What If I'm Wrong? And Other Key Questions for Decisive School Leadership by Simon Rodberg (ASCD, 2020)
Have you ever been flummoxed over a decision? Do the choices you made as a leader often keep you up at night wondering if you did the right thing?
Decision making is one of the toughest parts of a school leader's job—and if not done well, it can affect students, staff, and the school culture. In his new book What If I'm Wrong? And Other Key Questions for Decisive School Leadership, Simon Rodberg wades through the mud of complex decisions and provides a guide to help educators make the best choices they can with the information they have.
Rodberg offers five key questions for leaders to ask themselves when weighing the consequences of a decision: What am I missing? What's one small step? Where's the trade-off? Does it have to be this way? What if I'm wrong?
The book offers advice about how to solicit good feedback and advice; how to break down problems into smaller, manageable tasks to tackle; when and how to accept that in order to make progress, something else has got to give; and what to do when the decision you make is the wrong one.
Rodberg uses examples from his own experiences as a school leader, including the best thing he ever said as a principal ("We'll figure it out together")—and how it ended up on a bumper sticker.
"School leaders struggle because schools are hard," he writes. "There is no guidebook containing all the right answers."
But this book can be a guide for asking the right questions.
