Bounce Forward: The Extraordinary Resilience of Leadership - Paperback

by Eileen T. Allison-Napolitano (Author)

Turn adversity from fearsome foe to welcome friend.

Ordinary resilience is not enough to inspire teams to greatness. Effective leaders must welcome adversity and harness it for positive change that creates results and makes life and work more joyful.

Follow stories of successful educators to discover how to harness the power of leadership resiliency in education. Find out why it matters and how you can be a catalyst for bouncing forward in your own environment. Drawing on the latest research from organizational psychology and her experiences as a transformational leadership coach, Elle Allison Napolitano helps readers by:

• Defining leadership resiliency
• Explaining how leadership resiliency applies in educational leadership
• Showing you how to find it in yourself
• Outlining steps to make your leadership resilience visible
• Providing a rubric to gauge the resiliency of your organization

Bounce forward from adversity to lead a successful learning organization that can face new challenges and build for the future.

"Bounce Forward is a wonderful book that is at once as realistic as it is inspiring. Read it and it will take you deeper into your life, past, present and future. It will bring you tears, but ultimately it will put a fresh bounce in your step."
--From the Foreword by Michael Fullan

"Leadership resilience is the linchpin of 21st century leadership survival and success. Allison-Napolitano's book is an insightful guide to resilience and is a MUST read for today′s leaders and aspiring leaders."
--Anita Johnson, Executive Director
National Center for Education, Research and Technology (NCERT)

Author Biography

Dr. Elle Allison, Researcher, Author, Speaker, Professional Development Specialist, is founder of Wisdom Out, a professional development company specializing in leadership and organizational learning and a hub for research and information about the nature of wisdom in individuals, couples, leaders, and organizations.

Elle is also the creator of the Renewal Coaching training program. Renewal Coaching is a transformational leadership coaching model that is a timely response to what individuals and organizations want most today: a job embedded process and support for creating sustainable change and accomplishing the most meaningful work of the organization. Elle co-authored along with her friend, Dr. Douglas Reeves, the three book series called Renewal Coaching: Sustainable Change for Individuals and Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 2009, 2010, 2012).

Originally educated and employed as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, Elle started her professional development and consulting business in 2000. In 2006, Elle received her doctorate in Organizational Learning from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where she wrote her dissertation on the nature of wisdom in nurses and the organizational practices that support the development of transformational leadership. Building on her original wisdom studies, Elle′s research and fieldwork has led to discoveries about how to leverage organizational practices, processes and structures for sustainable change. These insights include the importance of: engagement in meaningful work projects, personal renewal, workplace happiness, making progress and achieving wins in the first 100---days of launching important initiatives, and choosing to be resilient in the face of setbacks. These practices combined with a culture of coaching where colleagues "partner in thought" with colleagues on the job, lead to an organizational culture where creativity thrives and aspirational goals are achieved. Dr. Allison has worked with clients in education, health care, business, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.

Resilience is one of the seven topics she writes about and presents on, from the work she does called "How effective leaders sustain meaningful change." Resilience is also part and parcel of the coaching training she does, as great leadership coaches are grounded in the concepts of resilience in order to support leaders in sustaining important work. Allison has found that the reaction of leaders around the topic of resilience is quite moving and always positive. To coincide with the publication of the book she would like to launch a Resilience BootCamp where the new book would be the companion text and where leaders could come together to explore the topic and grow stronger together. She is doing a break out session on Leadership Resilience on August 8 and she may also present at ASCD in December. In early May Allison did a session on Resilience for superintendents at the NCERT conference. She also has done several webinars on Resilience, all of which were very well attended.