Leadership Teams ~ A Book Recommendation

My First Book Review, and I Am in the Book!

Leadership and Teams, the Missing Piece of the Educational Reform Puzzle
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                      by Lyle Kirtman

About a year ago, my Principal at my last school said she was extremely busy, and she asked if I wanted to do a book review for a publishing company instead of her since she could not find the time to manage it. I jumped on the opportunity, because my 3^rd greatest strength is Learner, AND I would be getting paid. I used to be a peer editor for the professional journal, The Reading Teacher, and I never got paid for that.  So, I set off on working to review the manuscript. After I reviewed that first manuscript, the publishing company asked me to do more. 

It is one of those books that I reviewed as a manuscript that I want to recommend to you today. It was an exceptional book on leadership and the importance of building teams to help leaders be successful. One of the great attributes of the book was the number of leadership profiles that it analyzed. It gave me, a new leader, examples and non-examples of what leaders need to achieve success.

This month, I just got notice from Pearson that the book has finally been published. Well, I decided to do a book review, which I have seen many BLOGers do. It’s just this time, I really have a vested interest in the book since my name is listed in the credits as a reviewer of the book.

Cool Things about This Book:

The book analyzes 7 Key Competencies Leaders Need to Succeed

High Performing Leaders

1.       Challenge the status quo.

2.       Build trust through clear communications and expectations.

3.       Create a commonly owned plan for success.

4.       Focuses on team over self.

5.       Have a high sense of urgency for change and sustainable results in improving student achievement.

6.       Commitment to continuous improvement for self. (They are looking to learn from colleagues and any resource whether in education or other sectors. They are never satisfied with their own leadership ability. They know they can always learn and improve.) The high performing leader is open to criticism and looks for honest feedback on how they can improve.

7.       Builds external networks/partnerships.

It should also be noted the book emphasizes that a leader can generally only focus on sustainable change and improvement for a maximum of 7 competencies.

The book also coaches leaders how to assess their leadership style. It mentions numerous profile analysis tools and leadership assessments:

StrengthFinder (which I LOVE) and have mentioned in a couple of my entries here. 

Other inventories described are:

DISC ( Dominance Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) Profile

MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Inventory)

Values Inventory

WPI (Workplace Personality Inventory)

To note the importance of such inventories, the book explains that it is…”interesting that education which is so data based with students pays minimal attention to its leaders and employees on data that is seen as critical in other fields. Perhaps it is because the Human Resource field is somewhat underdeveloped in education.”

Here are the GREAT quotes that I keyed in on during the reading of the book. Perhaps they will interest you in reading it:

*The leader’s role is to insure that the highest quality of service is provided to the customer.

*Good leaders are clear in their expectations and do not tolerate people who sabotage results.

*A strong leader will not tolerate one child getting a poor education and preventing them from succeeding.

*Positive energy is infectious and builds a spirit of success which is unmatched.
Successful leaders move quickly.

*We are all different and our value systems are unique. Any plan for improvement has to work well with your values well or it will not be sustainable.

*People get hired for what they know but get fired for who they are.
Self-awareness is critical for improvement.

*Building an environment of trust is critical, and trust takes time. The basis of the trust cycle is that people trust someone they find predictable. Always check for shared understanding. Making sure that what a leader has communicated is understood by the receiver is critical to building trust.

*Leaders who have lower performing leadership profiles can be successful if they develop high performance teams to fill the gaps in their style.

*Be careful to prevent conflicts from growing. Don’t minimize them.

*When dealing with politics, be careful but don’t be paranoid. People will mislead others to help their agenda.

AND, most important to me, and why I enjoyed reading this book:

The bottom line: Knowing how to create and implement change is what the work of improving education for kids is all about.

This is a great book, and I highly recommend it.