Author: Chris Dolan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811530866
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
This book proposes that paradox, as a theoretically rich and historically enduring concept, has significant potential for researchers in the field of critical leadership studies. By enriching its general form and infusing it with added complexity and theoretical influence, it is argued that paradox can be legitimately applied as a lens for examining and as a pedagogy for realising new learning possibilities. The book takes paradoxes as formed out of the constitutive practices of discourse rather than as representations of conflict or complexity. Using fifteen paradoxes derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, it provides insights into the competing forces that contradict simplistic positivist accounts of contemporary school leadership and reveal the presence of a political struggle for the soul of the principal in the neoliberal era. It considers these paradoxes in three categories: (1) principal subjectivity and authority, (2) neoliberal policy and (3) managerial practice. The book advocates critique, counter-conduct and agonistic thought and practice as resources for principals participating in such a struggle, and employs Foucault's 'care of the self' and 'practices of freedom' to promote more active involvement of principals in authoring their ethical and political selves.
Paradox and the School Leader
Author: Chris Dolan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811530866
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
This book proposes that paradox, as a theoretically rich and historically enduring concept, has significant potential for researchers in the field of critical leadership studies. By enriching its general form and infusing it with added complexity and theoretical influence, it is argued that paradox can be legitimately applied as a lens for examining and as a pedagogy for realising new learning possibilities. The book takes paradoxes as formed out of the constitutive practices of discourse rather than as representations of conflict or complexity. Using fifteen paradoxes derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, it provides insights into the competing forces that contradict simplistic positivist accounts of contemporary school leadership and reveal the presence of a political struggle for the soul of the principal in the neoliberal era. It considers these paradoxes in three categories: (1) principal subjectivity and authority, (2) neoliberal policy and (3) managerial practice. The book advocates critique, counter-conduct and agonistic thought and practice as resources for principals participating in such a struggle, and employs Foucault's 'care of the self' and 'practices of freedom' to promote more active involvement of principals in authoring their ethical and political selves.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811530866
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
This book proposes that paradox, as a theoretically rich and historically enduring concept, has significant potential for researchers in the field of critical leadership studies. By enriching its general form and infusing it with added complexity and theoretical influence, it is argued that paradox can be legitimately applied as a lens for examining and as a pedagogy for realising new learning possibilities. The book takes paradoxes as formed out of the constitutive practices of discourse rather than as representations of conflict or complexity. Using fifteen paradoxes derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, it provides insights into the competing forces that contradict simplistic positivist accounts of contemporary school leadership and reveal the presence of a political struggle for the soul of the principal in the neoliberal era. It considers these paradoxes in three categories: (1) principal subjectivity and authority, (2) neoliberal policy and (3) managerial practice. The book advocates critique, counter-conduct and agonistic thought and practice as resources for principals participating in such a struggle, and employs Foucault's 'care of the self' and 'practices of freedom' to promote more active involvement of principals in authoring their ethical and political selves.
The Leadership Paradox
Author: Terrence E. Deal
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 168
Book Description
Deal and Peterson argue for a "ying/yang" sort of harmony between the technical and symbolic aspects of leadership. The Leadership Paradox will help principals identify their strengths and weaknesses as rational or symbolic leaders, and develop a more balanced leadership approach. Approx.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 168
Book Description
Deal and Peterson argue for a "ying/yang" sort of harmony between the technical and symbolic aspects of leadership. The Leadership Paradox will help principals identify their strengths and weaknesses as rational or symbolic leaders, and develop a more balanced leadership approach. Approx.
