women board members dramatically outperform the competition in returns on equity, sales, and invested capital — yet women only claim a tiny percentage of boardroom seats and top executive positions. Why? And why, when they do achieve leadership positions, do women tend to make such outstanding leaders? Real Women, Real Leadership tackles these questions and more from an in-the-trenches perspective to help you become the leader you want to be.

Plan your path to leadership with insight from real women at the top In Real Women, Real Leadership, twenty-four women leaders describe their personal journeys to the top, providing deep insight and a fascinating perspective on "making it" as a woman in the male-dominated business environment. They discuss their experiences and offer guidance on topics such as balancing family and career, building alliances, mentoring and being mentored, and overcoming obstacles in the business world which is still dominated by men in the senior levels of management. Drawn from a range of industries including higher education, technology, law, the military, politics, the media, and more, these stories provide the details that every ambitious woman needs to know. You'll learn which skills, attributes, and relationships served these women best, how they overcame the obstacles thrown into their paths, and the people they credit as instrumental along the way. A self-assessment chapter helps you discover your own leadership attributes, and determine which skills you need to acquire as you formulate your own personal roadmap to the top. There are many books about women who have been excellent leaders, but Real Women, Real Leadership provides the personal, relatable testimonials from women who have navigated the opportunities and pitfalls of the business world. Each story sheds light on women's unique leadership attributes, and provides guidance for professional women charting their own professional advancement. Learn from women leaders in a diverse range of industries Discover the leadership attributes that make the biggest impact Gain insight into work/life balance, mentors, relationships, and more Discover your leadership strengths and develop a plan forward Studies have shown that companies with three or more women board members dramatically outperform the competition in returns on equity, sales, and invested capital — yet women only claim a tiny percentage of boardroom seats and top executive positions. Why? And why, when they do achieve leadership positions, do women tend to make such outstanding leaders? Real Women, Real Leadership tackles these questions and more from an in-the-trenches perspective to help you become the leader you want to be.

Leaders Lead. Followers Follow. You Can't Do Both. Acknowledging the great irony that most of today's inspiring entrepreneurs are following the crowd instead of doing what innovative leaders like Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk did to become successful, Silicon Valley management consultant Steve Tobak delivers some truth: Nobody ever made it big by doing what everyone else is doing. Drawing upon decades of personal experience with hundreds of accomplished entrepreneurs, CEOs, and venture capitalists, Tobak provides a unique perspective on today's technology revolution, exposes popular myths that masquerade as common wisdom and shows you what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and an exceptional business leaders in today's highly competitive world.

The latest from Bill Ziegler and David Ramage, Future Focused Leaders, provides school leaders with practical, relevant, and useable strategies for immediate application that promote sustainable innovation in leadership. Organized by three main overviews—Relate, Innovate, and Invigorate—each chapter ends with action steps for school leaders to take in order to strengthen their overall leadership abilities. · Relate: focuses on the effect relationships have on teacher and student success across an entire building; readers will learn strategies for conversational leadership, communication methods, and relationship building to create a culture of sharing and collaboration · Innovate: highlights tools and skills to change leaders’ approach to everyday school processes, incorporate technology, and inspire creativity in both staff and students · Invigorate: addresses the need for educators to return to their roots about why they went into education—to make a difference This book is for any school leader who is committed to building learning relationships, innovating for student success, and invigorating educators to make a difference in the life of every child.