Leadership, like life, is a journey best taken along with a healthy dose of self-knowledge, social conscience, empathy, compassion, and humility. What is taught and learned in administrative preparation programs are the nuts and bolts: the law, finance, labor relations, supervision, governance, the details of the daily responsibilities. These are all necessary knowledge and skills for the administrative role, but they are not all one needs to know. The successful ones, the ones who have led schools or districts to shared and sustained success, are those leaders we remember and hope to emulate. They are the leaders who understand what is needed in the present while leaning into the future, no matter the moving horizon line. Once we have known a leader who can do that, once we have the model of what a successful leader is, we long for them. We yearn for those leaders who do not disappoint us (Bennis, 2009). These are the leaders we need for our schools, the students who learn in them, and the teachers who teach in them. Read more...