Educational Leaders studying Leadership as a Lifelong Skill not just Management

Commentary: In my opinion, there is a clear distinction between educational management and educational leadership which is overlooked by many.  You can manage "things" and processes, but you must LEAD people. An individual in an education leadership position hopefully has achieved this position by demonstrated leadership potential or performance. This coupled with considerable quality experience in the academic world are the basic ingredients for the making of a rudimentary educational leader. I haven't intentionally overlooked the academic certification processes or programs in determining educational leaders. However how much of the curriculum is about LEADERSHIP as compared with MANAGEMENT?  Looking at educational leaders from a school preparedness standpoint, it is an area they they typically are not educated or prepared for in any educational leadership curriculum. So the majority of Educational Leaders are not educated or trained in school preparedness or leadership, let alone the criticality of leading in a school related incident where lives, property, or operations are effected.

Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.html?awesm=on.ted.com_McChrystal

The attached link (15 minutes in length) is from Maj Gen Stanley McChrystal (now a Yale Professor) who talks about leadership development and leading in the 21st century in a Web 2.0 world where leaders can become overwhelmed in time compressed and information technology accelerated situations. His concept of "reverse mentoring" is also an interesting reality of the success of today's networked organizations vice the traditional legacy hierarchical organization that are the standard in the US education.

In the year 2011, if you are no better prepared than Principal Frank DeAngelis (Principal at Columbine High School in 1999) or President Steger (President of Va Tech in 2007) for a life threatening incident (nature or man-made) to occur at your school than you are not a prepared educational leader nor is your institution. They cared about their students and their school so you must learn the lessons learned from their experiences or you will not benefit from them.