Living on a Tightrope
a Survival Handbook for Principals
Author: William A. Sommers & Ruby K. Payne
While instructional leadership has been the principal's primary role as identified in educational literature, the reality is that the
principal's role has become one of crisis management and an almost judicial approach to legal issues. Written from their experience as
principals and based on research from the education and business realms, Bill and Ruby outline their current thoughts on how to survive in the
daily work. It is like walking a tightrope.
This unique book provides a variety of activities to be used in the balancing act of at least three tightropes of educational management:
managing relationships, managing power and managing identity. The book explores the connection between personal and professional identity with
the role and responsibilities of the job. Most of the chapters are about specific strategies to support daily work. An emphasis throughout
is on responding to conflict, how to do consensus building, and how to manage polar opposites. Other strategies include: how to assess
instruction, planning for the future and leading change.
The activities and strategies are practical, useful, and immediately applicable when confronted with those confounding dilemmas, ambiguities,
dichotomies, and enigmas that constitute the tightrope of life as a school administrator.