Section 4: leadership skills and abilities
Terry Deal has a wonderful ability to reframe and reconceptualize how
we look at leadership. I have had two profound experiences of learning
from Terry; one in a car stuck on the Dos Angeles freeway and one
working with him on a principals' leadership development programme
in Philadelphia. Both involved diverse and intriguing conversations
focusing on leadership stories explaining cultural values and beliefs. In
Chapter 7, Terry fakes two 'frames' of reference to look at the essential
qualifies of school leadership. He uses the personal lenses of leaders as
politicians and leaders as poets. He argues persuasively that political
processes are pan of organizational life and we ignore them at our peril.
In articulating that political leadership requires familiarity with the
strategies and tactics of power and conflict, he puts forward nine principles that can he identified to enable leaders to operate in the political
domain. He concludes the first section with a sad reflection that 'the
shortfall of skilled political leadership in todays organizations leaves a
legacy of festering grudges and too many things left undone'.