Over the last few weeks I’ve been scratching my head a lot, thinking about characteristics of leadership and educational change.  So far I’m excited to see that there are others out there that are interested in this topic and have been checking in.  However, my original goal in starting Learn[ed]Leadership wasn’t just to examine the traits of leadership–and why bother, there are thousands of books out there already on the topic.  My goal has been to learn specifically about what great leaders are doing in international education.  I also hope in doing this I can find out what educational leaders are doing in common to advance schools and develop talent.

So with this in mind I want to introduce The Leadership Project.  An industry specific forum to examine and interview leaders in international education.  In most job interviews the prospective employer often asks “what questions do you have for me?”  Unfortunately, especially in international education, it’s not common to have a lot of time to ask questions about what’s shaped that person’s leadership philosophy.  My hope is that by “flipping the tables” on school leaders we can learn from their experiences what motivates, inspires and challenges them to be relevant in a changing educational world and also see what our industry is doing well, poorly or just not doing.

Dr. Dick Krajczar, the Executive Director of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) agreed to be my first interviewee and I will post his responses to my questions within the coming days.  He already mentioned a number of school leaders he thinks I should interview next, but I also want to invite you all to nominate school leaders who you believe are building great programs and developing talent.  Post their names below, send a message using the contact page or email me at andrew@learnedleadership.org.

Go directly to the most current interviews by clicking The Leadership Project tab at the top of the page and stay up-to-date on what’s happening at Learn[ed]Leadership by clicking the subscribe button and the bottom of the page.