| Preface | xi |
| Acknowledgement | xiii |
| I | Power and the Context of School Administration | |
| 1 | Power and Politics | 3 |
| JFK, Stalin, Churchill, and Iacocca--Who Would Make It as a School Administrator? | 7 |
| Ideas about Power: The Big "P" or Who Has It and Who Doesn't | 8 |
| Power Plays, Politics, and Politicians | 11 |
| The Zero Sum Game as Organizational Poker Playing | 12 |
| Building Coalitions: The Chess Game | 15 |
| Is School Administration for You? | 17 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Power and Politics | 20 |
| 2 | Are You Ready to Play the Game? | 23 |
| The Game, the Players, the Stakes, and the Rules | 23 |
| The Nature of School Administration | 24 |
| Winning, Losing, Winners, and Losers | 25 |
| Jocks, Jive, and Jokers | 29 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Playing the Game | 32 |
| 3 | Bureaucracies, Babus, and Baksheesh | 35 |
| Vacuums, Inertia, and Administrivia | 35 |
| Competency and Potency | 38 |
| Rocking in the Boat vs Rocking the Boat | 40 |
| Beating the System vs Being Beaten by the System | 41 |
| Blunders and Business Acumen | 44 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Bureaucracies, Babus, and Baksheesh | 48 |
| II | Connections | |
| 4 | The Community | 53 |
| The "Community" Is a Mirage | 53 |
| Tapping the Power Bases of the Communities | 54 |
| Spotting the People in Power--The Informal Network | 55 |
| Using the Power Bases of a Community | 60 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about the Community | 61 |
| 5 | The PTA | 63 |
| What the PTA Is Not: Teachers and Men | 63 |
| Gossip, "Gotchas," and Gripe Sessions | 64 |
| Payoffs, Potholes, and Parsimony | 65 |
| Virulence at the Secondary School | 67 |
| And Virulence at the Elementary School | 68 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about PTA's | 71 |
| 6 | The Staff | 73 |
| The Staff vs the Faculty | 73 |
| The Faculty: Superstars, Superchargers, Turkeys, Stool Pigeons, and Wimps | 75 |
| Morale and Networking | 82 |
| Pedagogues, Poker Games, and Privies: Faculty Room Dynamics | 82 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about the Staff | 83 |
| 7 | The Media | 85 |
| The Truth Never Gets in the Way of a Good Story | 85 |
| Stroking the Press | 87 |
| Developing a Media "Presence" That Sells | 90 |
| Turning Bad News into Good News: Being Your Own Press Agent | 91 |
| Two Sources of Information about the Schools You Should Know | 92 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about the Media | 93 |
| 8 | Students | 95 |
| The Pawns and the Powerful | 95 |
| A Student-Centered Value System | 96 |
| Students as a Power Group | 98 |
| Students as Problems to Students as Solutions | 102 |
| Pots, Pot, and Pets | 103 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Students | 105 |
| III | The Career Ladder | |
| 9 | Career Planning--The Legend of the "Chairs" | 109 |
| The Legend and the Fraternity | 109 |
| The Play Is the Thing--The Difference Between Scenery and the Players | 111 |
| Getting the Position You Want: Two Strategies | 115 |
| The Right People--Who Are They? | 116 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Career Planning | 118 |
| 10 | Resumes, Headhunters, and Interviewing | 119 |
| The Resume as Doublespeak | 119 |
| On Bogus Degrees: Avoiding Dipscam | 123 |
| Headhunters, Cannibals, and the OBN | 124 |
| Interviewing Your Interviewers | 126 |
| Leads: Dead Ends, Deadbeats, Detours, and Dividends | 127 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Resumes, Headhunters, and Interviewing | 128 |
| 11 | Academics and Abecedarians | 131 |
| The Ph.D. and Ed.D. or Initials Are Everything | 135 |
| The Alphabet Jungle: Reading the Letterhead | 137 |
| Picking the Right Place to Get Placed | 137 |
| Professors as Partners | 138 |
