Leadership Musings

Ideas for Professional Development Leadership Musings What I'm Reading This Month What I'm Watching This Month

Njal’s Saga: Literature and Leadership

By Stan Pelkey In mid-January, during the last few days my two children were home for winter break, my son and I began to watch the first season of Vikings (Michael Hirst, 2013–2018) on Amazon Prime’s streaming video service. We’d watched The Last Kingdom on BBC America in 2015, and we’re huge fans of Game […]

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Ideas for Professional Development Leadership Musings

Saving Money by Cutting a Music Program is Harder than You Think!

Hello, Readers! This is a slightly edited version of a post that I published in May 2016. I hope you find it useful. Stan ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I was recently talking with several graduate music students about threats of underfunding or complete elimination of a music program or unit at a college or […]

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Ideas for Professional Development Leadership Musings

Watership Down: Literature and Leadership

Literature and Leadership: Watership Down  Stan Pelkey     “My Chief Rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here.” (Bigwig to General Woundwort) “The Sky Suspended,” Watership Down (First Avon Edition, 1975; p. 451) It’s not difficult to find reflections on leaders and leadership. Northouse (2010) notes, […]

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Ideas for Professional Development Leadership Musings

Literature, Leadership, and Change

By Stan Pelkey   It’s not difficult to find reflections on leaders and leadership. Northouse (2010) notes, “Bookstore shelves are filled with popular books about leaders and advice on how to be a leader” (p. 1). Besides those popular books, an extensive body of social science research on leadership exists. And we could cast our […]

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Leadership Musings

Professional Development: Thoughts About Life and Leadership

“Thoughts about Life and Leadership” Stan Pelkey I have been keeping a journal since August of 1985. Every few years, I find it instructive to read over large swaths of that material to consider what I have learned. In the past five years, having made the transition from full-time teacher to full-time academic administrator, I […]

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