As a masters student in a leadership program I have been reading the current literature around leadership for the past two years. Donaldson's book is by far in my top five. Easy to read and accessible, this book offers hope for the future of our schools. The model that he proposes for school leadership is both practical and filled with great ideals...anyone who has worked in a school will know that the author "knows his stuff."

I highly recommend the book.

This little volume scrapes away the layers of thinking and strategies that have built up over the years and have been proferred to school principals. It begins with the simple, underlying question: "How is it that schools can be lead?"

And it begins with a simple goal: to develop a practical model of school leadership that promises to address the two most pressing issues facing school leadership today: 1) serve the learning needs of children and their communities and 2) prove practicable and fulfilling to leaders themselves.

From this point of origin, Gordon Donaldson casts a fresh eye on what he calls "the everyday realities" that surround people who seek to lead. He finds in his chapters entitled "The Conspiracy of Busyness" and "The Planetary Culture of Schools" that if people approach leadership in the classical paradigm of "one organization, one leader", they are destined to fail in schools.

Donaldson then generates a provocative new model that he argues is "congruent with the everyday realities of schools". Building from the work of Barth, Rost, Heifetz, Helgesen, Sergiovanni, and Darling-Hammond, he proposes a relational model in which leadership is "plural" - blended among people with diverse roles, talents, and responsibilities but who share a common purpose and a disposition for action. Leadership, he claims, engages three intertwining "streams" of a school's life: relationships among adults and between adults and children; purposes and commitments to them; and the belief that "we act in common" to attain our purposes.

The bulk of Gordon Donaldson's book explores what principals and teacher leaders can do to participate in leadership in the three streams. In doing so, he helps us distinguish between these two roles (both of which he claims are absolutely essential to a strong school). He goes on to examine, then, what particular skills and dispositions stand principals and teacher leaders in good stead as they go about this important work. Here, he calls upon the work of Daniel Goleman, Nel Noddings, Robert Evans, and Peter Senge among others.

The book's grounding in "realities" gives it resonance for teachers, principals, counselors, and even citizen leaders. Its descriptions of leader activities and the skills necessary for them makes it useful to people intent on learning to lead and searching for a more useful model for their own leadership experience.

Deborah Meier wrote:

"Wonderful, wise, and well said... This book lays out a way of thinking about what leadership might entail, alongside the details of why it doesn't happen and what it would require for it to become a reality." Meier is Principal, Mission Hill Elementary School, Boston; Founder, Central Park East High School, NYC

Tom Sergiovanni wrote:

"Few books will teach you more about leadership, how it works, and how it can slip into the nooks and crannies of a school. Donaldson sets a new standard for timeliness and relevance. A must read for school faculties who want to come together to work more effectively with kids." Sergiovanni is Professor, Center for Educational Leadership at Trinity University, San Antonio TX

Roland Barth wrote:

In this volume, Gordon Donaldson demonstrates that he is the ultimate 'reflective practitioner'. Like a good academic, his gift to the reader is a refreshing model of school leadership.; But like a good practitioner, he offers a model based on the realities of the school culture.... I wish I had had Cultivating Leadership in Schools as my partner during my own turbulent days as a school principal." Barth is author of Improving Schools from Within, the founder of the Harvard Principals' Center and a former professor at Harvard

Gayle Moller wrote:

This book clearly and concisely explains why school leaders are frustrated in their jobs. In this book, practitioners will find a friend in the author who explains the obstacles to leading in schools, yet offers practical solutions through a leadership model that more closely reflects a school's organization." Moller is the former director of the South Florida Center for Educational Leadership and currently teaches at Western Carolina

I found the early chapters tough to get into, but by the time Donaldson began the history of James I I was hooked. A fascinating study at the lives and reigns of some colorful personalities and crucial times. The book managed to cover Scottish political struggles, foreign alliances and how the Stewart monarchs failed and succeeded with these challenges. All in all a great book, perhaps its one drawback was its relative scarcity of information on the Scottish Reformation.

From his description of Alexander III being installed at Scone in 1249 -- in rites reminiscent of a pagan tribal chief instead of the Christian monarch of a western European nation -- to the sparsely attended coronation of James VI three centuries later (the result of a precarious revolution that deposed his predecessor), the author explores the reign of each monarch and sets him (or her) against the broader canvas of European history. Donaldson is one of the foremost authorities on Scottish history up to the unification of the island and his scholarship is impeccable, but he also has a happy talent for clear and colorful narrative. A good overview of the dynastic machinations and complex foreign relations that kept the Scottish mon-archy on its toes.

As a CEO I think this is the first real description of how the manager at the top realy thinks about his job. It should help any student analysist or anybody involved in corporate finance feel right at home.

When we were studying corporate finance and policy, our teachers use to recommend us Gordon's articles and books; they called him father of finance. His articles were true classics; even after passage of few decades they remain as applicable as they were then.

Same is with this book. It dispels the myth that restructuring can only be from outside by giving you live examples. I would recommend it to anyone who is at the top seat or eyeing that position. Whether he/she is leading a successful organization or trying to turnaround a deteriorating bottom line, this is the book for him/her.