One doesn’t have to be a baseball fan to believe that with every spring comes a rebirth. Last year’s won-lost record is wiped clean. Everyone has a chance to be this year’s champion. So it is with books and articles on the topic of leadership and management. There is always hope that the next book will open one’s mind to new beginnings and new insights to improve public education. That continuing search is represented in this chapter. What is not needed is a recipe for success, for, even if there were such a thing, it should be resisted, in part because context matters. We should follow ides grounded in our own experiences rather than slavishly follow and deliver someone else's pet solution. Wheels can be reinvented if done so smartly, building on the many good ideas of others who help us to see familiar things differently.

The truth is that most educational leaders work under a lot of pressure and they want to be good and make a difference; nearly all have the desire somewhere inside themselves to change the world, for if not, why would they struggle every day? Another reality is that there is a whole lot written on leadership and management and wading through it, even superficially, can be daunting. It's best not to accept anything written on education uncritically, whether Franklin Bobbitt on scientific management, Joseph Murphy on standards, Thomas Sergiovanni on the moral leadership and the managerial mystique, Roland Barth on improving schools, event the lead editor of this guide, Fenwick English, on critique. These are movers and shakers in the field of educational theory and practice, along with many individuals cited and not cited in this chapter. But one's own experiences and instincts are the only arbiter of truth about one's professional self.