Paradoxes of Power and Leadership
Author: Miguel Pina e Cunha
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351056646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
Why do great companies and other organizations fail, sometimes abruptly? Why do admired leaders fall from their organizational pedestals? Why do young and promising managers derail? Why do organizations create and reinforce rules that manifestly damage both them and those that they employ, serve and sustain? Leadership is a much-discussed but ill-defined idea in business and management circles. Analysing and understanding the skills and behaviours exhibited in leadership practice reveal that leaders exhibit paradoxical activities that challenge our understanding of organizations. In this text, the authors identify leadership behaviours that compete towards business equilibrium: selfish versus selfless, distance versus proximity, consistency versus individuality, enforcing professional standards versus flexibility and control versus autonomy. These paradoxical dilemmas require a reflexive and analytical approach to a subject that is tricky to define. The book explores the paradoxes of power and leadership not as a panacea for solving organizational problems but as a lens through which leadership and power are seen as an exercise in dynamic balance. Read this book as an invitation to the paradoxes of power and leadership that frame organizational life today. Be prepared to find surprises – and some counterintuitive arguments. Providing a thought-provoking guide to the traits and skills that will help readers to understand and navigate paradoxical leadership behaviour, this reflexive book will be a useful reading for students and scholars of business, management and psychology globally.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351056646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
Why do great companies and other organizations fail, sometimes abruptly? Why do admired leaders fall from their organizational pedestals? Why do young and promising managers derail? Why do organizations create and reinforce rules that manifestly damage both them and those that they employ, serve and sustain? Leadership is a much-discussed but ill-defined idea in business and management circles. Analysing and understanding the skills and behaviours exhibited in leadership practice reveal that leaders exhibit paradoxical activities that challenge our understanding of organizations. In this text, the authors identify leadership behaviours that compete towards business equilibrium: selfish versus selfless, distance versus proximity, consistency versus individuality, enforcing professional standards versus flexibility and control versus autonomy. These paradoxical dilemmas require a reflexive and analytical approach to a subject that is tricky to define. The book explores the paradoxes of power and leadership not as a panacea for solving organizational problems but as a lens through which leadership and power are seen as an exercise in dynamic balance. Read this book as an invitation to the paradoxes of power and leadership that frame organizational life today. Be prepared to find surprises – and some counterintuitive arguments. Providing a thought-provoking guide to the traits and skills that will help readers to understand and navigate paradoxical leadership behaviour, this reflexive book will be a useful reading for students and scholars of business, management and psychology globally.
Leadership Matters
Author: Thomas E. Cronin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317256867
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Some leaders fundamentally alter the status quo whilst others guide quietly. Most leadership books emphasise specific rules, but Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese see leadership as filled with paradox. Leadership Matters offers a different view of leadership - one that builds community and responds creatively to new situations. Cronin and Genovese argue that leadership is about more than just charisma and set leaders on to a different path - to unleash the power of paradox.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317256867
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Some leaders fundamentally alter the status quo whilst others guide quietly. Most leadership books emphasise specific rules, but Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese see leadership as filled with paradox. Leadership Matters offers a different view of leadership - one that builds community and responds creatively to new situations. Cronin and Genovese argue that leadership is about more than just charisma and set leaders on to a different path - to unleash the power of paradox.
Managerial Dilemmas
Author: John Storey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781444316599
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
In the midst of the most severe recession for 80 years there is little need to argue that organizations are beset by dilemmas and paradoxes. Confidence in prevailing business models and in the underlying assumptions underpinning business decisions over many decades has now been shaken. But it is not enough to rail against arrogance and greed. Within their own (flawed) assumptions bankers and corporate leaders were acting rationally. A major reason for the failure to anticipate and warn is that observers of organizations usually tend to view organizations in terms similar to those employed by the people who run them: as rational, sensible and objective, whereas, in fact, they are usually confused and confusing, paradoxical and contradictory entities. Paradox is at the heart of how organizations work (or don’t work) yet the phenomenon has been strangely unstudied. In an age of crisis and uncertainty, dilemmas and paradoxes are especially evident and prevalent. The fascination and the promise of paradox is that there is also a sense that there is a hidden truth entwined within the opposites. This we contend is a challenge for leaders. The ultimate responsibility of leadership is to make sense of these and to handle them in a competent manner. This demands a new mode of leadership. The management of dilemma and paradox it is contended, the essence of leadership today. Paradoxical forces provide a dynamism which, although often experienced as potentially threatening, discomforting and negative can also be exciting, promising and positive. "The assumption that organizations are rational entities is challenged every day in the work environment by a rich reality of asymmetries between conflicting forces, complexity, hidden intentions and paradoxes. Anyone wanting to understand the real forces that govern organizations should read this book. A must read for modern leaders who have the intellectual honesty to lead organisations with open eyes and not with the over simplifications and clichés of the past"--Giovanni Ghisetti, Director Business Transformation, Coca Cola Enterprises Europe "Storey and Salaman’s description of the paradoxes which characterise leadership today is hauntingly accurate. Their intelligent optimism that those dilemmas can be met is as encouraging as it is challenging for those of us who have to do just that. Having read the insights in this book I now understand how their business advice was always so pertinent".--Andy Street, Managing Director of John Lewis
