Caring Enough to Lead: How Reflective Thought Leads to Moral Leadership

By Leonard O. Pellicer

Foreword by Richard W. Riley, Former U.S. Secretary of Education

Praise for the first edition:

"Inspirational This book redefines what leadership is and how it should be practiced in schools. Lively, personal, emotional at times, and in the end, uplifting."

Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Lillian Radford Professor of Education
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

Take an introspective, reflective journey into yourself--the first step toward becoming a moral, ethical leader

Building upon his successful first edition, noted author and speaker, Leonard O. Pellicer, takes the reader on a deeply emotional and touching journey to the human side of leadership. While discussing the importance of "serving" others, Caring Enough to Lead, Second Edition is more than a "how to" manual. It is a collection of ideas and understandings illustrating vital concepts of leadership through a series of questions, short vignettes, selected quotations, and personal stories. Reflective pieces at the end of each chapter provide powerful opportunities to assess what it truly means to be a leader.

Several critical questions will help you determine for yourself:

Why it′s better to know some of the questions rather than all the answers What it means to be a leader What you really care about What it means to be responsible Why you are a professional educator If you care enough to do the "little things" How a school can be transformed by your leadership

Whether you are an administrator, principal, teacher, counselor, or board member, this second edition is for those of you who feel a deep responsibility to provide caring and effective leadership in whatever role you may find yourself serving.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761938796
• ISBN13: 9780761938798
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Corwin
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Caring Enough to Lead

This book proved to be an exceptional help to us as we have been considering who we are as an organization. The author weaved personal beliefs and values tightly within the tapestry that is any organization, expertly pointing out that each person within an organization has not just a role but also a responsibility to be aligned with organizational values. This was deeper than organizational culture, which we hear so much about; it goes to the heart of each person who joins forces with others to build a moral, spiritual, and practical foundation upon which an entire organization can be known and thrive. The author's use of personal stories from a lifetime of experience enhanced the book and offered memorable vignettes which will lead to lively and pertinent discussion.

Inspiring Book for teachers and educators

This book provides the reader with anecdotes, stories, and reflections on the qualities and traits of effective leadership. Rather than boring the reader with staid theories and lectures, Mr. Pellicer provides an interesting insight through entertaining stories and thought-provoking questions. This book will definitely inspire you!

Perfect reflection book for educators and principals

Dr. Pellicer's book compels the reader to reflect on his or her practice in a format that is easy to read and enjoyable. The stories will make the reader laugh and cry and, most important, examine her own behavior and motivations at school. The author's expertise in education is obvious, but his message is not dogmatic. He encourages the reader to think through the use of his education-based stories and gently prods the teacher or administrator to think about his/her own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the stories will stay with an educator for a long time, and I fully believe that this was the author's intended purpose.

An Interesting Insight Into Leadership

Leonard Pellicer's Caring Enough to Lead contains many interesting and thoughtful reflections to become a successful leader. He uses reflections at the end of each chapter to let the reader think about how they lead or how they can become a good leader. The reflections were very useful to me to see what kind of a leader I hope to become.I particularly enjoyed his anecdotes about various happenings in his life. They give the book the feeling of someone who actually cares about what he is righting about rather than just someone who is writing just to get a paycheck. He stresses that caring is the most important thing to becoming a successful leader and it shows in the book.However, if you are looking for a book that tells you exactly how to become a good and moral leader, this may not be the book for you. This book gives you the tools you will need to find out what kind of a leader you are and at the same time steers the reader in the direction he or she would need to go to become a good leader. I am currently studying to be a teacher and I feel that this book is a good resource for any future or current teacher or administrator. It gives the reader a chance to critically look at how he or she leads and can become a better leader by making the right questions are being asked. By asking yourself a few key questions and knowing what those answers mean to being a good leader can help the reader become a much better and more caring leader.Pellicer's personal experiences are what make this book work. His extensive experience in the education field shows that he knows what it takes to be a caring leader. I that Pellicer's reflective thought process will help me to become a better leader in the education field and ultimately make me a better teacher in the long run.

This is an awesome book!

I am not writing this review to seek favors or to boost the book sales of one of my colleagues. I just happen to be blessed with the profound honor and pleasure of having worked under the author's guiding hand for the past two years. I can tell you from firsthand experience that Leonard Pellicer "walks his talk". He is a touching, masterful, giving, caring person, and far and away the most wonderful leader with whom I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. He has created an academic workplace completely committed to the full realization of its vision statement. The result is that I work with the most caring and loving group of people imaginable. It just doesn't get any better than this."Caring Enough to Lead" is a fantastic book. I love how he illustrates the path of the heart with simple yet profound personal life examples. Such a technique can easily go sideways with self-absorption, but not in this case. One of the most delightful features of the book is my certainty that the chapters which speak the loudest to me today (among them: "some of the questions", "what I believe about people", "water buffalo", "to be a teacher", "successful schools", "sharing power", and "professional educator") will no doubt change along with my need to respond to a given difficulty or circumstance in the future. To wit, some of its struck me as a gem that I need to realize at this time, and other sections will no doubt simmer for a while and then resurface when I most need their wisdom.Overall, the book rings in my heart very much the way "The Holy Man" by Susan Trotter (my favorite book of all time) did. Exactly the opposite of technical and boring, it is a refreshingly delightful and interesting read. I have never before stopped to actually DO the suggested exercises in books, but I found myself actually doing that with this one, because what I gleaned from each chapter was simply too valuable to let pass by without trying to apply its lessons to my life.This book is a treasure find in a field of tired and rehashed ideas. I realize that it's dangerous to wish for things other than they are, but I believe it would be a much better world if more leaders had Leonard's heartfelt leadership style. Reading this book provides a solid step in that direction.