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This study compared characterizations of successful leaders held by students enrolled in a college level leadership education program to those of students who did not participate in the program. Participants consisted of students from the following groups: graduating seniors who completed the leadership program, students enrolled in the first course of the program, and students who never enrolled in leadership courses. Each participant rated a “successful leader” on descriptors from Duehr & Bono’s (2006) Revised Descriptive Index. Scoring of these descriptors resulted in five leadership dimensions: agentic, communal, task-oriented, relationship-oriented, and transformational. Analyses compared these dimension ratings across the three groups of participants. Results revealed that non-leadership students ascribed significantly higher levels of agentic and task-oriented characteristics to successful leaders than both beginning and graduating leadership students. Non-leadership students also ascribed significantly lower levels of communal characteristics to successful leaders than graduating leadership students. Results showed no significant differences between the three groups of students in relationship-oriented or transformational characteristics ascribed to successful leaders. These finding have implications for leadership education.

The purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from the investigations that have been carried out within the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) project in the Spanish for social justice.

Twelve case studies have been carried out within the three lines of research proposed by ISSPP: successful principals, underperforming principals and principal leadership identity. All but one school were in challenging contexts. The methodological approach followed is based on multiple perspective case studies using a mixture of qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups and observations).

Results show that successful principals not only believe in social justice through simple empathy with the concept of social justice, but also use strategies that combine transformational and instructional leadership processes and manage to reverse the bad situation of their disadvantaged schools, seeking excellence from equity. The leadership identity of successful principals is characterized to look to the future with hope, adopting a realistic utopian attitude to interpret their surrounding reality.

From the case studies carried out, valuable information is obtained, which helps to understand the possibilities of implementing the ISSPP successful school leadership model in heterogeneous and disadvantaged context for equity and social justice.

The purpose of this case study was to explore senior librarians’ perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. The data gathered from 10 senior library leaders consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended interview questions. From the NVivo 10 analysis, several significant themes emerged regarding successful library leadership skills in the 21st century at two levels: foundational and interpersonal. At the foundational level, technical and knowledge skills form the building blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Persuasion and collaborative skills are interwoven with these interpersonal skills, both of which are at the core of the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills, should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians. Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, all of which help retain librarians and ease staff shortages. Further studies are recommended.

The purpose of the article is to examine knowledge about successful principalship and discuss the methodology that has emerged throughout the history of the International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP) and their implications for future progress.

Historical analysis is used as a strategy for establishing the background, the expansion and the progress of ISSPP as a long-standing international research network and to discuss the development of three research strands and methodological variations over time. The analysis provides a basis for pointing at some areas that need more attention in the future.

The findings suggest multiple images of the meaning of key concepts in the project and multiple theoretical and methodological orientations. There is a need to pay more attention to methodologies to make the successful cases more comparable and also to clarify the underlying assumptions of the different approaches.

Successful school principalship is a complex phenomenon. Therefore, future studies of successful schools and leadership would benefit from the use of knowledge that draws on sociology, cultural studies and politics.

The main purpose of this study is to identify the successful leadership practices of head teachers for school improvement at secondary level in Pakistan.

The study was descriptive (survey type) in nature. It was conducted on a sample of 351 secondary school head teachers, 702 elementary and secondary school teachers working in the government secondary schools of Punjab province. Data were collected using a mixed‐methods research design that included: review of related literature, documents indicating school achievements and student attainment, questionnaires and in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with different stakeholders including the head teachers, teachers, parents and students. The validity and reliability of the instruments was ensured through experts' opinions and pilot testing in mid‐2007; the overall reliability was established at 0.923 alpha level.

The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the head teachers of successful schools developed a common and shared school vision and promoted a culture of collaboration, support and trust. They empowered others to lead and distributed leadership responsibilities throughout the school; involved different stakeholders in the process of decision making; developed and maintained good relationships among different personnel of school community. They emphasised the professional development of teachers as well as themselves, and involved parents and community in the process of school improvement.

The findings of this article may be useful for other countries of almost similar socio‐economic status, to improve quality of teaching and learning at secondary level.

The paper shows that policy makers, administrators, managers and head teachers at secondary school level may improve school performance by adopting effective strategies for school improvement in Pakistan.

The contemporary business arena continues to hold great promise for dramatic innovational developments unheard of in previous eras. The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways to achieve organizational excellence through entrepreneurship in today's dynamic environment of opportunities.

The authors' research has focused on the foundation of successful entrepreneurial management leadership in the achievement of organizational excellence. Data were collected primarily from well‐known entrepreneurs identified during the past ten years in various publications.

