CHAPTER TWO

Vices and Virtues

This chapter is about a vicious circle in which principals in the United States increasingly find themselves trapped; the next will be about a more virtuous cycle that establishes and sustains the conditions for success. The principal needs to become a balanced leader—minimizing the counterproductive actions and specializing in the generative actions that yield positive results.

Panic Time?

Do you feel a terrible sense of urgency? Or is what you feel these days more like panic? John Kotter (2008), a long-standing change leader guru, has a great take on the concept of urgency. He says, true enough, that big changes can’t be initiated without some terrible sense of urgency, but once we leave the starting blocks, ...

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