Pangasinan State University GRADUATE SCHOOL Urdaneta City, Pangasinan

EDF 205 Educational Management Leadership Secrets: Book Review

Submitted by: Marjorie R. Sabiano MAED Science

Submitted to: Dr. Lydia Buduhan

October 15, 2011

Title Author Publlisher Date Type of Book

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Leadership Secrets Michael Heath Harper Collins Publisher, London 2010 General References

Summary: Behind any organization's success is a great leader; and behind any organization's downfall is an ineffective leader. Good leadership matter for an organization's success. It is therefore important to develop the characteristics and skills of leaders to help them perform better with regards to their positions It is also necessary that they'd be always reminded of their responsibilities and accountabilities to ensure that what they'd contribute to the organization is honor and prestige instead of a downright failure. Leadership Secrets specifies the fundamentals of leadership. It is divided into seven chapters each of which is filled with convictions, skills, beliefs, and techniques that leaders need to develop in order to become successful in their fields. The first chapter, Leadership Character, enumerates the core of behaviors, values and characteristics that great leaders must develop. It also lists down the essential attributes of leadership that a leader must possess: courage, a steely mental toughness, discipline, good values, confidence, enthusiasm, patience, personal warmth, self-development and work-life balance. These principles are considered the backbones that make leaders the strong, principled individuals that people look up to. Leadership that doesn't demonstrate these principles is considered spineless. Leadership Responsibilities clarifies any organization's general expectations fron its respective leaders. It also presents a good way of examining how those expectations should be delivered. It emphasizes responsibilities that would make leaders take what they see and reshape it to meet the demands of tomorrow. It also explores the range of behaviors required in a leader taking command one moment, then demonstrating genuine humility the next; leading and managing to bring about climate change; opening up to people; and employing the right approach that restores a team to its previous effectiveness. Leadership Strategy explores the importance for leaders to be able to put up strategies that must contribute to the organization's long-term organizational strategy; hence, the ability to set a strategic direction is where leaders thrive or fall. This strategy must be more than where, it's also the how and the why. It must be viewed in its entirety so interconnection of all its parts be seen. Leadership and Execution deals with making some tough decisions in situations that are hard to predict and understand. It deals about getting everyone to walk the walk which could be achieved not just by getting people to agree to tasks but by getting them to deliver those tasks on time and to a quality standard. Minding way through roadblocks, collaborating and making everyone happy, fighting battles worth winning, recruitung and encouraging response-ability, responding to underperformance, and negating the negative conflict are also essential aspects of executing leadership. Leadership and Change concentrates on the delivery of smaller changes resulting from the organization's change in strategy. Coping with change involves developing a vision of change everyone sees; convincing people why they must change,;being sensitive to the change process; maintaining momentum; inviting resistance; opening up to accurate, constructive feedback; accepting ambiguity; and innovating for a great Plan B. Leadership Influence emphasizes the need of understanding the political landscape of an organization. It talks about the importance of building up relationships of trust with key people, such as by offering assistance when appropriate. Once trust is established, favors could be expected in return. Networking is an effective way of becoming a great influencer. Leadership and the Team highlights the influence of the team to the success of the organization. Since any great leader cannot bring success of an organization alone, he should develop a team that must be dynamic, focused and must be able to deliver. This chapter explains how a leader can create the right environment for the team to take on new responsibility. It also shows how to lead in this age of virtual teams and teleconferencing. Reaction: Leadership Secrets is a great source of information about being a successful leader. It provides meaningful strategies and necessary characteristics that a leader must possess in order to effectively implement change and develop an organization's capability to achieve success. Being a leader (in the classroom setting) myself, the book has helped me aquire new insights that are beneficial to my

profession. From it, I have learned not to be just a classroom manager but an effective teacher leader as well. The idea that behind an organization's success is an effective and efficient leader is not isolated to the business world alone. Even in school settings, school leaders are considered the keystone in the building of effective schools. One can always point to the principal's leadership as the key to success of a school that is vibrant and has a reputation of excellence in teaching. Hence, the importance of developing school leaders that are well-equipped with knowledge and skills. The Leadership Secrets provides some of these necessary knowledge and skills that school leaders should learn to develop.