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781444316599
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
In the midst of the most severe recession for 80 years there is little need to argue that organizations are beset by dilemmas and paradoxes. Confidence in prevailing business models and in the underlying assumptions underpinning business decisions over many decades has now been shaken. But it is not enough to rail against arrogance and greed. Within their own (flawed) assumptions bankers and corporate leaders were acting rationally. A major reason for the failure to anticipate and warn is that observers of organizations usually tend to view organizations in terms similar to those employed by the people who run them: as rational, sensible and objective, whereas, in fact, they are usually confused and confusing, paradoxical and contradictory entities. Paradox is at the heart of how organizations work (or don’t work) yet the phenomenon has been strangely unstudied. In an age of crisis and uncertainty, dilemmas and paradoxes are especially evident and prevalent. The fascination and the promise of paradox is that there is also a sense that there is a hidden truth entwined within the opposites. This we contend is a challenge for leaders. The ultimate responsibility of leadership is to make sense of these and to handle them in a competent manner. This demands a new mode of leadership. The management of dilemma and paradox it is contended, the essence of leadership today. Paradoxical forces provide a dynamism which, although often experienced as potentially threatening, discomforting and negative can also be exciting, promising and positive. "The assumption that organizations are rational entities is challenged every day in the work environment by a rich reality of asymmetries between conflicting forces, complexity, hidden intentions and paradoxes. Anyone wanting to understand the real forces that govern organizations should read this book. A must read for modern leaders who have the intellectual honesty to lead organisations with open eyes and not with the over simplifications and clichés of the past"--Giovanni Ghisetti, Director Business Transformation, Coca Cola Enterprises Europe "Storey and Salaman’s description of the paradoxes which characterise leadership today is hauntingly accurate. Their intelligent optimism that those dilemmas can be met is as encouraging as it is challenging for those of us who have to do just that. Having read the insights in this book I now understand how their business advice was always so pertinent".--Andy Street, Managing Director of John Lewis
Being the Boss
Author: Linda A. Hill
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 142217235X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're not alone. As Linda Hill and Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It's trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey. At best, they just learn to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses. This new book explains how to avoid that fate, by mastering three imperatives: · Manage yourself: Learn that management isn't about getting things done yourself. It's about accomplishing things through others. · Manage a network: Understand how power and influence work in your organization and build a network of mutually beneficial relationships to navigate your company's complex political environment. · Manage a team: Forge a high-performing "we" out of all the "I"s who report to you. Packed with compelling stories and practical guidance, Being the Boss is an indispensable guide for not only first-time managers but all managers seeking to master the most daunting challenges of leadership.
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 142217235X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're not alone. As Linda Hill and Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It's trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey. At best, they just learn to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses. This new book explains how to avoid that fate, by mastering three imperatives: · Manage yourself: Learn that management isn't about getting things done yourself. It's about accomplishing things through others. · Manage a network: Understand how power and influence work in your organization and build a network of mutually beneficial relationships to navigate your company's complex political environment. · Manage a team: Forge a high-performing "we" out of all the "I"s who report to you. Packed with compelling stories and practical guidance, Being the Boss is an indispensable guide for not only first-time managers but all managers seeking to master the most daunting challenges of leadership.
The Learning Leader
Author: Douglas B. Reeves
Publisher: ASCD
ISBN: 1416629408
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
"We can't do that in our school district." "I don't have time to add that to my curriculum." "We're fighting against impossible odds with these students." Sound familiar? School improvement can often feel like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this fully revised and updated second edition of The Learning Leader, Douglas B. Reeves helps leadership teams go beyond excuses to capitalize on their strengths, reduce their weaknesses, and reset their mindset and priorities to achieve unprecedented success. A critical key is recognizing student achievement as more than just a set of test scores. Reeves asserts that when leaders focus exclusively on results, they fail to measure and understand the importance of their own actions. He offers an alternative—the Leadership for Learning Framework, which helps leaders identify and distinguish among four different types of educators and provide more effective, tailored support to - "Lucky" educators, who achieve high results but don't understand how their actions influence achievement. - "Losing" educators, who achieve low results yet keep doing the same thing, expecting different outcomes. - "Learning" educators, who have not yet achieved the desired results but are working their way toward excellence. - "Leading" educators, who achieve high results and understand how their actions influence their success. Reeves stresses that effective leadership is neither a unitary skill nor a solitary activity. The Learning Leader helps leaders reconceptualize their roles in the school improvement process and motivate themselves and their colleagues to keep working to better serve their students.
