Leaders and aspiring leaders are constantly searching for role models who are successful in placing leadership theory into effective practice. This book identifies ten such role models whose heroic leadership behavior is analyzed in order to reveal what particular abilities and skills made them successful and how those attributes can be applied to one’s own leadership practice, whether that be as a classroom teacher, a principal or a superintendent of schools . They are juxtaposed with ten leaders who were effective, but certainly not heroic. Dr. Palestini points out that effective leaders have been utilizing the same leadership behavior for centuries. He uses this evidence to support the perennial and lasting impact of situational leadership theory which posits that no single way of leading works in all situations. Rather, appropriate leadership behavior depends on the circumstances at a given time. For decades effective managers have been diagnosing the situation, identifying the leadership style or behavior that will be most effective, and then determining whether they can implement the required style. The leadership behavior of ten heroic leaders ranging from Jane Addams to Warren Buffett, and from Abraham Lincoln to Joe Paterno is examined in this book. The lesson learned from these heroic leaders being that if one wishes to hone one’s current leadership skills or become a future leader, one can learn to do so by reflectively looking to those who have established themselves in history as both effective and heroic leaders, that is, leaders who lead with both mind and conscience.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).

Educational leaders and aspiring leaders are constantly searching for ways to improve the functioning of their institutions. This book provides them with a unique approach to diagnosing a school, school system or college’s organizational health and determining what interventions might be necessary to improve their operations. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the ten essential components of an organization like a school, school system or university. Most of the content of each chapter focuses on the implementation of these components, but there is some emphasis on the supporting theory that speaks to why these leadership practices actually work. We know that administrators are busy people; therefore, at the end of each chapter there is a Diagnostic Checklist of questions that should be helpful in quickly assessing the status of these components in an institution and indicating whether they need to be addressed. In the Appendix, there are two diagnostic instruments; Heart Smart surveys I and II that will help in quantifying the assessment process so that the weaknesses can be easily identified and quickly corrected.

Resourcing new ventures is-all important for entrepreneurs, and creating a successful business plan can be make or break when it comes to attracting investment. Written by an experienced academic and consultant, this book provides a concise guide for producing the optimal business plan. Business plans are vital when it comes to making strategic decisions and monitoring progress. Writing a Business Plan is designed to teach you how to write your business plan without relying on someone else or internet templates. It will take you through each stage of business-plan writing, with chapters on generating ideas; describing business opportunities; drawing a business road map; and considering marketing, financial, operations, HR, legal and risk. The book includes a range of features to assist you, including worked-through examples. This unique book provides a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs and students of entrepreneurship to hone their skills in writing a useful and comprehensive business plan.

When walking the French Quarter and watching a Lucky Dog salesman set up that colorful cart and call out to entice customers, don't you wonder how such a business works? As a knowing review in Rolling Stone stated, "People have always loved the cart and harbored a mysterious need to ride it. Revelers have been known to climb on top of the rolling wienies, screaming 'Yippee kaya!' as vendors stoically push them back to the barn at 4 a.m." Since 1947 the red and yellow carts have trumpeted good fortune and sustenance. Jerry E. Strahan recounts the wild adventures of the Bourbon Street wienie salesmen but also takes readers well beyond New Orleans. In fact, he takes them halfway around the world, where this unique pushcart business maneuvered its way through the bureaucratic red tape of a communist country to become a licensed corporation in the People's Republic of China. In China, two points quickly became apparent to Strahan. First, 99 percent of the Chinese population had no idea what a Lucky Dog cart represented. One elderly passerby declared it to be a missile. Second, the success or failure of any joint venture in the Asian nation is directly proportional to the political clout of that company's local partner. Lucky Dogs also recounts how the business and its vendors survived Hurricane Katrina. Miraculously, it reopened only six months after the storm in a city where more than 80 percent of the landmass had been flooded and where less than 40 percent of the population had returned. To reestablish itself in what many described as Third World conditions, the company had to transform its operation. This work mixes business history, autobiography, survival story, and an insider's look at the bizarre lives of some of Bourbon Street's most quirky characters--the dauntless Lucky Dog vendors. Both humorous and tragic, though it may read like fiction, it is, for better or worse, all fact.

Palestini advances a new theory of educational leadership seen through the dual lens of critical theory and the Ignatian vision and its practical implications. A truly novel approach, the author strives to acquaint administrators and students of educational administration with a different way of thinking about education and its administration. Possessing the knowledge and skills of leadership is only half the story, one must also develop a value system or philosophy that guides the leader's actions and provides the leader with the 'human touch.' To advance his theory, the author includes chapters that outline the Ignatian vision of leadership, discuss the critical approach to leadership and the integration of theory and practice, explore an organizational change process, and assess the effective implementation of positivism, the critical theory, and the Ignatian vision. The final chapter contains a practical application of this approach to a case study involving the very controversial topic of education tuition vouchers.

A New York Times Bestseller. “If you think cybercrime and potential worldwide banking meltdown is a fiction, read this sensational thriller.”—Bob Woodward, Politico Graham Weber has been the director of the CIA for less than a week when a Swiss kid in a dirty T-shirt walks into the American consulate in Hamburg and says the agency has been hacked, and he has a list of agents' names to prove it. This is the moment a CIA director most dreads. Like the new world of cyber-espionage from which it's drawn, The Director is a maze of double dealing, about a world where everything is written in zeroes and ones—and nothing can be trusted.

"Ignatian Humanism puts into perspective our contemporary search for a spirituality that responds both to our search for meaning and desire for God." -John W. Padberg, S.J., director, Institute of Jesuit Sources "Modras integrates fascinating history, contemporary theology, and inspiring spirituality with consistent focus on central issues for our day." -Joann Wolski Conn, associate professor of religious studies, Neumann College "A stunning book! Modras has profiled a number of Jesuit thinkers and activists as role models for our time-revitalizing humanism as a model for moderns." -Leonard Swidler, professor of Catholic thought and inter-religious dialogue, Temple University Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, is one of a mere handful of individuals who has permanently changed the way we understand God. In this vividly written and meticulously researched book, Ronald Modras shows how Ignatian spirituality retains extraordinary vigor and relevance nearly five centuries after Loyola's death. At its heart, Ignatian spirituality is a humanism that defends human rights, prizes learning from other cultures, seeks common ground between science and religion, struggles for justice, and honors a God who is actively at work in creation. The towering achievements of the Jesuits are made tangible by Modras's vivid portraits of Ignatius and five of his successors: Matteo Ricci, the first Westerner at the court of the Chinese emperor; Friederich Spee, who defended women accused of witchcraft; Karl Rahner, the greatest Catholic theologian of the twentieth century; Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the scientist-mystic; and Pedro Arrupe, the charismatic leader of the Jesuits in the years following Vatican II.