Leaders Open Doors


Book Description

Leaders Open Doors presents a fresh and unique take on leadership that will benefit experienced leaders and those just starting their leadership journeys. With a little courage, anyone at any level can be a leader.




Leaders Open Doors (paperback)


Book Description

Leaders Open Doors presents a fresh and unique take on leadership that will benefit experienced leaders and those just starting their leadership journeys. With a little courage, anyone at any level can be a leader.




Opening Doors to Equity


Book Description

The transformative professional learning design that advances equity in your school! How do we make educational equity a reality, lesson by lesson? This compelling book is a call to action, focused on observation-based professional learning to elevate teaching practice. Learn how to bring team observation into the classroom to test, refine and transform instruction so that students of all backgrounds achieve. Ideal for classroom teachers, grade-level team facilitators, department chairs, and all education leaders, this guide shows how to: Create a culture of deep collaboration that closes opportunity gaps among students Effectively redesign instruction to reach culturally and linguistically diverse learners, using observation data and shared best practices Center instructional conversations on developing students’ skills for college and career success, including hard-to-assess skills Including video clips of actual teams, Tonya Ward Singer’s powerful and practical book promises to become a catalyst that will inspire educators as leaders of positive change. "This exceptionally valuable book provides a clear process I can use to engage with my colleagues around learning. I appreciated the ideas and practical information that will ensure that my professional learning group focuses on student learning as evidenced in real lessons. The tools that Tonya Singer provides are useful and relevant, not to mention tried and true." —Douglas Fisher, Professor San Diego State University, CA "I recommend this book without hesitation. . . Gone are the days for teachers to be working ‘behind closed doors’ . . . Go forth and TEACH like the world works––collaboratively with teams!" —Harriet Gould, Adjunct Professor Concordia University, Lincoln, NE




Opening Doors to Teamwork and Collaboration


Book Description

Organizations are only as productive as the interactions that take place between individuals, teams and divisions. This book is a short, engaging guide for dramatically improving the quality of these interactions. The four 'keys' that Judith Katz and Frederick Miller provide offer a framework and a common language for creating an open, honest and supportive workplace, one where people aren't afraid to speak up and where everyone feels respected. The four keys are: - Lean into Discomfort: Be willing to move beyond your comfort zone, and help create an environment where others feel the same way. - Listen as an Ally: Try to find ways you can support fellow employee's ideas. - Share Your Intent and Intensity: Make it crystal clear how committed you feel to any idea you raise. - Share Street Corners: Your perspective - your corner - is only one point of view. Actively encourage people from other ""corners' to offer their perspectives.




Great Leaders Have No Rules


Book Description

As a serial entrepreneur, Kevin Kruse has seen time and again that the leadership practices that actually work are the opposite of what is commonly taught and implemented. Close Your Open Door Policy shows how a contrarian approach can be a better, faster, and easier way to succeed as a leader. Chapter by chapter, Kruse focuses on a piece of popular wisdom, then shows with real-world case studies and quantitative research that the opposite approach will lead to better results, encouraging leaders to play favorites, stay out of meetings, and, of course, close their open doors.




Your First Leadership Job


Book Description

Becoming the Very Best First-Time Leader Congratulations! You’re now in charge. Perhaps it’s your first time as a leader, or maybe you want to fine-tune your skills. Either way, you’ve begun one of the most rewarding chapters of your career. But, like many beginnings, the first few years can be challenging. Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle this challenge on your own. Your First Leadership Job gives you practical advice straight from others who have walked in your shoes. Not only does it include dozens of tools to ensure your success, but it’s also based on the authors’ and DDI’s extensive experience and research, which ultimately has led to the development of millions of leaders around the world. In fact, a quarter-million leaders will be developed this year alone via DDI training. Your First Leadership Job is divided into two sections. Part 1 introduces the concept of catalyst leader—one who sparks energy, passion, and commitment in others. Your transition to catalyst leader is a major step in your leadership journey. This book provides essential tips to put you on the catalyst path. Ultimately, leadership is about the many conversations—frequent, clear, authentic, and occasionally difficult—that you will have daily. Your First Leadership Job builds awareness of the fundamental skills you’ll come to rely on to make every one of these interactions successful. Part 2 devotes 13 chapters to critical core leadership competencies, including coaching for success, hiring the best employees, turning dreaded appraisals into discussions that propel performance, and handling difficult employees. It also includes a chapter for first-time female leaders. Look at Your First Leadership Job as an indispensable companion to becoming an awesome leader—one who will make a positive, lasting impact on your team, family, and career. Visit www.yourfirstleadershipjob.com to learn more.




