Building a professional learning community (PLC) is not a journey taken alone. That's where the guiding coalition comes in. With clear, practical guidance, this resource examines every aspect of how to create, develop, and sustain this essential leadership team. Each chapter includes next steps, FAQs, and reflections carefully designed to help you overcome common roadblocks as you move from current practice to best practice. Define a guiding coalition and understand its importance. Learn basic PLC concepts and principles to inform guiding coalition processes. Understand the three basic school structures to ensure a proper PLC foundation. Form and maintain strong relationships that strengthen leadership. Implement levers to improve school culture and create effective, efficient leadership. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Creating a Powerful Guiding Coalition Chapter 2: Leading the PLC Basics Chapter 3: Building a Solid PLC Foundation Chapter 4: Building Powerful Relationships Chapter 5: Promoting Collaborative Leadership Chapter 6: Leveraging Your Leadership Epilogue References and Resources

From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.

Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider's look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn't have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.

"Parent engagement with schools is known to be key to student achievement, but building such involvement can be a challenge, especially in economically disadvantaged schools that need it the most. In Community connections and your PLC at Work®: A guide to engaging families, author Nathaniel Provencio guides readers to build this vital engagement by broadening a school's professional learning community (PLC) so it includes parents, families and other community members in a productive collaboration toward success for all students. Drawing on his own experience as a principal who used the PLC process to transform a struggling school into an award-winning one, Provencio demonstrates how F-12 schools can use the focus on learning, collaboration and results at the heart of the PLC process to not merely enhance family engagement but also create a collaborative culture in which all stakeholders become educators." -- back cover.

This book places everyday talk and role-modelling interactions at the forefront of an alternative change-leadership agenda, and introduces a number of practical approaches to help line managers and organizational specialists deliver this agenda more successfully. It is essential reading for organizational practitioners at all levels.

"A Joint Publication With Ontario Principals' Council."

With foreword by Douglas Reeves As a school leader, your influence and impact on students, staff, and families is beyond measure. Designed as a guide and reflective tool, Leading With Intention will help focus your invaluable everyday work. The authors provide in-depth advice and actionable steps for creating a highly effective school culture that supports collaborative leadership and teaching, evidence-based decision making, and the belief that students are the top priority. Effective school leadership practices for building leadership capacity and furthering your professional development: Explore eight interrelated areas of school leadership that will assist you in becoming a more synergistic leader. Explore four concepts essential to your work in leading schools: collaboration, a shared leadership model, evidence-based decision-making, and a focus on learning. Learn how to enhance student achievement in your school or district with the Professional Learning Communities at Work(TM) (PLC) process. Acquire 40+ specific instructional leadership actions you can put into practice immediately. Access educational leadership reflection questions and downloadable reproducibles designed to support your instructional leadership development. Contents: Introduction: Using Your Great Power as a Leader Chapter 1: Achieving Focus and Staying Intentional Chapter 2: Establishing and Maintaining Organization Chapter 3: Building Shared Leadership Chapter 4: Using Evidence for Decision Making and Action Chapter 5: Prioritizing the Student Chapter 6: Leading Instruction Chapter 7: Fostering Communication Chapter 8: Developing Community and Relationships Afterword: Creating the Future References and Resources