Leading for Results: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Relationships in

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

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 interactive 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!

Dennis Sparks has been executive director of the 10,000-member National Staff Development Council since 1984. He previously was an independent educational consultant and director of the Northwest Staff Development Center. Sparks has been a teacher, counselor, and co-director of an alternative high school. He completed his doctorate in counseling at the University of Michigan in 1976, and has taught at several universities. He speaks frequently throughout North America on topics such as powerful staff development and effective teaching. Sparks has authored Designing Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals (NSDC, 2002) and Conversations that Matter (NSDC, 2001), a collection of his JSD interviews since 1991. He is co-author with Stephanie Hirsh of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn (NSDC, 2000) and A New Vision for Staff Development (ASCD/NSDC, 1997). He also co-authored, with Joan Richardson, What is Staff Development Anyway? (NSDC, 1998). Sparks' column appears each month NSDC's newsletter, Results. His interviews with leading educational thinkers also appear in NSDC'sJournal of Staff Development. In addition, his articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, The American School Board Journal, The Principal, and The School Administrator. Sparks' interviews and articles are accessible on the NSDC web site at Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Part I: Transformation Through Clarity and Creation
1. Use Fundamental Choices to Create Your Life
2. Clarify Your Intentions
3. Establish Stretch Goals
4. Identify Multiple Ways to Achieve Your Goals
5. Find the Trim Tab
6. The 80/20 Principle
7. Practice Satisficing
8. Determine Root Causes
9. Develop a Theory of Action and Use Storytelling to Communicate It
10. Gain ClarityThrough Writing, Speaking, and Reflecting on Action
11. Leaders Provide Teachable Points of View
Part II: Transformation Through Interpersonal Influence
12. Tell Your Truth
13. Use Candor to Assess Current Reality
14. Use Genuine Dialogue
15. Engage in Dialogue-Like Conversations
16. Listen to Others in a Deep, Committed Way
17. Use Silence as a Learning Tool
18. Make Requests to Initiate Action and Create Results
19. Make and Keep Promises
20. Replace Questions With Declarative Statements
21. Minimize the Language of Obligation
22. Decrease the Use of Cause-Effect Language
23. Stand Up for Your Point of View
Part III: Transformation Through a Culture That Promotes Professional Learning, Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement
24. Shape School Culture to Improve Teaching and Sustain Competent Teaching
25. Create Successful Schools
26. Promote Breakthrough Thinking
27. Attend to Leaders' Inner Development
28. Recognize Our Best Selves
29. Increase the Use of Signature Strengths
30. Enhance Your Personal Energy
31. Build Relationships to Sustain Positive Energy
32. Address the Fundamental Barriers to Professional Learning and Teamwork in Schools
33. Spread Positive Emotions Throughout the Organization
34. Address Anxiety in the Schoolhouse
35. Appeal to the Heart as Well as the Head
Part IV: Transformation Through Professional Learning and Doing
36. Design Powerful Professional Learning for All Educators
37. Match Professional Development Goals and Methods With Student Outcomes
38. Bridge the Knowing-Doing Gap
39. Amplify Positive Deviance
40. Create Professional Learning That Alters Educators' Brains
41. Install Next Action Thinking
42. Change Habits
43. Sustain the Conversation
Index