Book Reviews

Book Review for Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson

Here are my reflections on Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson.

This is easily one of my favorite books on leadership. I always love sports books and Phil Jackson has such great experiences. The parallels between HTH and Jackson's organizational philosophy are ery impressive.

1 New Findings- I think the biggest thing is how Phil Jackson lets players and the game come to him instead of imposing his will. "Leadership is not about forcing your will on others. It is about mastering the art of letting go "(Jackson, 309). Jackson's style was more letting the game comes and then make the best decision based on his assessment of events. This is such a great mindsest for leading a school. From pages 11 through 22 Jackson lists his eleven rules of leadership. Three of them struck me the most. Lead from the inside out. Road to freedom is a beautiful system. When in doubt do nothing (Jackson, 11-22). You cannot always get your way as a leader. You must work hard to build ownership amongst all teachers and students. If you do everyone will work harder towards the single goal.

2- Themes- one major theme is from a quote on page 112, Jackson quotes from the Tao of Leadership by John Heider, "rules reduce freedom and responsibility. Enforcement rules as Is coercive and diminishes the spontaneity and absorbs group energy" (Jackson, 121). This is great because the more you try to impose your will and rules the more your students other teachers will try to fight against you. As a leader you must step back from the situation and allow teachers and students to flourish. Sometimes people make mistakes it's your job to help them see their mistakes and learn from them. There needs to be the norms and procedures in place. But strict rules sometimes alienate students and teachers. I stopped staying after school to do extra work for about a month after I was called to the principals office for leaving 15 minutes early during my prep period on a Friday. The "rules are rules" style of leadership only alienates hard-working teachers and students.

3- How it made me think differently- one of the major things I've learned is that "if you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves" (Jackson, 13). I used to think leadership is about being strong and rising to the top to use your position as authority. My father was military so this was instilled in me very young age. Now I think there it's true leader is someone who steps back and allows others to be inspired by them so they can achieve their goals.

Jackson talks about how basketball can be a great mystery and "if players didn't have a sense of oneness as a group, their efforts will not pay off" (Jackson, 84). Last week Readings struck me about ownership versus buy in. Jackson mentions this in talks about it a great deal in the book as well. One of the keys to leadership group. Jackson have to deal with multiple personalities Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. His graceful way of managing those personalities helped make Chicago Bulls a winner.

5- audience for my work- I think the main schools all over the UK. Many want to change their schedules don't know how to do it. Jackson repeatedly talks about how he cannot force his will on people. He must "let each player discover his own destiny" (Jackson,13). There is no perfect timetable for any school. I can simply create a case study on one school. Also, I can give several options from what other schools have done with their timetable to allow schools to choose their own destiny.

6. Leadership challenges- In the UK, the government agency OFSTED determines which schools are successful and which ones are not. They have very rigid standards. Basically they say if you follow their organization you will become successful as a school and your students will be successful. It reminded me of a quote that owner of the Bulls said which alienated the players. "Players and coaches when championships; organizations do" (Jackson, 187). In England, teacher sometimes feel that they are a cog in the system and not designers of their own curriculum. Hopefully my work can help schools break away from the system and reach their own greatness.

Book Review - What Great Principals Do Differently by Todd Whitaker

What new insights did I gain about leadership?

Many of the tips in What Great Principals Do Differently, by Todd Whitaker, are insights that make perfect sense, but I might not have been thought about them. As I was reading I thought to myself many times, “duh, of course you should do that, but it never crossed my mind.” The basic message I took away from the book was to hire great teachers, allow them to work their magic, and to create a positive atmosphere at school.

“Great Principals focus on students by focusing on the teachers.” (Whitaker, 35) I wondered what that meant until Whitaker went on to say, “The best Principals base decisions on their best teachers.” By focusing on the best teachers a Principal will have a loyal group of teachers who will be able to help others. This loyal group of teachers will come in handy when Principals introduce new idea. Whitaker explains, “the hardest teacher to move forward is the first” (Whitaker, 70) If a principal gets the best teachers to buy in to a new idea the idea will have a higher chance of sticking.

I also learned that great teachers need “autonomy and recognition” (Whitaker, 83) and that “the best leaders ignore minor errors”. One time an Assistant Principal brought me in to her office to complain that I left 15 minutes before school was over on a Friday even though it was my prep period. When I responded with, “I was here until 6 PM last night and I left only 15 minutes early”, my Assistant Principal retorted with, “your contract hours are 7:15 to 2:45”. My Assistant Principal did not recognize my hard work and focused on a minor issue. The end result was me becoming disgruntled and I felt for weeks that my hard work didn’t matter. If my Assistant Principal acknowledged my hard work while she was telling me to follow the rules I would have been much more receptive to her ideas.

What did I learn about the leader I want to be?

Since I try to soak up everything Rob Riordan says, I didn’t learn anything groundbreaking from this book. Rob Riordan is like a walking example of lessons learned in this book, and I will try my best to emulate Rob. When working with a struggling teacher, Rob stays as positive as possible. “Focusing on the positive things in our schools gives us more energy to get through the less positive times.” (Whitaker, 25) Rob Riordan’s positive energy helps teachers focus on how to improve, because they do not feel threatened.

Yes, I would recommend this book.

I would definitely recommend this book to others. The book was broken into small bite sized chunks and had clearly titled sections. The book is something I will refer to on a regular basis, because I will be able to find a passage and read it in minutes instead of hours like other books. What Great Principals Do Differently would definitely help me if I was as a Director of a school.