What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wounded Leader: How Real Leadership Emerges in Times of Crisis
As any school principal or adminstrator can tell you, theresponsibilities of school leadership can take a person frominspired moments to crisis in an instant. How does a school leaderwith good intentions preserve a healthy sense of self in the faceof a crisis which in the best of times challenges the self, and inthe worst of times can lead to deep wounds of the heart? How cangood leaders minimize the impact of these crises and remain open tolearn and grow from these difficult experiences? These are thequestions at the heart of the stories contained in The WoundedLeader.
Through compelling stories that illustrate many of the commondilemmas faced by school leaders, the authors highlight the manypaths to healing, and show how sometimes the most painfulexperience can be an opportunity for growth.
"All leaders incur wounds. The Wounded Leader enables us tounderstand our wounds, learn from them....and begin to heal." -Roland Barth, Founder of Harvard Principals' Center
"Not only is the book full of fresh ideas and new insights but itis a fun read. It is not the usual leadership book that reads muchlike the other leadership books but stands out as an originalcontribution...easily presented and scholarly without beingpretentious." - Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Center for EducationalLeadership at Trinity College, San Antonio, Texas
Through compelling stories that illustrate many of the commondilemmas faced by school leaders, the authors highlight the manypaths to healing, and show how sometimes the most painfulexperience can be an opportunity for growth.
"All leaders incur wounds. The Wounded Leader enables us tounderstand our wounds, learn from them....and begin to heal." -Roland Barth, Founder of Harvard Principals' Center
"Not only is the book full of fresh ideas and new insights but itis a fun read. It is not the usual leadership book that reads muchlike the other leadership books but stands out as an originalcontribution...easily presented and scholarly without beingpretentious." - Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Center for EducationalLeadership at Trinity College, San Antonio, Texas
- GenresLeadershipNonfiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2002
6 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 23, 2017
Was an summary of how a variety of educational leaders have dealt with difficultly in their profession. More of a set of case studies than anything strong more strongly together.
August 7, 2023
I think this book speaks to anyone who has been in leadership in an educational setting. It gave me quite a bit to think about regarding my career and how to be a reflective practitioner.
May 27, 2008
The Wounded Leader is a wonderful new work for school leaders--however embattled we/they may find our/themselves in any particular context or at any particular moment. It is an eminently wise, provocative book, whose thesis is amply documented and very well illustrated by the various core narratives it offers its readers.
The Wounded Leader is about the healing power of stories and story-telling. For me, its subtitle gives a better sense of what this book is about: "How Real Leadership Emerges in Times of Crisis." Drawing from a diverse array of inspired sources (from Heifetz and Kegan and Gardner and Bennis to Parker Palmer and Daniel Goleman, e.g.), Ackerman and Maslin-Ostrowski masterfully synthesize an analysis of "how school leaders respond to and make sense of their wounds." Stressing the meaning-making and redemptive power of narratives, the authors show how the stories we tell ourselves and each other about the challenges we face ultimately inform and reveal who we are. The most successful leaders, they imply, are the most authentic ones. "Leadership," they write, "has been described as the capacity to be totally and utterly oneself, to be able to show up fully, to express oneself, and to share this self with an organization that one cares about and wants to influence. If this is the case, then wounding at its worst means leaving the self outside the school, becoming a hollow stranger to oneself and one's leadership altogether."
By framing "crisis [as] an emergent occasion for transformation," Maslin-Ostrowski and Ackerman reveal how we can be changed and tempered enough to learn and grow from our leadership wounds. Its fundamental message is thus profoundly affirmative and reassuring. Moreover, the book (at less than 150 pp.) is a slim (i.e. user-friendly!) volume written in readily accessible prose, enlivened by many aptly chosen narrative anecdotes. I recommend that educational leaders have a copy handy to review and refresh themselves at all times--either on our bookshelves at work or on our bedside tables at night--in order to help us regain our bearings whenever our leadership going gets toughest.
The Wounded Leader is about the healing power of stories and story-telling. For me, its subtitle gives a better sense of what this book is about: "How Real Leadership Emerges in Times of Crisis." Drawing from a diverse array of inspired sources (from Heifetz and Kegan and Gardner and Bennis to Parker Palmer and Daniel Goleman, e.g.), Ackerman and Maslin-Ostrowski masterfully synthesize an analysis of "how school leaders respond to and make sense of their wounds." Stressing the meaning-making and redemptive power of narratives, the authors show how the stories we tell ourselves and each other about the challenges we face ultimately inform and reveal who we are. The most successful leaders, they imply, are the most authentic ones. "Leadership," they write, "has been described as the capacity to be totally and utterly oneself, to be able to show up fully, to express oneself, and to share this self with an organization that one cares about and wants to influence. If this is the case, then wounding at its worst means leaving the self outside the school, becoming a hollow stranger to oneself and one's leadership altogether."
By framing "crisis [as] an emergent occasion for transformation," Maslin-Ostrowski and Ackerman reveal how we can be changed and tempered enough to learn and grow from our leadership wounds. Its fundamental message is thus profoundly affirmative and reassuring. Moreover, the book (at less than 150 pp.) is a slim (i.e. user-friendly!) volume written in readily accessible prose, enlivened by many aptly chosen narrative anecdotes. I recommend that educational leaders have a copy handy to review and refresh themselves at all times--either on our bookshelves at work or on our bedside tables at night--in order to help us regain our bearings whenever our leadership going gets toughest.
December 15, 2010
I read this originally in 2002, and recently re-read it for a class that I taught. The stories from school principals and district superintendents are deconstructed according to three different ways to emerge from a damaging situation: hopelessness / chaos, trying to get back to the way things were / being stuck, or taking what you can learn and applying it to stronger / improved leadership. Inspiring stuff!
November 3, 2010
The Wounded Leader does have some interesting insight but I wish the authors took more of a risk in analyzing what to do once you are wounded. They were more interested in focusing on what causes the wounds and how people deal with it instead of solutions.
March 28, 2007
The first book I had to read for my Masters in School Leadership.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews