Review of “Your Leadership Story: Use Your Story to Energize, Inspire, and Motivate,” by Timothy Tobin, 2015. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, cloth, 155 pages.
Timothy Tobin reminds the reader that “leadership begins with you..”
How do people wind up helping on the street? Becoming counselors? Becoming advocates for the poor and unroofed?
Why do people take on these rolls? These are all very good questions. There is a tendency out there, unfortunately, for many, many people to simply sit on the sidelines while bad things happen to people who do not have a lot of ways to fight back, to defend themselves, to get what is fair.
Some of us do NOT sit and watch bad things happen to others who need help, assistance, food, rides, encouragement, and protection. As leaders, some people cannot sit by and watch while social justice needs to happen. It needs to be protected. It needs to be respected. What sources do leaders use? What is available?
Timothy Tobin reminds the reader that “leadership begins with you” and then provides many hints and some good guidance to get us into that leadership mode. Teachers are natural leaders—or should be—and this guidance is a good reminder for us. We are the ones who teach students to read, to write, to reason, and to compute.
Tobin also reminds readers that they need to know “who they want to be” as leaders to be truly effective. Sorting out different styles and making leadership our own are important steps…
He uses four main chapters to make his points: 1) Just What Is Leadership? 2) Understanding and Aligning Your Leadership Story; 3) The Narrative Arc; and 4) The Art of Communicating Your Leadership Story.
Tobin shares his wisdom about the world of leadership and gives us some good examples to consider. He says that too often managers and leaders think too much about the project or the product being advanced or developed in that project. Rarely do some of them think about how their leadership messages sound to those who work for them or with them.
Although the story that serves as an example throughout the book is from the corporate world, it can be interpreted easily as it applies to education. Confidence in who we are, clarity in how we communicate, and firm comprehension of how others look at us based on the quality of our leadership. The author uses the example of one manager throughout the book and how he grows over time from the guidance and mentorship provided to him.
Important to remember is that our careers form a narrative!
I recommend this book to teachers because of the importance of the overall message of the actual story of leadership we live. As in many cases, we can translate the messages from the workplace into the world of the street dwellers…
We can also take the message into the school.
This book is good reading for on the bus or train, helpful hints for looking at ways to maintain our confident approaches to decision making, and beneficial reading related to our professional development.
There is also some good information that could be shared with student leaders. Mentors of such young people and advisors to groups can relate the notion that others will look at these leaders through the lens of a “story” quite often. They will relay the narrative to others.
Knowing that there leadership actions, decisions, and comments will be remembered by others is a crucial piece of information for all leaders.
If only our elected officials could remember this last bit of wisdom!