Adjusting the Sails: Weathering the Storms of Administrative Leadership

Educational leadership is full of challenging experiences, humiliating disappointments, and mind-boggling changes that can send the best leader into a tailspin. In her book, Weathering the Storms of Administrative Leadership, Dr. Donya Ball helps administrators learn to face these challenges with grace and poise. Whether just beginning their journey or well along the path of leadership, administrators will learn to admit mistakes, develop communication skills, pivot during disaster and crisis situations, and build a branding strategy to present themselves effectively to the watching world. This book will be your guide as you embark into a difficult leadership world for which there is often no roadmap. The relatable anecdotes and practical guidance will help you weather the storms and adjust your sails to navigate the ever-changing tides of the educational world.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Haters Gonna Hate: Adjusting to Your Unpopular PositionCircus: Juggling the Demands of Life and LeadershipWhat Are you Talking About? Effectively Communicating in Top LeadershipOwn It: Developing the Courage to Admit Your MistakesThe U Word: Surviving and Thriving During Union NegotiationsPassed Up: Rebounding after Career DisappointmentThe Pandemic Pivot: Learning Flexibility and Strength in the Face of DisasterProgress is Progress: Keeping Your Focus on the Right GoalsBranding: Public Perception is EverythingThe Journey: Remembering the End GoalAbout the Author

About the Author :
Donya Ball, EdD, is a district administrator and conference speaker, currently serving as a school district superintendent in California. For over twenty years, she has been a change maker in public education, leading staff to inspire students to reach their full potential in preparation for life beyond the classroom. Dr. Ball also serves as program advisor and faculty for graduate level administrative credential program.

Review :
A book on leadership like no other! Adjusting the Sails will pin you to the ground from the first page and not let you up until the end. Sign on for the storm of fabulous insights and other realities. By the time you finish—just like a lightning storm-- you will get up and find yourself ready to lead differently than ever before. And you will be grateful to be alive. If you are looking for a book about the glorious lives of educational leaders, marching ahead of the parade of adoring followers, you might want to try the fantasy aisle of the book stores. In this courageous book, Donya Ball gives the veteran and aspiring leader a candid and essential view of educational leadership today. She shares with candor, wit, and vulnerability, how leaders are at their best not when they are popular and perfect, but when they are transparent and authentic. In these pages you will find practical advice about communications under the most difficult circumstances, the realities of challenging financial constraints every leader must face, and providing honest feedback in circumstances where the listener prefers praise over honesty. Ball’s greatest strength is her ability to reflect on successes and mistakes and thereby encourage the reader to do the same. Some aspiring leaders will be inspired to find their True North after reading this book, and some will decide that the life of educational leadership described in these pages in authentic terms may not be for them. In either case, Donya Ball has served her readers well with her honesty, experience, and wisdom. If there ever was a time to adjust the sails, it’s now. High winds are in front of us, and this book provides the knowledge and skills for leaders to ride the wave and create the educational systems our students and teachers deserve. Without these skills, we miss the opportunity to improve but even more importantly, we fail to support the learning environment. The time is now and this is the resource that you need to steady the course and succeed, despite the challenges that are yet unseen. Practical, pragmatic and compelling. Adjusting the Sails has captured those key components regarding specific profiles of an effective school administrator, including the advancement of women in educational leadership. A great resource for any school leader wishing to elevate their leadership influence and capacity. A courageous leader shares the stories we all need to read. Whether you are a current or aspiring school or district leader, Adjusting the Sails shares very real challenges and practical solutions applicable to any administrative position. You will not be reading another dry, researchy book but instead a candid, real, and honest viewpoint of the daily struggles and triumphs of what really happens behind-the scenes in the administrator's world. Reading Donya Ball’s Adjusting the Sails: Weathering the Storms of Administrative Leadership is like having a professional mentor on call rooting for you as soon as you open her book. Drawing from 20-plus years of experience as a teacher and administrator, Ball, a California-based superintendent overseeing a charter schools network, encourages readers to find a comfortable chair and a favorite beverage while she shares her experiences, perspectives and advice on practical subjects both personal and professional. The subtitle for this short book could easily be “everything they forgot to teach you in administrator school..." Experienced leaders will relate to and commiserate with many of Ball’s experiences, and newer administrators will find solid advice for staying afloat and on course regardless of the storms on their path. Serving as a mixture of a therapy session and a leadership guide, this book will make you laugh, cheer and learn.