Читать книгу Becoming an Invitational Leader - William W Purkey - Страница 7

A favorite saying of ours is that if you see a turtle on a fencepost, you know it didn’t get there alone. This truth captures something of the spirit of Invitational Leadership, especially its emphasis on collaboration as the means to personal and professional fulfillment. Whoever helped that turtle to the top of the post — and don’t you wish you had been there to see who it was? — is no doubt the kind of person who would also turn to a friend or loved one to quote the words of Walt Whitman: “If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip, and in due time you shall repay the same service to me.”

Many people have taken up our burdens over the years. We would like to offer special thanks to our dear colleagues in the International Alliance for Invitational Education — people like David Aspy, Sue Bowen, William Stafford, John Novak, Jack Schmidt, Charlotte Reed, Eddie Collins, Harvey Smith, Judy Lehr, and so many others who contributed to the theory and practice of Invitational Leadership. More immediately, we thank Patricia Rounds for facilitating in so many ways the writing of this book.

We would also like to signal our gratitude to those truly invitational leaders in all fields of endeavor who have been touchstones for us in thinking, living, leading, and writing. In particular, we salute those leaders in education who have been happy and lasting influences: Drs. Virgil Scott Ward, Herman Frick, Ernest Boyer, Art Combs, Parker Palmer, John N. Gardner, Howard Gardner, Sidney Jourard, and Hal G. Lewis. These and other amazing leaders — in education, business, public administration, government, military, not-for-profit work, human resources, counseling and related helping professions — are sustaining examples of what we can accomplish if we work, live, and perform at our best. Many of them are referenced in these pages. Some of them we have been blessed to call colleagues and friends. To all of them, we say thank you for issuing such inspired and inspiring invitations!

Finally, we must all learn to juggle the glass balls in our lives — family and friends — for they truly are our most precious possessions. We owe the greatest debt of gratitude and love to our own glass balls — our spouses, our children, and our grandchildren — to whom this book is dedicated.