Step out of Your Comfort Zone and Really Help Kids To meet the needs of today’s learners, fearless leadership is required to support and empower the adults who work with these learners. Anchored in research, Fearless Conversations is a guide to recognizing and using strategies that encourage staff to work at their full potential, build trust, and strengthen collegiality. Strong, courageous, focused, collaborative leadership is a win-win approach for all stakeholders. Readers will find • interviews and case studies to illustrate effective practice • strategies to help them move from traditional methodologies toward stronger transformational leadership • vignettes and examples to ignite additional thinking to facilitate achievement for all students Written for aspiring, new, and experienced school leaders, this is a must-read for anyone who wants practical strategies that they can use immediately to build a culture of learning and improve academic achievement for all students. "Fearless Conversations School Leaders Have to Have is a professional "toolbox" for aspiring as well as experienced school administrators and teacher leaders or any educator who cares about meeting the needs of today’s student learner. How to address difficult issues in a leadership role, for example, is presented in a realistic perspective through real-life examples, vignettes, and personal reflections that come not only from the authors themselves but also from school leaders currently in the field. These proven strategies bring credibility to the authors’ work. It is a practical guide that can help school leaders stay on the forefront of success in their schools." Linda Pincham, Associate Professor Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL "This book is timely, practical, and clearly anchored in the rich leadership and coaching experiences of the writers. This book is a must read for all leaders and aspiring leaders at the building and central office level. This book will also be useful at the university level where new leaders are being prepared and inspired." Lynda C. Wood, Ed.D, Retired Superintendent Southfield Public School District, Southfield, MI

Step out of Your Comfort Zone and Really Help Kids To meet the needs of today's learners, fearless leadership is required to support and empower the adults who work with these learners. Written to help leaders build a culture of learning and improve academic achievement for all students, this guide to recognizing and using strategies will encourage staff to work at their full potential, build trust, and strengthen collegiality. Readers will find - interviews and case studies to illustrate effective practice - strategies to help them move from traditional methodologies toward stronger transformational leadership - examples to ignite additional thinking to facilitate achievement for all students

This book identifies the six fearless decisions that school leaders need to make to be successful. The author analyzes the top fears that impede effective leadership and lower student achievement, then provides a step by step antidote that will change fear into intention, increase confidence, and produce positive results in your school. In this book, you'll learn how to: * approach difficult classrooms and solve the problem of low-performing teachers * gain the strength to accept judgment when making controversial decisions during the change process * offer trust and gain it from your staff * use reflection questions and techniques to align thoughts with your best intentions * "re-wire" your thinking as you examine the risks that come with change * take action on standardized test results to improve student learning * feel comfortable making and implementing tough decisions Learn how to change fear into intention so you are able to act with confidence and get the results you really want.

Fully revised and updated—the national bestselling communication skills guide that will help you achieve personal and professional success one conversation at a time. The master teacher of positive change through powerful communication, Susan Scott wants you to succeed. To do that, she explains, you must transform everyday conversations at work and at home with effective ways to get your message across—and get what you want. In this guide, which includes a workbook and The Seven Principles of Fierce Conversations, Scott teaches you how to: • Overcome barriers to meaningful communication • Expand and enrich relationships with colleagues, friends, and family • Increase clarity and improve understanding • Handle strong emotions—on both sides of the table • Connect with colleagues, customers and family at a deep level Includes a Foreword by Ken Blanchard, the bestselling co-author of The One Minute Manager

"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.

This book examines some of the most important challenges facing administrators and other professionals in PreK-12 schools today: safety and security, hiring and evaluating members of the faculty and staff, dealing with students’ academic and behavioral challenges, assessing student performance, responding to disengaged or overly engaged parents, and handling external pressures from the community. It also explores ideas for how to design the types of school our students will need in the future and cope with the realities of trying to develop these schools in a difficult educational environment. Preferring practical advice over unsupported hypotheses and adopting clear, instructive language rather than educational jargon, the authors draw upon their own experience as well as some of the best research currently being conducted in the field of educational leadership. The book is suitable for self-study, workshops, education courses, and in-serve programs. The target audience is current and prospective PreK-12 administrators, teachers, student teachers, and staff.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead. Don’t miss the five-part HBO Max docuseries Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart! NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work. But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start. Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love. Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.” Whether you’ve read Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you’re new to Brené Brown’s work, this book is for anyone who wants to step up and into brave leadership.