I enjoyed reading this book as I felt that it grounded me at various points. While the book was about leading a school, it was also about leading people like us-- teachers who have visions and want their voice heard. It reminded me at many points that leading a school is a very difficult thing, and as Evans points out at the end of his book, it is about the "journey and not the destination."
I had a very hard time finding a specific quote or passage to cite as one that really struck me, but after searching through all of my annotations, I found on page 73, "They [savvy school leaders] set an example of perseverance, but not of perfectionism... they do for teachers what the best teachers do for students: they make it safe to try; they honor effort; and they celebrate meaningful growth, small and large, whenever it occurs." This passage reminded me of a message I heard a lot when I was a resident assistant in college, and it was that as leaders, you live in a fishbowl. People can see everything that you do, and they watch everything that you do. While you are in that fishbowl, you are expected to do everything perfectly, and when you make a mistake, it is magnified by your position (or the water and glass around you). One of the other aspects of the fishbowl, is that you are often in it yourself, surrounded by some inanimate objects and not much to guard you from the outside world and those looking at you through the distorted glass and water. As teachers, we are in a fishbowl, but as a school leader, we are in an even larger fishbowl. Evans reminded me to not expect to be perfect, persevere towards your goals and recognize that the journey is more important than the destination.
