Dancing in the Rain: Leading with Compassion, Vitality, and Mindfulness in Education

by Jerome T. Murphy

Dancing in the Rain offers a lively and accessible guide aimed at helping education leaders thrive under pressure by developing the inner strengths of mindfulness and self-compassion, expressing emotions wisely, and maintaining a clear focus on the values that matter most. Jerome T. Murphy, a scholar and former dean who has written and taught about the inner life of education leaders, argues that the main barrier to thriving as leaders is not the outside pressures we face, but how we respond to them inside our minds and hearts.
 
In this concise volume, Murphy draws on a combination of Eastern contemplative traditions and Western psychology, as well as his own experience and research in the field of education leadership. He presents a series of exercises and activities to help educators take discomfort more in stride, savor the joys and satisfactions of leadership work, and thrive as effective leaders guided by heartfelt values.
 
Every day, education leaders find themselves swamped in a maelstrom of pressures that add to the complex challenges of educating all students to a high level. With humor and compassion, Dancing in the Rain shows educators how to lead lives of consequence and purpose in the face of life’s inescapable downpours.
 

Genres: Leadership, Education

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2016

Reviews

[Ted]

This is one of those books you come back to time and time again. It's not a text you read once from cover to cover and put on the shelf. Accepting the obstacles encountered daily in educational leadership, and thriving in a high-stakes environment is not always easy. Murphy's thoughts on leading in a mindful way are sprinkled in nicely with a lively narrative in which he shares sometimes personal, sometimes professional stories. The exercises included were not always ones I felt most comfortable with, the value of many however was not lost on me. The strength of this book was the practical advice offered on how to excel at being an educational leader. Murphy's experience as the Dean of Graduate Studies in Education at Harvard University lend more than a little credence to the topic. This is definitely a book I will keep near, and come back to time and time again.