Running Head: Book Review --On Becoming a School Leader: A Person-Centered Challenge

Book Review: On Becoming a School Leader: A Person-Centered Challenge

Alberto Hananel Pepperdine University - GSEP September 23, 2000 ED 762 Dr. Doug Leigh

Introduction

Arthur Combs's book, On Becoming A School Leader: A Person-Centered Challenge, provides a clear method of understanding ourselves, as school leaders, and methods needed to improve our skills.

The book is divided into three sections: Leadership and Belief Systems, Leader's Conceptions of Change and Self, and Leaders and Organizations. Each section is filled with easy to read and clearly thought out illustrations of what occurs at a school setting with educational leaders, or in my personal case a 'rising educational leader.'

Gut Reaction: I have always considered myself a 'people person.' My definition of this includes that I am able to get along well with people, interact and accept them for whom they truly are. Combs says "leaders act from the most accurate concepts of human behavior" (Combs, p. 9). He explains, in depth the value of a person-centered method of dealing with others, especially in education. He claims that leaders must always find the way to best communicate with people, which in terms become a lifetime project. Combs writes powerfully about what educational leaders encounter, on a daily basis, as well as in general terms. He does a good job expressing what occurs at schools, and how the principal or the leader of the organization must deal with the myriad of people and the multitude of different tasks and data he/she faces each and every day.

I found myself nodding, in agreement, and seeing where I stand in the scheme of what Combs is relating to his readers. Each section of the book had things that not only made me think, but also gave me a good sense of how to possibly deal with situations I will have to face while my time as Interim Principal at my school site and as an educational leader, as a whole. I also found that I could take many of the topics written about in the book and use them or pocket them until the appropriate time.

I truly enjoyed the portion titled Understanding the Costs of Empathic Leadership. A good leader must be sensitive to his/her own needs as well as those he/she leads. Combs writes, "they must keep only a tentative hold on beliefs, realizing that what they know and believe today may not be what they will know an d believe tomorrow" (Combs, p. 41). It is true that leaders are here to inspire followers to greatness and always to achieve goals, professionally and socially.

Big Picture: Reaching our goals is truly the big picture in all of this talk relating to personal leadership. It is true that leaders must first understand themselves in order to achieve greatness, before trying to get others to go with them and conquer ends.

Leaders must be able to reach followers in many different ways. Finding these make the job challenging. However, effective leaders are ones who know how to communicate, expect change, can deal with it efficiently and are not afraid to deal with it head on.

Leaders too must be problem solvers and are able to confront problems with effective solutions. In order to do this, leaders, especially educational leaders, must be good role models for all the adults, students and parents; in order to be able to take the stakeholders to a place where everyone can grow, learn to change and discover what everyone's needs are.

Implications: ØIn the last couple of weeks, I have attended the "Seven Habits for Highly Effective People" (Franklin Covey) Workshop, which has opened my eyes in how to deal, not only with myself, but also my wife, colleagues, teachers, students and other stakeholders at my work site. Combs touches upon ideas that correlate well with the Habits discussed in Steven Covey's book, Seven Habit for Highly Effective People. I found that Combs links with Habit #5 "Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood." The best way to describe this would be that a doctor, first listens to a patient, diagnosis the problem, and then prescribes a solution to the illness. Combs, in Chapter I, A Person-Centered Perspective On Educational Leadership, talks about how a leader must be understood in terms of the belief systems of those that person wants to lead. This leader must first understand the ones he leads, and then is able to explore and refine his/her belief system that will benefit for him/herself (Combs, p. 13). Again, in Chapter Two, Seeking and Responding to Data, he eludes to the fact that the leader first sought the people's perspective before responding to the behavior. This might also be part of Habit #3, First Things First, where one is to prioritize before prescribing solutions or even trying to undertake the problems at hand. Questions: Being an educational leader is not an easy task. There are so many facets of this that it is difficult to pinpoint details. How do graduate schools know whom to admit into Master's and/or Doctoral programs that are meant to train educational leaders? What are some of the qualities schools look for in a person, before making the final admission?

How do educational leaders keep all the balls in the air, efficiently? Without the support of the stakeholders (staff, faculty, parents, etc) how does the job get accomplished?

What happens to an efficient organization/school that has a good leader, if he/she leaves? How can the school recuperate?

Combs, A. W., Miser, A. B., Whitaker, K. S. (Eds). On Becoming a School Leader: A Person-Centered Challenge. Alexandria, VA. Association for Curriculum Development.

An understandable and informative look at the thoery of evolution. The author offers an interesting format for readers - alternating between vivid story-based reconstructions of primitive society and question-answer sessions between a virtual professor and student. Once and a while the reading level of the book dropped to a frustrating low level, but all in all I felt it acheived the goal of expressing evolution in a palatable format. It was also refreshingly neutral about race and gender - exploring the roles of all humans in past soceities. A recommended read.

It's really a excellent book on operating system

I attempted every single question for the first 8 chapters of this book. I really enjoyed this book and had only a few problems with some of the questions (the answer in the solutions guide was far different than what I expected). I really thought this book would live on past the first edition. If you are an aspiring organic chemist, I believe this book will give you the fundamentals to a successful career. After a year with this book, I got A's in almost every Advanced O-CHEM class I took thereafter.

Drawing the reader's attention with ample real-business examples, the authors discuss corporations as entities that must adapt, generate ideas and act upon new information. The writing team - Arthur K. Yeung, David O. Ulrich, Stephen W. Nason and Mary Ann Von Glinow - delve into learning styles, basing their work on research and material gleaned from a widespread survey of corporations and organizations. They stack up the building blocks necessary for organizational learning, the corporate ability to generate and implement ideas. Although based on scholarly research, the book is concisely written in an easily accessible, conversational tone, and comes to life with corporate case studies. We [...] recommend this book to managers, executives and owners whose organizations might need to learn a thing or two.

The definition of philosophy varies according to the philosophy we adopt, says Russell. So then --- there are some general problems which people find interesting, and which do not belong to any of the special sciences, and these problems raise doubts about what we consider knowledge. The definition and exploration of this problems is philosophy. With this introduction, Russell discusses some problems: the physical world, man from without (environment), man from within (consciousness, emotions, ethics etc) and so on. An outline is clearly limited, and Russell does not include many branches of philosophical enquiry such as metaphysical inquiry and some aspects of authority and state. But within its constraints, the book is still a good read.

This small book presents a wealth of information for oil painters of all styles and techniques. Perhaps the most useful chapter is that which deals with the changing optical nature of pigment in various oils. Ever wonder why it never quite works to paint a new image over an old one or why an underdawing plays such a crucial role? This chapter explains why. Though old, this book has not become dated. It remains an excellent companion to Ralph Mayer's handbook and Robert Massey's _Formulas for Painters_, and like them, deserves to be in the bookcase of any serious painter.

This book provides a great way to brush up on your skills and knowledge for any upcomming tests. Helps to bring back termanology that you may have forgotten since class. Does a great job covering all skills from basic to more advanced. Great tool that any medic new or well seasoned should keep with them!

Este libro es bueno pero tiene pequeños errores; los temas no estan tocados en mucha profundidad pero para empezar esta bien.

A quick scan of this book shows it is both user-friendly and practical. All subjects are easy to find with excellent suggestions for both evaluation and follow-through. It is easy to use for both professional and lay person alike. Each category (loneliness, guilt, anger, depression, etc.) includes specific actions/behaviors to help the individual address the issues involved. I recommend this book highly.