We're defined by our failures only if we let ourselves be. In today's stressful climate of education budget shortfalls, ever-evolving academic standards, and widespread cultural transformation, how can educators find the confidence to become the leaders they hope to be? Thrive through the Five helps school leaders navigate that challenging 5 percent of work (and life) when things are really, really hard. The goal of this book is to not just help readers survive through those moments, days, and seasons, but to lead through them and truly thrive. The superintendent of Gunter ISD, a growing school district an hour north of Dallas, Dr. Siler offers a refreshingly honest account of the challenges and pitfalls of leadership. Coupled with her infectious optimism, her wisdom and insight invite educational professionals to take the next best step and move confidently--even through the toughest times. "Thrive through the Five transforms challenges into positive opportunities and achievement. It's a must-read for school leaders." --Jon Gordon, New York Times best-selling author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership "In Thrive through the Five, Dr. Siler uses her own experiences and expertise to provide practical, relevant insights into how all school leaders can thrive in those difficult times. This should be required reading for anyone who dares to be a great leader." --Kevin Brown, EdD, executive director, Texas Association of School Administrators "Thrive through the Five is a great story of one leader's journey to find a way through the parts of our jobs that don't always bring us the most joy, but often take up the most time. The quotes will inspire and the process will clearly help you navigate the 5 percent that has such an impact on our world both emotionally and physically as leaders." --Joe Sanfelippo, PhD, superintendent, Fall Creek School District, and author of Hacking Leadership

Answering 5 Questions Can Change Your Life. Who can I trust? Who am I? Who wants me? Why am I alive? What do I do well? Every human has five core needs, and if you're going to thrive, these needs must be met in healthy ways—primarily through God. Learn what they are and how you can develop beliefs and skills so they're met and you become whole, content, and at peace. Start thriving as you use the ideas in this revised and updated edition of Finding Authentic Hope and Wholeness. With humor and vulnerability Dr. Kathy Koch gives you the tools to develop an authentic sense of self and a positive outlook on the future. Take the time to ask yourself these five questions, and discover the answers as you journey with Dr. Kathy toward hope and wholeness. You'll be glad you did—for the rest of your life.

What do the top church teams do to thrive together? Researchers and practitioners Ryan Hartwig and Warren Bird have discovered churches who have learned to thrive under healthy team leadership. Using actual church examples, this coaching tool presents their discoveries, culminating in five disciplines that will enable your team to thrive.

Download a sample chapter As a novice teacher, Meenoo Rami experienced the same anxieties shared by many: the sense of isolation, lack of self-confidence, and fear that her work was having no positive impact on her students. In Thrive, Meenoo shares the five strategies that helped her become a confident, connected teacher. From how to find mentors and build networks, both online and off, to advocating for yourself and empowering your students, Thrive shows new and veteran teachers alike how to overcome the challenges and meet the demands of our profession. Praise for Thrive "Whether you are entering your first year of teaching or your 40th, Thrive feels as if it were written just for you. At a time in our profession when many of us are feeling stretched thin, Meenoo Rami offers strategies to reignite our passions and rediscover why we chose to teach." -Christopher Lehman, coauthor of Falling in Love with Close Reading "Teaching is a profession that eats its young. Meenoo Rami offers guidelines for surviving the challenges of the classroom as well as the faculty room." -Carol Jago, author, teacher, and past president of NCTE "Thrive includes a mosaic of dynamic teacher voices from many grade levels and content areas. Reading their stories deepened my thinking about the immense untapped potential of our profession. Meenoo Rami's vision of teaching and learning can sustain us all." -Penny Kittle, author of Book Love Join the conversation on Twitter at #edthrive.

Author and consultant Jennifer Garvey Berger has worked with all types of leaders—from top executives at Google to nonprofit directors who are trying to make a dent in social change. She hears a version of the same plea from every client in nearly every sector around the world: "I know that complexity and uncertainty are testing my instincts, but I don't know which to trust. Is there some way to know what to do when I can't know what's next?" Her newest work is an answer to this plea. Using her background in adult development, complexity theories, and leadership consultancy, Garvey Berger discerns five pernicious and pervasive "mind traps" to frame the book. These are: the desire for simple stories, our sense that we are right, our desire to get along with others in our group, our fixation with control, and our constant quest to protect and defend our egos. In addition to understanding why these natural impulses steer us wrong in a fast-moving world, leaders will get powerful questions and approaches that help them escape these patterns.

Klein argues that adult success is often established in the developmental preschool years. She shares advice for parents on how to promote such success-driving positive attributes as resilience, self-regulation, and empathy.

A media guru shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully. Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century. But how can we use digital media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking basket cases? In Net Smart, cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully. Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. Rheingold outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this: attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information (or "crap detection"), and network smarts. He explains how attention works, and how we can use our attention to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information. He describes the quality of participation that empowers the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online community participants; he examines how successful online collaborative enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways; and he teaches us a lesson on networks and network building. Rheingold points out that there is a bigger social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our individual efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.