Leadership with a Conscience: Educational Leadership as a Moral Science

Leaders and aspiring leaders are constantly searching for role models who are successful in placing leadership theory into effective practice. This book identifies ten such role models whose heroic leadership behavior is analyzed in order to reveal what particular abilities and skills made them successful and how those attributes can be applied to one’s own leadership practice, whether that be as a classroom teacher, a principal or a superintendent of schools. They are juxtaposed with ten leaders who were effective, but certainly not heroic.

Dr. Palestini points out that effective leaders have been utilizing the same leadership behavior for centuries. He uses this evidence to support the perennial and lasting impact of situational leadership theory which posits that no single way of leading works in all situations. Rather, appropriate leadership behavior depends on the circumstances at a given time. For decades effective managers have been diagnosing the situation, identifying the leadership style or behavior that will be most effective, and then determining whether they can implement the required style.

The leadership behavior of ten heroic leaders ranging from Jane Addams to Warren Buffett, and from Abraham Lincoln to Joe Paterno is examined in this book. The lesson learned from these heroic leaders being that if one wishes to hone one’s current leadership skills or become a future leader, one can learn to do so by reflectively looking to those who have established themselves in history as both effective and heroic leaders, that is, leaders who lead with both mind and conscience.