Stages of leadership

1. Discuss the authors’ characteristics of school principals in light of the statement, “Lead not manage!” Where would you place your principal or site leader on the spectrum of this statement?
2. As a new or experienced principal taking on a new site, how would you go about establishing a healthy school culture that leads to high student achievement?
3. The authors’ use a metaphor of “forces” that a principal can use to develop and maintain a quality school. Explain the “three forces of leadership” that are foundational to operating schools and the two “forces” that can lead to extraordinary performance by staff. If you are at a school site or work in a staff like environment, where and why would you place your staff and its leadership on the spectrum of full involvement of the “five forces?”
4. The authors; scenario entitled, “The Change in the Culture of Red Middle school,” included essential; ideas for developing a resilient school culture that can change as the needs of staff and students change. List two key ideas with a brief explanation of each and how they contribute with others to keep up with change.
5. If possible, in chart format, contrast transformative and transactional leadership; how could you use this contrast in a leadership role?
6. Explain MacGregor Burn’s theory of leadership and its implications for the school or institutional leader.
7. Of the three archetypes – artists, craftsmen, and technocrats, which best describes your principal? Using a 10 point scale 1 (little or none) – 10 (always) indicate the extent to which your principal/organizational leader exhibits each type. Provide examples as well as articulate the presence of each archetype in your own professional behavior.
8. Write one example from personal experience of each of the following: Bureaucratic Authority, Personal Authority and Moral Authority. Comment on the effectiveness of each, given the situation in which it was used.
9. Clarify the notion of “fit” in terms of leadership style and specific school situations.
10. Define the four stages of leadership described in Chapter 7: bartering, building, binding, and bonding. Explain how these, although seemingly sequential, are, in reality, used simultaneously in the real world of schools. Discuss specific means by which a leader moves toward binding and bonding.

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