In her seventh year of teaching middle school, Tanya found herself the chair of her school's Learning Assessment Committee. She had developed strong collegial relations with her fellow teachers and an easy give-and-take with the principal. But she had never thought of herself as a leader until her friend Stan said one day, "You know, Tanya, a lot of people here respect your opinion; you're so good with kids, and you're so involved in things; you bring so much to our faculty."

After that, Tanya began wondering about her potential as a leader. Did she have a natural ability to lead? What did she really know about leadership? She hadn't taken any courses; she knew little about management, budgets, or the law. But she recognized what Stan was saying about the role she had grown into at school. She was proactive. She pitched in. She loved the challenge of designing better instructional approaches. And she realized that many of her colleagues valued her opinion.