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Leading for Results
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Leading for Results
Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Relationships in Schools

Second Edition
Edited by:


November 2006 | 248 pages | Corwin

Praise for the First Edition:

Sparks rejects simplistic solutions to school improvement, and honors the practical knowledge and expertise of educators."
—Richard DuFour, Educational Author and Consultant

"Dennis Sparks has given us a practical, original, and tough-minded book about what schools need now. An excellent book—but even more, a book to act on."
—Mike Schmoker, Consultant and Author

"In this inventive 'self-help''handbook for educators, Dennis Sparks challenges and helps us—not to do something but to be something different."
—Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned

Improve teaching and learning in your school by fostering personal and organizational change!

Authentic or transformational leadership flows from self-awareness regarding intentions, values, and feelings and its influence is reflected in a leader's actions. Leading for Results, Second Edition, focuses on the educational leader's role in actualizing human potential and unleashing individual and organizational energy, while promoting extraordinary performance in "ordinary" people by first changing within oneself.

In this updated edition featuring 18 new thought-provoking essays, Dennis Sparks shows how school leaders can promote extraordinary changes, be accountable, and achieve meaningful results for schools, districts, and their personal lives. Using bold theories about education, leadership, teaching, and student learning, you'll learn how to make change happen, create usable strategies, commit to action, and achieve goals by

  • Examining your assumptions and producing results-oriented thoughts, words, and actions
  • Deepening your understanding of important issues related to the interpersonal challenges of change
  • Engaging in next-action thinking and applying what you've learned

This powerful resource helps leaders to recognize their capacity for making a tremendous difference in their organizations, ensuring ultimate success!


 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Introduction
 
How to Use This Book
 
Part I: Transformation Through Clarity and Creation
 
1. Use Fundamental Choices to Create Your Life
 
2. Clarify Your Intentions
 
3. Establish Stretch Goals
 
4. Identify Multiple Ways to Achieve Your Goals
 
5. Find the Trim Tab
 
6. The 80/20 Principle
 
7. Practice Satisficing
 
8. Determine Root Causes
 
9. Develop a Theory of Action and Use Storytelling to Communicate It
 
10. Gain ClarityThrough Writing, Speaking, and Reflecting on Action
 
11. Leaders Provide Teachable Points of View
 
Part II: Transformation Through Interpersonal Influence
 
12. Tell Your Truth
 
13. Use Candor to Assess Current Reality
 
14. Use Genuine Dialogue
 
15. Engage in Dialogue-Like Conversations
 
16. Listen to Others in a Deep, Committed Way
 
17. Use Silence as a Learning Tool
 
18. Make Requests to Initiate Action and Create Results
 
19. Make and Keep Promises
 
20. Replace Questions With Declarative Statements
 
21. Minimize the Language of Obligation
 
22. Decrease the Use of Cause-Effect Language
 
23. Stand Up for Your Point of View
 
Part III: Transformation Through a Culture That Promotes Professional Learning, Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement
 
24. Shape School Culture to Improve Teaching and Sustain Competent Teaching
 
25. Create Successful Schools
 
26. Promote Breakthrough Thinking
 
27. Attend to Leaders' Inner Development
 
28. Recognize Our Best Selves
 
29. Increase the Use of Signature Strengths
 
30. Enhance Your Personal Energy
 
31. Build Relationships to Sustain Positive Energy
 
32. Address the Fundamental Barriers to Professional Learning and Teamwork in Schools
 
33. Spread Positive Emotions Throughout the Organization
 
34. Address Anxiety in the Schoolhouse
 
35. Appeal to the Heart as Well as the Head
 
Part IV: Transformation Through Professional Learning and Doing
 
36. Design Powerful Professional Learning for All Educators
 
37. Match Professional Development Goals and Methods With Student Outcomes
 
38. Bridge the Knowing-Doing Gap
 
39. Amplify Positive Deviance
 
40. Create Professional Learning That Alters Educators' Brains
 
41. Install Next Action Thinking
 
42. Change Habits
 
43. Sustain the Conversation
 
Index

"Sparks has distilled his vision of leadership into this helpful guide. This is a personal look at leadership, not as much about what leaders should do (although a large number of how-to's are included), but more about how leaders should think and feel to actualize their potential and unleash individual and organizational energy."

The School Administrator, May 2007
Key features

The new edition includes:

  • 18 new essays
  • A new section entitled "Transformation Through a Culture That Promotes Professional Learning, Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement"
  • Exciting ideas and useful practices gathered from the many school leaders using the book

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781483351803

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ISBN: 9781412949699
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