The Wounded Leader: How Real Leadership Emerges in Times of Crisis Hardcover - 2002

First line

Consider Bruce.

From the rear cover

As any school principal or administrator can testify, the responsibilities of school leadership can take a leader from an inspired moment to crisis in an instant. How does a school leader with good intentions preserve a healthy sense of self in the face of a crisis that in the best of times challenges the self and in the worst of times leads to deep wounds of the heart? How can good leaders minimize the impact of these crises and remain open to learning and growing through difficult experiences?
These are the questions at the heart of the stories in The Wounded Leader. In these stories, leaders struggle to make sense of their wounding experiences. We meet a principal who felt undermined by a contentious staff, another whose early mistakes ignited rumors and discontent, a leader who felt shunned when she took a position at a failing school, and a superintendent at odds with the school board.
No one is immune to these kinds of wounds. They are an unwelcome but inescapable aspect of our lives. Yet the authors show how a leader may experience an epiphany when he or she realizes the paradox of wounding: we spend our lives avoiding and rejecting our vulnerability, only to find our true selves by working through that pain. The wound becomes the gateway to healing. This ultimately optimistic book is must reading for all who are or who aspire to be school leaders.

From the jacket flap

As any school principal or administrator can testify, the responsibilities of school leadership can take a leader from an inspired moment to crisis in an instant. How does a school leader with good intentions preserve a healthy sense of self in the face of a crisis that in the best of times challenges the self and in the worst of times leads to deep wounds of the heart? How can good leaders minimize the impact of these crises and remain open to learning and growing through difficult experiences?
These are the questions at the heart of the stories in The Wounded Leader. In these stories, leaders struggle to make sense of their wounding experiences. We meet a principal who felt undermined by a contentious staff, another whose early mistakes ignited rumors and discontent, a leader who felt shunned when she took a position at a failing school, and a superintendent at odds with the school board.
No one is immune to these kinds of wounds. They are an unwelcome but inescapable aspect of our lives. Yet the authors show how a leader may experience an epiphany when he or she realizes the paradox of wounding: we spend our lives avoiding and rejecting our vulnerability, only to find our true selves by working through that pain. The wound becomes the gateway to healing. This ultimately optimistic book is must reading for all who are or who aspire to be school leaders.