Leading for Results


Book Description

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!




Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics)


Book Description

A leader's singular job is to get results. But even with all the leadership training programs and "expert" advice available, effective leadership still eludes many people and organizations. One reason, says Daniel Goleman, is that such experts offer advice based on inference, experience, and instinct, not on quantitative data. Now, drawing on research of more than 3,000 executives, Goleman explores which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. He outlines six distinct leadership styles, each one springing from different components of emotional intelligence. Each style has a distinct effect on the working atmosphere of a company, division, or team, and, in turn, on its financial performance. Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction. And coaching leaders develop people for the future. The research indicates that leaders who get the best results don't rely on just one leadership style; they use most of the styles in any given week. Goleman details the types of business situations each style is best suited for, and he explains how leaders who lack one or more of these styles can expand their repertories. He maintains that with practice leaders can switch among leadership styles to produce powerful results, thus turning the art of leadership into a science. The Harvard Business Review Classics series offers you the opportunity to make seminal Harvard Business Review articles a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world—and will have a direct impact on you today and for years to come.




Leading for Learning


Book Description

People do their best work when they are motivated. This may sound obvious, but while people managers instinctively agree with the centrality of motivation at work and its impact on employee engagement, their practices do not follow. With so much "real work" to do every day, how can managers also carve out time to learn, engage, build relationships, tap motivation, encourage development, and inspire? The problem is a false dichotomy between the world of business and that of people development. What if managers were able to systematically transform everyday business issues into meaningful, developmental coaching opportunities with employees at the same time? This proven coaching approach radically shifts conversations away from either-or propositions and uses an entirely different lens: transforming business challenges by connecting them directly to employee motivation to achieve the desired business result while dramatically increasing employee engagement. And all this comes none too soon as leaders must rethink the way they lead given the modern realities of organizational life. Among them: A rapidly changing workplace and increasing uncertainty that requires a fundamental shift in the leader’s approach, including the distribution of authority and the expectation that employees take responsibility for their own learning Pervasive and persistent employee disengagement, characterized by employees who no longer accept the organization’s priorities at the expense of their own, where organizations that continue to dictate terms will find ongoing challenges with costly employee turnover and lack of engagement During the past decade, the Developmental Coaching Model has been taught across the globe in nine languages and has been enthusiastically embraced by thousands of managers while dissolving the invisible barriers that block individual and organizational development and business success.




Leading Change in Your School


Book Description

Guide for becoming a leader in making changes in the educational field.




Leading Lean Software Development


Book Description

Building on their breakthrough bestsellers Lean Software Development and Implementing Lean Software Development, Mary and Tom Poppendieck’s latest book shows software leaders and team members exactly how to drive high-value change throughout a software organization—and make it stick. They go far beyond generic implementation guidelines, demonstrating exactly how to make lean work in real projects, environments, and companies. The Poppendiecks organize this book around the crucial concept of frames, the unspoken mental constructs that shape our perspectives and control our behavior in ways we rarely notice. For software leaders and team members, some frames lead to long-term failure, while others offer a strong foundation for success. Drawing on decades of experience, the authors present twenty-four frames that offer a coherent, complete framework for leading lean software development. You’ll discover powerful new ways to act as competency leader, product champion, improvement mentor, front-line leader, and even visionary. Systems thinking: focusing on customers, bringing predictability to demand, and revamping policies that cause inefficiency Technical excellence: implementing low-dependency architectures, TDD, and evolutionary development processes, and promoting deeper developer expertise Reliable delivery: managing your biggest risks more effectively, and optimizing both workflow and schedules Relentless improvement: seeing problems, solving problems, sharing the knowledge Great people: finding and growing professionals with purpose, passion, persistence, and pride Aligned leaders: getting your entire leadership team on the same page From the world’s number one experts in Lean software development, Leading Lean Software Development will be indispensable to everyone who wants to transform the promise of lean into reality—in enterprise IT and software companies alike.




