Future Ready Summer Book Club

Shannon McClintock Miller and author Joe Sanfelippo hosted the third annual Future Ready Summer Book Club to read “Lead from Where You Are: Building Intention, Connection and Direction in Our Schools”.  The six-week book club was a chance for all of us to reflect, grow, and celebrate our role as Future Ready Educators.

The book focuses on:

• Leading from where you are starts with finding the joy and value in what you do. 
  • Finding joy in the mess is the first step in finding value in the day-to-day operation of our job. When we do that, we come to school with the ability to lead anyone in the organization.
• Every interaction matters because every interaction could be the one they talk about for the rest of their lives. 
  • Acknowledging that it is real helps us walk into every conversation with a different mindset. The strategies we talk about will help with both.
• It’s hard to take care of kids when we are not taking care of the adults who are taking care of the kids. 
  • Building the capacity to lead helps with the isolation leaders often feel in their work. Being able to RECOGNIZE the greatest of our colleagues, ACKNOWLEDGE the greatness of our colleagues, and EXTEND the greatness of our colleagues creates momentum for everyone in the building.
• Turning moments into movements helps everyone see the greatness of the work you all do and creates value for those who don’t see you do it on a daily basis. 
  • When people don’t know what you do as a leader, they make up what you do as a leader. If they fill in the gap based on what they think you do, they are only seeing a piece of the work and maybe an isolated piece of the work.

Lead from Where You Are: Building Intention, Connection and Direction in Our Schools

School communities are full of people who have both the ability and desire to lead. Some lead without knowing it. Most lead without the recognition they deserve. Whether you lead in a classroom, department, building, or district, chances are you know how challenging it can be to identify and develop other strong leaders, and to grow the leadership capacity of your organization as a whole. But ensuring that the leaders around you know their worth, helping them cultivate connections, and growing their confidence can help your whole team move forward together, helping the organization and the people within it to thrive.

Lead from Where You Are offers a down-to-earth, implementable approach to rethinking how we build leadership and community in schools. Dr. Joe Sanfelippo, a veteran principal and superintendent, argues that our focus must be on growing leadership potential all across the community, from students to teachers to staff. We can do this by reflecting on how we build a sense of intention together, how we connect with each other, and how we direct those we lead with compassion and affirmation. Sanfelippo’s frank discussion of the highs and lows of leadership will help new principals and superintendents feel prepared while also providing useful methods and sound counsel.

The Future Ready Librarians strand is supported by Follett.