What's With Idea of Becoming an Effective School Leader in 10 Minutes or in 10 Simple Steps?

I recently reviewed a manuscript for a book that was entitled something like the “Ten Minute School Leader.” It was simply a booklist of ten things that an administrator could do to supposedly become effective. When you see something like that or hear a salespitch with that kind of list, run away as fast as you can before it sucks your money away into oblivion. There  are no simple recipes for the complicated things in life.

Let’s face it, you just can’t reduce the complexity of school leadership to 10 things much less master it in 10 minutes. It takes time to learn about students, about teachers, about the school, about the system and that’s just not going to happen in 10 steps or 10 minutes.

It takes longer that 10 minutes to read such drivel.

Leadership of any kind in my experiences is never, ever that simple. These people are preying on a desire for a quick fix that’s just not there.

We live in a world where we want to sacrifice everything for efficiency and save time. 

Some things that are true and important just can’t possible be said simply.