Opening Doors


Book Description

See how one school district made Cultural Proficiency real—and how you can too! In spite of Brown vs. Board of Education, true integration and corresponding equality of educational opportunity is still far from reality in American schools. Opening Doors tells the story of Ventura Unified School District′s successful implementation of cultural proficiency, which opened long-closed doors for marginalized students and returned gains on every key success metric. Most importantly, it will empower you to do the same for your school or district. Resources include: A method for evaluating the impact of educational decisions on students′ access to learning A clear three-year implementation plan for making your school culturally proficient A content-rich companion website that includes templates and forms for implementing the book’s suggestions It is long past time to make cultural proficiency real by ensuring universally equal access to educational resources for all students. This book removes the remaining barriers to the achievement of this ideal. "This powerfully insightful and thought provoking book, takes us on a journey to culturally proficient actions." —Rosemary Papa, Professor Northern Arizona University "The book is full of compassion, conviction and hope—pure heart, pure corazón—in the quest to tackle inequality and the opportunity gap head on." —Gilberto Q. Conchas, Professor of Educational Policy and Social Context University of California, Irvine




Leadership Conversations


Book Description

Conversation techniques and tools that can help strong managers become great leaders Often the very same skills and traits that enable rising stars to achieve success "tenacity, aggressiveness, self-confidence" become liabilities when promoted into a leadership track. While managers' conversations are generally transactional and centered on the task at hand, leaders must focus on people, asking great questions and aligning them with the vision for the future. Leadership mindsets and skills can be developed, and Leadership Conversations provides practical guidance for connecting with others in ways that transform each interaction into an opportunity for organizational and personal growth. Identifies four types of conversation every leader must master: building relationships, making decisions, taking action, and developing others Provides an action plan for boosting your personal leadership potential, as well for developing leadership skills in others Draws on the authors' rich experience coaching and working with leaders at a wide range of organizations, including NASA, the U.S. Navy, intelligence agencies, Boeing, Gillette, Bausch & Lomb, and Georgetown University Leadership Conversations is required reading for both high-potential managers looking to make it to the next level and leaders looking to develop their people.




Courageous Leadership


Book Description

Overcome fear and adversity in the workplace with courage! Courage is the first virtue of leadership success. Leaders require courage to make bold decisions even when there are dissenters, to say what needs to be said no matter the consequences, and to place their trust in those they manage. Yet surprisingly, despite the central role that courage plays in leadership success, until now there have been few training programs devoted solely to building courage in the workplace. The Courageous Leadership workshop introduces a new organizational development practice called courage-building. As a new professional discipline, courage-building is predicated on the assumption that people perform better when they are behaving courageously than when they are anxious and afraid. To be a courage-builder, however, you have to role model courageous behavior. This workshop is designed to help you do just that. The objectives of this workshop are to: Learn about the three different types of courage and when (and how) to use each Gain insight into your own "courage history" so that you can use your past to strengthen your future Understand the impact that fear has on personal and organizational performance Learn about two distinct ways of leading, and approaches for inspiring more courageous behavior among the people with whom you work Identify specific actions for extending the value of the workshop so that you can continue benefiting from it going forward Become a courageous leader By learning to apply the strategies and approaches that are introduced in the Courageous Leadership workshop, and then applying them in your workplace, you will help people step up to challenges more readily, embrace change more fully, and speak up more assertively. When you put your courage to work, and when you step past the threshold of your zone of comfort, the entire workplace benefits.




Start with Why


Book Description

The inspirational bestseller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our WHY Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time—with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the WHY of their organization. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever. START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.