Step In, Step Up. Jane A. G. Kise
Step in for Further Reflection
Crafting Your Identity as a Female Leader
Realizing That It Isn’t, and It Is, All About You
Dealing With Leadership’s Inevitable Stress
Determining Your Leadership Impact
Limiting Your Leadership Goals
Balancing Work and Life
Next Steps in the Journey
Step in for Further Reflection
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jane A. G. Kise, EdD, is the author of more than twenty-five books and an organizational consultant with extensive experience in leadership development and executive coaching, instructional coaching, and differentiated instruction. She is considered a worldwide expert in Jungian type and its impact on leadership and education. She works with schools and businesses, facilitating the creation of environments where everyone—leaders, teachers, and students—is able to flourish.
Jane trains educators around the world on coaching, collaborative practices, effective change processes, and differentiated instruction, especially in mathematics. A frequent conference keynote speaker, she has spoken at education conferences and type conferences across the United States and in Europe, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and New Zealand. Jane has also written articles for several magazines and has received awards for her differentiated coaching research.
Jane teaches doctoral courses in educational leadership at the University of St. Thomas and is a past faculty member of the Center for Applications of Psychological Type. She also served as president of the Association for Psychological Type International.
Jane holds a master of business administration from the Carlson School of Management and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas. She is certified in neuroscience and Jungian personality; is qualified to use Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) Steps I, II, and III as an MBTI Master Practitioner; and is certified in emotional intelligence instruments, Hogan assessments, and leadership 360 tools.
To learn more about Jane’s work, visit www.janekise.com.
Barbara K. Watterston, EdD, has extensive experience in education and has held a number of school and executive leadership positions across Australia within the education and not-for-profit community sectors. She specializes in facilitation and research focused on the design and delivery of professional learning programs to develop, enhance, and promote the work of the education profession—in particular school and system leadership to ensure learning for all.
Barbara’s Australian and international research, consultancy, coaching, and speaking engagements center on leadership development that emphasizes the impact of high-quality leadership on student learning. Her research report, Insights: Environmental Scan—Principal Preparation Programs, contributed to five major Australian recommendations for preparing future school leaders.
Barbara’s advocacy for women in leadership was fueled by the lack of representation of women in leadership roles. Together with the importance of enriching a more inclusive perspective of leadership, she saw this as missing out on the incredible potential of women to influence and positively impact reforms and outcomes. She also found that a significant component to enabling greater diversity meant women letting go of some of their own self-imposed barriers. Barbara’s doctoral thesis focused on gender, leadership, and learning, which informed her contribution as co-editor of the book Women in School Leadership: Journeys to Success.
Barbara has been recognized for her contributions to leadership and professional learning. She was the inaugural recipient of the Women of Achievement Award (Western Australia, 2005), is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, and is a National Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. Her expertise is regularly sought out to contribute in an advisory capacity as a member of numerous university, departmental, school, and professional boards.
Her Australian and international projects include emerging, executive, and system leadership programs. She has a special interest in the links between leadership sustainability, well-being, and impact on performance.
To connect with Barbara, follow @BarbKW on Twitter.
To book Jane A. G. Kise or Barbara K. Watterston for professional development, contact [email protected].
INTRODUCTION
I
THE WHY AND HOW OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP JOURNEY
Women in educational leadership—What does that mean to you? Women have incredible potential to bring about change in the world of education if they step up to lead at all levels. Yet, grasping how to make the valuable contributions they envision—by influencing others, empowering others, and commanding attention with self-assurance and presence—challenges many women globally, and with whom we have had the privilege to work.
Perhaps you’re reading this because you’re ready to step up. Or, perhaps you have someone telling you, “You’d make a great teacher leader [… principal … curriculum director …].” Or, perhaps you’ve already stepped into school leadership and you’re wondering how other women navigate this terrain that men once exclusively navigated—and that still often seems colored with overtones from that era. At all these stages, we find women asking, “Do I truly wish to lead?”
If you hesitate to lead because you find the responsibilities of leadership rather daunting, take heart that women we have spoken with who are already on that journey unanimously tell us that they find the rewards worth it, especially the positive impact they have on students. If you hesitate because you wonder if you’re cut out to become a leader, know that we’ll guide you through creating a plan for your own development as a leader.
If, however, you hesitate to lead because you worry that others might see you as too ambitious, eager for control, or some other negative definition or view of power, we’d like to help you reframe that thinking right now.
Leadership and Power
We became acutely aware of women’s uneasiness with power at the 2016 Women in Education Leadership conference in Australia. To most people, leadership and power are intertwined. As we facilitated sessions at the conference, we clearly saw that many attendees connected power with abuse of power, or with ego and self-aggrandizement. Women saw having power as a negative. We heard the following comments and the same sentiments at other similar events.
• “I don’t tell anyone I’m a school principal. I don’t want to put on airs that I’m more important than others at the school.”
• “I keep my voice soft and my comments in a questioning mode. I don’t want to be seen as aggressive.”
• “No one likes a female who