Humanity at Work: Leading for Purpose, Learning, and Growth


Book Description

A "pocket mentor" for leaders who want to engage and energize their workforce with a leadership strategy that puts the well-being of people first. According to a 2019 Gallup poll, employee engagement levels in the US workplace have remained flat despite the best efforts of human resources professionals and learning companies. But besides generating results, most leaders are also tasked with creating positive, engaged, and productive workplace cultures. So how do modern leaders achieve this in a fast-changing world? This is what long-time CBC columnist and blogger Pierre Battah tackles in Humanity At Work, an influential and thought-provoking guide designed to help leaders and companies succeed. In this book you will learn: why human connection is a crucial component of the employment relationship; how leaders' self-awareness can create safe space in which to engage staff; how to lead for results and relationships, and create a learning culture. Using case studies from small and large businesses alongside a variety of helpful tools, Humanity At Work shows leaders how to help people find meaning in their work, let voices be heard, promote innovation, and implement company values with authenticity. Humanity At Work is a "pocket mentor" for human-aware leaders who want to have thoughtful decision-making at their fingertips.




Lead by Example


Book Description

Taking over the top job, whether it's the CEO of a company or the manager of a department, is never easy. When done the right way, it results in inspired leadership; when done the wrong way, it can lead to disaster. To be effective, the people in charge must give their team a reason to believe in their talents and their ability to get people to work together. Great leadership requires decisiveness, authority, conviction, compassion, and, most important, the ability to set the right example. It would seem easy, but it takes a lifetime of trying to put it into practice. In Lead by Example, recognized leadership guru John Baldoni reveals the traits and abilities leaders need to know to inspire others to follow them. Readers will learn how to: listen for ideas • manage around obstacles • defuse tension • check their egos • stand up for what they believe in • manage crises • develop team confidence • recruit good people • deliver bad news • handle defeat • engage their enemies Filled with examples of visionary leaders who have overcome their shortcomings and achieved greatness, Lead by Example will show readers how to build trust, drive results, and win the respect of the people they lead.




Everyone Deserves a Great Manager


Book Description

Learn how to become a great manager in this Wall Street Journal bestseller from the leadership experts at FranklinCovey. The essential guide when you make the challenging yet rewarding leap to manager. Based on nearly a decade of research on what makes managers successful, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager includes field-tested tips, techniques, and the top advice from hundreds of thousands of managers all over the world. Organized by the four main roles every manager fills, this must-read guide focuses on how to lead yourself, people, teams, and change to success. No matter what your current problem or time constraint, pick up a helpful tip in ten minutes or glean an entire skillset by developing people skills and clarity through straightforward advice. Dive into common managerial tasks like one-on-ones, giving feedback, delegating, hiring, building team culture, and leading remote teams, with useful worksheets and a list of questions for your next interview. An approachable, engaging style using real-world stories, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager provides the blueprint for becoming the great manager every team deserves.




Lead Inside the Box


Book Description

“In times when leaders have to do more with less, this book gives you the tools to elevate your people to new levels of success.” —Andrea Procaccino, Chief Learning Officer, New York-Presbyterian Hospital Every employee is different, but unfortunately many leaders use a one-size-fits-all approach to leading. In doing so, these otherwise well-intentioned leaders are working harder than they should while not getting all they could out of their teams. Lead Inside the Box gives managers way to get the best out of their teams by focusing their energy where it will make the biggest difference. It teaches leaders how to: Figure out where they are currently investing their time and energy across their teams Identify the unique leadership needs of each team member Make smarter decisions about how and where to invest their time and energy to get the best results out of everyone Through simple frameworks brought to life with stories from the trenches, leaders will be able to see their own teams—and themselves—from a new perspective. Paradoxically these methods will enable leaders to improve their team’s performance exponentially while expending half the effort. “Lead Inside the Box provides cogent advice about exactly how to lead from the middle (as well as the top) in ways that enable managers to make good things happen and help the organization prosper.” —John Baldoni, Leadership expert and author of Moxie: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership “A great fundamental read for every leader no matter what level you are at.” —Rob Miller, Divisional VP, R&D and Scientific & Medical Affairs, Abbott Nutrition




Lead Now!


Book Description

In this updated edition of the LEAD NOW! handbook, internationally recognized leadership coaches John Parker Stewart and Daniel Stewart provide busy leaders with hundreds of sparkling bits of insightful advice for continuous improvement.