Preparing Leadership Educators: A Comprehensive Guide to Theories, Practices, and Facilitation Skills by Jonathan R. Kroll guides leadership instructors through tried and true methods for teaching leadership concepts. This unique approach adds value to the leadership discussion and supports facilitators’ desires to convey their messages.
I’ll review some book details, give you the textbook setup, provide key takeaways, and end with some final thoughts.
Book Details
Publisher: Stylus Publishing
Publication Date: 26 October 2022
Length: 276 pages
Textbook Set Up
This book is a reference guide for leadership facilitators. The beginning of Part 1 lays out the book’s intent: the author “envisioned this book…as a resource for those who facilitate leadership training experiences” rather than reading this like a novel (Kroll, 2022, page 1, paragraph 2).
It’s a textbook with activities, theories, and recommendations for instructors who teach leadership concepts. Here’s how Preparing Leadership Educators is laid out:
Part 1: Laying Our Leadership Foundation
Here, Preparing Leadership Educators sets the tone for the book. Indeed, Kroll explains the idea for the book and who the book is intended for. It’s a solid framework that sets up the rest of the book.
This part defines leadership and why facilitators are vital to teaching these concepts well.
Part 2: Leadership Theories, Models, Frameworks, and Themes
Preparing Leadership Educators presents a series of activities that teach leadership theories from the past and present. Essentially, this is what leaders know about leadership. Each chapter in this part follows a similar pattern of introducing an idea and presenting an associated activity.
The activities include materials needed, step-by-step instructions on facilitating the activity, and reflection questions. These are called Leadership Educator Praxis Activities and are designed to solidify each theory discussed within the chapter.
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Part 3: Leadership Practices, Skills, and Competencies
This section is designed to sharpen a leader’s skill set. It focuses on what leaders do on a day-to-day basis.
Following a similar format to Part 2, Preparing Leadership Educators presents a concept or practice, an activity to conduct, and reflection questions.
It’ll touch on how leaders act, feel, and communicate while leading.
Part 4: Facilitating Leadership Trainings
Leadership facilitators need to learn how to run practical leadership training. For example, this part discussed time management and what to expect while preparing the environment for learning. Further, it describes how an educational experience can get derailed by poor preparation and improper time management.
Chapter 12 outlines explicitly how training sessions are stories. A “Training Story” includes an Exposition, a Rising Action, an Apex, a Falling Action, and a Resolution. It’s similar to the Hero’s Journey that literature frequently uses, but Preparing Leadership Educators cleverly uses it for running training.
Conclusion
Preparing Leadership Educators wraps up the book in the conclusion by encouraging its readers to “relish in our superhero status” and develop training that fits the organization’s needs.
Key Take Aways
First, I found a lot of value in Part 4: Facilitating Leadership Trainings. Having been part of great and terrible leadership training, I found Part 4 to be the most valuable section of the book. I could compare and contrast my past experiences to what Preparing Leadership Educators presented, and this chapter became a reflective experience for me.
So, I would read Part 4 before diving into Parts 2 and 3 because it’ll help create a vision for how you want your leadership training to be.
Second, I found Appendix A to be the most helpful reference in the book. It’s an easy reference to a leadership concept and its associated activity. I spent several minutes reviewing Appendix A and all the activities I read about. If it helped me, it certainly could help you tailor your training and refer to the concepts you want to teach.
Third, having never reviewed a book like this before, I was struck by how easy it was to read. Usually, textbooks get technical with lots of jargon. But Preparing Leadership Educators was an easier read, with pictures and graphics to help the audience follow along nicely.
Finally, Preparing Leadership Educators provides a solid foundation for new leadership facilitators. I’ve conducted several trainings, presentations, and briefings where I have used some concepts taught in the book without realizing it. However, if a new leadership facilitator has never been exposed to classroom management, time management, and curriculum planning, this textbook is an excellent fit for them.
And I submit that veteran leadership facilitators could use this for the activities and to refresh on concepts they once learned but have forgotten. There are lots of good nuggets in here that guide folks looking to change their curriculum or classroom routines.
Conclusion
Preparing Leadership Educators is an excellent guide and reference for those designing and conducting leadership training.
For junior leaders, immersing yourselves in books like this can help give you context into a great way to facilitate training. And learning how to conduct these activities can boost your skillset in leadership facilitation.
Every leader must learn to facilitate training, even if you rarely get up in front of a classroom.
If you want to buy Preparing Leadership Educators, click here.
Have you used the concepts taught in this book? Let me know in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