Publisher: ASCD
ISBN: 1416629408
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
"We can't do that in our school district." "I don't have time to add that to my curriculum." "We're fighting against impossible odds with these students." Sound familiar? School improvement can often feel like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this fully revised and updated second edition of The Learning Leader, Douglas B. Reeves helps leadership teams go beyond excuses to capitalize on their strengths, reduce their weaknesses, and reset their mindset and priorities to achieve unprecedented success. A critical key is recognizing student achievement as more than just a set of test scores. Reeves asserts that when leaders focus exclusively on results, they fail to measure and understand the importance of their own actions. He offers an alternative—the Leadership for Learning Framework, which helps leaders identify and distinguish among four different types of educators and provide more effective, tailored support to - "Lucky" educators, who achieve high results but don't understand how their actions influence achievement. - "Losing" educators, who achieve low results yet keep doing the same thing, expecting different outcomes. - "Learning" educators, who have not yet achieved the desired results but are working their way toward excellence. - "Leading" educators, who achieve high results and understand how their actions influence their success. Reeves stresses that effective leadership is neither a unitary skill nor a solitary activity. The Learning Leader helps leaders reconceptualize their roles in the school improvement process and motivate themselves and their colleagues to keep working to better serve their students.
The Power of Paradox
Author: Nina Rosoff
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707778
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
Leaders’ actions can have consequences opposite to those they intend. These unintentional results are difficult to detect, understand, and change. Consequently, leaders’ actions tend to persist resulting in further unexpected outcomes. This can create a vicious cycle of leadership failure. With all their best efforts, strategic, financial, scenario, human capital and operational plans in place, they fail. Unaware, they self-sabotage and sabotage others; again, the result is unintended consequences, no matter how hard they try. This book gives a glimpse into why and how this happens, and what to do about it. Understanding the Power of Paradox can empower leaders in uncertain times. Paradox reveals uncertainty giving leaders room to breathe and time to think, better able to deal with ambiguity and manage complexity, no longer stymied. Learning to think differently and behave with capabilities, you already have, more resilient, adaptive and flexible leaders execute conscious actions effectively, inspire and empower others, creating the consequences they intend, successful Protean Leaders.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707778
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
Leaders’ actions can have consequences opposite to those they intend. These unintentional results are difficult to detect, understand, and change. Consequently, leaders’ actions tend to persist resulting in further unexpected outcomes. This can create a vicious cycle of leadership failure. With all their best efforts, strategic, financial, scenario, human capital and operational plans in place, they fail. Unaware, they self-sabotage and sabotage others; again, the result is unintended consequences, no matter how hard they try. This book gives a glimpse into why and how this happens, and what to do about it. Understanding the Power of Paradox can empower leaders in uncertain times. Paradox reveals uncertainty giving leaders room to breathe and time to think, better able to deal with ambiguity and manage complexity, no longer stymied. Learning to think differently and behave with capabilities, you already have, more resilient, adaptive and flexible leaders execute conscious actions effectively, inspire and empower others, creating the consequences they intend, successful Protean Leaders.
Complex Adaptive Leadership
Author: Nick Obolensky
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040277284
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Book Description
Since its publication, Complex Adaptive Leadership has become a Gower bestseller that has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, Nick Obolensky argues that leadership should not be something only exercised by nominated leaders. It is a complex dynamic process involving all those engaged in a particular enterprise. The theoretical background to this lies in complexity science and chaos theory - spoken and written about in the context of leadership for the last 20 years, but still little understood. We all seem intuitively to know leadership 'isn't what it used to be' but we still cling to old assumptions which look anachronistic in changing and challenging times. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world. The main conclusion from that research is that the more complex things become, the less traditional directive leadership is needed. Those operating in the real world, nonetheless, need ways of coping. The book is focused on helping practitioners struggling to interpret and react to increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times. The book will particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040277284
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Book Description
Since its publication, Complex Adaptive Leadership has become a Gower bestseller that has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, Nick Obolensky argues that leadership should not be something only exercised by nominated leaders. It is a complex dynamic process involving all those engaged in a particular enterprise. The theoretical background to this lies in complexity science and chaos theory - spoken and written about in the context of leadership for the last 20 years, but still little understood. We all seem intuitively to know leadership 'isn't what it used to be' but we still cling to old assumptions which look anachronistic in changing and challenging times. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world. The main conclusion from that research is that the more complex things become, the less traditional directive leadership is needed. Those operating in the real world, nonetheless, need ways of coping. The book is focused on helping practitioners struggling to interpret and react to increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times. The book will particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership.