Research shows that the major reflections of operational excellence in organizational entrepreneurship revolve around the care of customers, constant innovation, committed people and managerial leadership.

Many relatively creative ideas regarding entrepreneurial management and leadership have been put forward in this treatise, which clearly require further validation by future research.

Successful leadership has been found to be based upon four key strategies: attention through vision, meaning through communication, trust through positioning, and confidence through respect. Research further suggests that at the heart of successful leadership strategies rest a concern for people and the interpersonal values of joy, hope, charity and peace. These values provide a new paradigm of interactive cues and a foundational core for the successful fulfillment of those key strategies.

This research contributes by developing a model of keys to organizational excellence, and leadership strategies and values. Furthermore, this paper may benefit companies that are trying to reinvent themselves by fostering innovativeness within their organizations.

This paper seeks to explore principals' leadership in successful Indonesian secondary schools from the perspectives of multiple sources of data.

Inspired by the ISSPP, three schools which met the set criteria of successful schools were selected to be the cases for this study. Within each, individual or group interviews were conducted with the principal, vice‐principal, three teachers, one support staff member, two groups of students, one group of parents, and the school committee president. The collected data were transcribed, coded and categorized following the emerging themes, and interpreted using inductive and deductive methods.

Whilst confirming several common practices of successful school leadership from earlier research, the principals from the three successful schools in Yogyakarta also demonstrated significant differences, particularly in terms of beliefs and values that underpinned their leadership. These values include Islamic and cultural beliefs and values which were strong and enduring, and which were articulated in the school leadership and strategies. The principals demonstrated ability in developing the school vision, setting strategies, building capacity, and establishing a broader network to achieve the benefits of school improvement.

The paper provides an insight into school leadership practices in the Asian context, particularly in Indonesian Muslim schools, which have suffered from a lack of attention from international researchers. The paper will also contribute to a worldview of successful school leadership characteristics and practices, the research into which has been piloted in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP).

This exploratory study describes the images of effective leadership and successful organizational advancement held by women in numerous positions in the health care fields.

Surveys of 140 women in the health care field were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.

Differences were found between the characteristics of effective leadership and the characteristics contributing to successful advancement. Women in health care predominantly portray effective leadership in other‐oriented (team or organizationally focused) and stereotypically feminine or gender‐neutral terms. In contrast, successful advancement in organizations was predominantly and almost exclusively described in self‐focused and stereotypically masculine terms. Similarities and differences in the perspectives on leadership effectiveness, career advancement, satisfaction, and development strategies were examined among physicians, nurses, administrators, faculty, and others (scientists and researchers).

Implications of the disparate perspectives held by women in health care are discussed and future directions for research are proposed.

Since women overwhelmingly dominate employment in the health care field, to explicate their unique perspectives of leadership and career advancement.

Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed.

The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and these descriptions are then used inductively to create a new successful school leadership model.

The open systems approach adopted depicts schools as a continuous cycle of input-transformation-output with feedback loops that inform each stage of the cycle. The inputs are the variables that lead to transformation. The transformation stage is the actions or processes that individuals, groups and organisations engage in because of the inputs, and these lead to a range of student and school outcomes. Feedback loops connect the stages, and the whole model is open to the influence of five contextual forces: economic, political, socio-cultural, technological and system, institutional and educational.

Models are an important way to make sense of complex phenomena. A new model of successful school leadership, with an open systems approach, provides a different frame to consider the findings of the ISSPP and potentially allows the ISSPP research to inform practice and connect with other school leadership views in new ways.

This study is one in a series which aims to examine the theories of actions developed and internalized by school principals that help them serve as successful leaders in the tumultuous accountability climate. The dearth of recent empirical research focusing on best practices of successful school principals in a post‐NCLB nation sets the tone for and drives the study.

An inductive exploratory study was designed to provide insight into how successful elementary school principals facilitate high levels of student achievement. The research was grounded by allowing principals to talk about what their actual practices as leaders.

The principals provided a wealth of information that helped to identify common themes of practice across all 12 participants. The following categories represent the central themes: leadership with data; honesty and relationships; fostering ownership and collaboration; recognizing and developing leadership; and instructional awareness and involvement.

This study identified vital practices of successful elementary leaders that enabled them to facilitate high levels of student achievement and to dispel any notions that success is not possible in a high stakes environment. Interviews with the principals identified common themes of practice that, when collectively utilized, have led to high student achievement.

This study is very relevant and contributes to the growing body of research that seeks to define the qualities of effective leaders during times of increased accountability.