Educational Quotes 5: Leadership and Teamwork

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'You can't blow an uncertain trumpet' Mark Twain


Imposed bureaucratic 'top down' changes have resulted in school being 'over managed and under led.' Now is the time for courageous leaders, at all levels, to emerge and add their 'voices' to the debate. There are no experts with 'the answer' - we will have to invent the future ourselves together as we go along.
 
Shared leadership... is less like a an orchestra, where the conductor is always in charge, and more like a jazz band, where leadership is passed around ... depending on what the music demands at the moment and who feels most moved by the spirit to express the music.' Schlechy 2001
 
'Leaders... will be explorers, adventurers, trailblazers... leaders of leaders... They will gather around them people who have the future in their bones.' Rowan Gibson 'Re Thinking the Future.'
 
'The key to leadership is having people willing to follow you if only out curiosity to see what's going to happen.' Marc Anderson Founder of Netscape
 
'Systems of schooling are over managed and under led'. Thomas Sergiovanni
 
'We need to decide whether to give full service or lip service.' Peter Block
 
'My friends, you never need to bow to no one' Gandalf to the Hobbits
 
(In schools) 'There is an emphasis on doing things right rather on doing the right things.' Thomas Sergiovanni
 
'It is hard to remember that you came to drain the swamp when you are up to your backside in crocodiles.' Saying
 
'The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside. And only he who listens can speak..' Dag Hammarskjold UN
 
'Comparison, a great teacher told me, is the cardinal sin of modern life. It traps us in a game we can't win. Once we define ourselves in terms of others we lose the freedom to shape our own lives.' Jim Collins, Author 'Built to Last'
 
'Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.' Buddha 53 BC -483 BC
 
'Self doubt combined with dignity is central to competent leadership... ( a leader)is able to recognize when he... is on the wrong track and perhaps identify the error by giving in to the need for complete reevaluation.' John Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's Bastards.
 
'The essence of good strategy is what has always been - insecurity and uncertainty.' John Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's Bastards
 
'There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth - not going all the way, and not starting.' Buddna
 
' the challenge ( for leadership) is to initiate a conversation about what's purpose and what's just practice. Preserve the best, reinvent the rest'... Hold your company hostage, declare your vision in a public way... Make decisions right or wrong .There is nothing worse than waffling'. Keith Yamashira US Business Consultant
 
'Education can change culture but only in so far as educators are transformed.' Parent School Board USA
 
'My job is creating an environment where teachers continually learn'. US Innovative Principal
 
'The question of 'How?' - more than any other question - looks for answers outside of us. It is an individual expression of our doubt.' Peter Block Business Philosopher
 
'Choosing to act on what matters is the choice to live a passionate existence, which is anything but controlled and predictable.' Peter Block Author 'Stewardship.'
 
'Leadership is a personal quest you undertake, based on mission that troubles your heart.' Harriet Rubin. 'Fast Company' Writer
 
'We have all worked with people who are entirely lacking in energy or are the walking black holes of human existence; they suck energy out of whoever they walk into. So the litmus test for all of is, 'Do I generate more energy when I walk into a room or when I walk out of it?'' Steve Farber, President of Extreme Leadership
 
'I think it is important for leaders to answer the question 'What's exciting about the work I /we really do here?' ..to expand it out to the higher meaning and purpose... To really articulate what we really do here, and why this place is cool.'' Steve Farber , President 'Extreme Leadership'.
 
'Leadership is a scary thing. That's why few people want to stand up to the plate.'... 'There are many people who want to be matadors, only to find themselves in the ring with 2,000 pounds of bull bearing down on them, and then discover that what they really wanted was to wear tight pants and hear the crowd roar' Steve Farber.
 
'Good directors, playwrights and leaders are enablers who make it possible for others to succeed by providing the means and opportunities for actions.' Anon
 
'Faced with the choice of buckling under by complying or 'doing a bit of rule bending' successful leaders get on with the latter.' Thomas Sergiovanni
 
'To be a leader is to be awake and alert, to be dissatisfied at all times.' Peter Koestenbaum Philosopher
 
'Remember a dead fish can float downstream but it takes a live one to swim upstream'. W C Fields
 
'It is easier to follow the leader than to lead the follower.' Anon
 
'All bottlenecks occur at the top.' Anon
 
'Be who you are
and say what you feel
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.' Dr Suess

'Leaders are 'canny outlaws', system benders, creative and responsible rule benders. They have to succeed because... the deck is stacked against creative, imaginative and entrepreneurial teachers.' Thomas Sergiovanni
 
'Most of what institutional leadership does today comes from what they thought we wanted and needed yesterday.' Peter Block, Author 'The Answer to How is Yes'.
 
'Win small, win early, win often.' Gary Hamel Leadership 'guru'.
 
'Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage.' Anais Nin
 
'In fact, leaders... that go from good to great start not with 'where' but with 'who'. They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats... first the people, then the direction'. Jim Collins
 
'We need to make hope practical and despair less convincing as a central contribution from adults to young people.' Jaon Kenwg
 
'The human being is a walking paradox. We want to be free, completely individual on one hand, and we want to belong on the other hand. We want to be part of a flock but at the same time, you want to be you,' Kjell and Jonas
 
'Leaders... appeal to the heart... with people's deepest, heartfelt hopes. What are these hopes? Humans have a fundamental longing to believe we are successful in what we do - our need to achieve. Educators are typically denied this sense of success. Bombarded with too many state, national, and district standards for students to master... teachers are often unclear as to what they are supposed to accomplish'. Rick Dufor 2004
 
'This is a dreary era. Those who know about education have no power; those who have the power know little or nothing about education' Marion Brady US Educator
 
'The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizen, to put down dissent.' H L Menken
 
'It is one of life's great ironies: schools are in the business of teaching and learning, yet they are terrible at learning from one another. If they ever discover how to do this, their future is assured.' Fullan 2001
 
'I will release you to be creatively crazy and wonderful for these students... We will do whatever it takes.' Lorraine Monro Author 'Nothings Impossible'
 
'Hire Rembrandt to do the painting and don't tell him how to paint.' Anon
 
'The leader lays down the melody line and encourages individual band members to improvise around them.' Bradley Porten US Educationalist
 
'If you are going to skate on thin ice, tap dance, and go down in style.' Bryce Courtenay
 
'Leaders need to have clear answer to the question 'What do we believe in? and be equally clear about... 'How do you translate your beliefs into actions?' Bowring Carr and Burnham West
 
'Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' Anon
 
'Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which one will I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat. 'I don't know Alice answered. 'Then', said the cat, 'It doesn't matter.'' Alice in Wonderland
 
'Power can be taken, but not given. The process of taking is empowerment itself.' Gloria Steinem US Feminist
 
( We need) 'leadership that is tough enough to demand a great deal from everyone, and leadership that is tender enough to encourage the heart.' Thomas Sergiovanni Leadership for the Schoolhouse
 
'It is an injustice, a grave evil and disturbance of the right order for a large and higher organization to abrogate to itself functions which can be performed more efficiently by smaller and lower bodies.' Papal Encyclical
 
'Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir man's blood... make big plans. Aim high in hope and work.' Daniel H Burnham
 
'It is time for us to release ourselves from simplistic and ineffective prescriptions; the time to dream is upon us.' Carl Glickman
 
There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.' W C Fields
 
'The true leader senses and transforms the needs of followers.' James McGregor Burns
 
If we want to help people change, I s important that we don't push or pull them - just walk together.' 'Aquarian Conspiracy.'
 
'A team is a mosaic' Charles Williams
 
'Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a genius- and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction,' E E Schumacher
 
'The best leaders are like outstanding samurai warriors in the sense that they engage themselves fully in the tasks at hand without being distracted by what might go wrong. Warren Bennis called this 'The Wallenda Factor' - putting ones energy into walking life's various wires without concern for the outcome'. Farson and Keyes.
 
'Decisions of the head rather than the heart are then ones we come to regret.' Patricia Weenolsen Psychologist
 
'When we are doing something we're passionate about, failure becomes a non-issue... Pursuit of a dream rarely leads to regrets... Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure' Farson and Keyes.
 
'Nothing happens until someone does something.' Steve Farke Leadership Guru
 
No more prizes for building the ark .Prizes only for predicting rain.' Anon
 
Leadership is needed to assemble a team of renegades- people with the right mix of passion and courage to be willing to do things that haven't been done before.' Scott Lutz, CEO
 
'Never look down to test the ground before taking the next step; only he who keeps his eye on the far horizon will find the right road.' Dag Hammarskjold UN

'Briefly, leaders challenge the process because they are risk takers who capitalise on opportunities. As idealists they inspire a shared vision. They... instinctively nurture the talents and energy of colleagues. Leaders enable others to act. ...by serving as coaches and cheerleaders they encourage the heart.' Bennis
 
'Lead, follow or get out of the way' Anon
 
'I set myself as the goal the maximum capacity that people have - I settle for no less. I make myself a relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.'
Benjamen Zander Conductor Boston
 
'You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from non-conformity, the ability to turn your back on old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesteryear for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We mist dare to invent the future.'Thomas Sankara African leader
 
'Who shall kindle others must himself glow.' Italian Proverb
 
'The only thing of real importance leaders do is to create and manage cultures.' Edgar Schein
'Our schools are over-managed and under-led.' Maurice Gionotti
 
'The best principals are not heroes; they are hero makers'. Roland Barth
 
'The art of leadership is keeping the herd roughly pointed west!' Anon
 
'Imagine that you would become a better teacher just by virtue of being on a the staff of a particular school - just from that one fact alone.' Michael Fullan
 
'Schools must forge greater relationships with the wider community, parents and other schools. Too many schools are working insolation. Schools need to share their power with students and the wider community.'. Fullan and Hargreaves
 
'The best leaders...almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories.' Tom Peters