Systems Thinking for School Leaders
Author: Haim Shaked
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319535714
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
This book presents a new approach to school leadership – Holistic School Leadership, whereby school leaders lead schools through systems-thinking concepts and procedures. Facing growing complexity, change and diversity, school leaders need to regularly apply the systems view and perform at the systems level. This book proposes a holistic approach, providing school leaders with systemic principles of action for excellence in education. “What a wonderful book – once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. The book masterfully makes a systems leadership perspective accessible and grounded in the reality of the daily life of educators. Holistic School Leadership is a “must read” for anyone who has the responsibility for making schools better places, from professors to emerging teacher leaders.” Karen Seashore (Louis), Regents Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, University of Minnesota “Shaked and Schechter have constructed a much needed bridge to the future of educational leadership, a future of systemic thinking and positivity.” Joseph Murphy, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University “Shaked and Schechter offer a comprehensive yet concise account of the meaning of systems thinking. The authors systematically develop their Holistic School Leadership approach with compelling examples, carefully attending to the perennial challenge of implementation. Important reading for scholars and practitioners of school leadership and management!" James P. Spillane, Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change, Northwestern University “This is the most important book on systems thinking since Senge’s (1990) seminal work on learning organizations. Shaked and Schechter demonstrate the critical and practical utility of systems thinking for school leaders—a must read for all reflective practitioners.” Wayne K. Hoy, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University. “Holistic School Leadership provides an innovative and exciting look into a new perspective on educational leadership that holds tremendous potential in reshaping educational research, policy, and practice. The idea of interdependence alone makes this powerful new book required reading for anyone concerned with the future of education and educational leadership in particular. Give yourself, your colleagues, your students, and your system the gift of the wisdom in this book.” Alan J. Daly, Chair and Professor, Department of Education Studies, University of California, San Diego “In this informative book, Shaked and Schechter offer a fresh application of systems thinking to schools and to the work of school leaders. This book is a useful addition to the bookshelves of both those who prepare and those who support school leaders.” Megan Tschannen-Moran, Professor of Educational Leadership, College of William and Mary
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319535714
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
This book presents a new approach to school leadership – Holistic School Leadership, whereby school leaders lead schools through systems-thinking concepts and procedures. Facing growing complexity, change and diversity, school leaders need to regularly apply the systems view and perform at the systems level. This book proposes a holistic approach, providing school leaders with systemic principles of action for excellence in education. “What a wonderful book – once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. The book masterfully makes a systems leadership perspective accessible and grounded in the reality of the daily life of educators. Holistic School Leadership is a “must read” for anyone who has the responsibility for making schools better places, from professors to emerging teacher leaders.” Karen Seashore (Louis), Regents Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, University of Minnesota “Shaked and Schechter have constructed a much needed bridge to the future of educational leadership, a future of systemic thinking and positivity.” Joseph Murphy, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University “Shaked and Schechter offer a comprehensive yet concise account of the meaning of systems thinking. The authors systematically develop their Holistic School Leadership approach with compelling examples, carefully attending to the perennial challenge of implementation. Important reading for scholars and practitioners of school leadership and management!" James P. Spillane, Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change, Northwestern University “This is the most important book on systems thinking since Senge’s (1990) seminal work on learning organizations. Shaked and Schechter demonstrate the critical and practical utility of systems thinking for school leaders—a must read for all reflective practitioners.” Wayne K. Hoy, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University. “Holistic School Leadership provides an innovative and exciting look into a new perspective on educational leadership that holds tremendous potential in reshaping educational research, policy, and practice. The idea of interdependence alone makes this powerful new book required reading for anyone concerned with the future of education and educational leadership in particular. Give yourself, your colleagues, your students, and your system the gift of the wisdom in this book.” Alan J. Daly, Chair and Professor, Department of Education Studies, University of California, San Diego “In this informative book, Shaked and Schechter offer a fresh application of systems thinking to schools and to the work of school leaders. This book is a useful addition to the bookshelves of both those who prepare and those who support school leaders.” Megan Tschannen-Moran, Professor of Educational Leadership, College of William and Mary