| Life in College Classrooms | 138 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Acedemics and Abecedarians | 139 |
| IV | Getting the Job Done Right | |
| 12 | The Job vs the Job Description | 143 |
| What Makes Up a Job? | 145 |
| Data, People, and Things | 146 |
| Control vs Controls Over the Job | 146 |
| Retrofitting the Job Description to the Job | 147 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about the Job vs the Job Description | 149 |
| 13 | Ploys to Avoid | 151 |
| Givers, Takers, and Flimflam Artists | 151 |
| Memo Wars and Turf Battles | 157 |
| Forcing Democracy on Dopes | 160 |
| Your Title and You, When to Take It Seriously | 164 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Ploys to Avoid | 167 |
| 14 | Hiring, Shifting, and Firing | 169 |
| Where Loyalties Begin and End: Have Gun Will Travel | 169 |
| The Proper Attitude | 170 |
| The Subtleties of Staffing | 171 |
| Hiring Good People or Hiring People Who Hire Good People | 172 |
| Con Games in Letters of Reference | 174 |
| Shifting Personnel: Keep Your Eyes on the Pea! | 176 |
| Who Must Be Fired and Making It Stick | 178 |
| Theory X and Theory Y | 178 |
| Taking Your Lumps, the Dirty Work Is Part of the Job | 185 |
| The Only Thing That Lasts | 186 |
| Retrospective | 186 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Hiring, Shifting, and Firing | 187 |
| 15 | The Emmetropia of Evaluation | 189 |
| Growth vs Performance | 189 |
| The Search for the One "Perfect" System | 190 |
| Hard vs Soft Data | 193 |
| Flattery Will Lose You a Grievance | 196 |
| Facts Only Count for So Much | 197 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Evaluation | 200 |
| 16 | Budget Skullduggery | 201 |
| Budget Control and Hieroglyphics | 201 |
| What Is a Budget? | 201 |
| All Budgets Are Padded | 202 |
| How Not to Be Caught with Your Padding Down | 203 |
| The Telltale Evidence: The Sawdust on the Floor | 204 |
| Controlling Costs | 205 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Budget Skullduggery | 207 |
| 17 | Textbook Tyranny, Curriculum Chicanery, and Testing Insanity | 209 |
| The Educational Mugwumps | 209 |
| Putting It Together in the Schools | 211 |
| Testing Insanity | 214 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Textbook Tyranny, Curriculum Chicanery, and Testing Insanity | 217 |
| V | Adversaries and Friends | |
| 18 | Secretaries and Custodians | 221 |
| The "Shadow" Administrators: Secretaries Behind the Throne | 221 |
| Secretaries as Mediators and Power Brokers | 222 |
| Secretarial Sign Language Everybody Knows | 225 |
| The Real Basics Are Always Custodial | 226 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Secretaries and Custodians | 228 |
| 19 | Unions | 231 |
| The Avon Lady Is Calling: Cosmetic vs Custodial Roles | 231 |
| Union Tectics and Victims | 233 |
| Living, Loving, and Laughing with Unions | 234 |
| Grievances and Arbitration | 235 |
| The Godfather: Understanding Union Leaders | 237 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Unions | 239 |
| 20 | The Lunatic Fringe | 241 |
| Prudes, Censors, Wackos, and Birchers | 241 |
| The Last Crusade: The Religious Fanatics | 244 |
| The Assassins--When the Bullets Are Real | 247 |
| The Power of Humor | 248 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about the Lunatic Fringe | 249 |
| 21 | Arch Rivals and Competitors | 251 |
| Et tu Brutus? Knowing Who Wants Your Job | 251 |
| Plots, Plotters, and Psychopaths | 252 |
| Case Study: Stanley Friend's First Failure | 254 |
| Motivation for Advancement | 259 |
| Assistants | 261 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Arch Rivals and Competitors | 263 |
| VI | Surviving | |
| 22 | Knowing Who Is the Boss | 267 |
| You Don't Work for Everyone: How to Tell Who Is the Boss | 267 |
| Case Study: Todd Laker Knocks 'em Dead but Is Knocked Out | 268 |
| All the President's Men: Are They Men? | 273 |
| Does Your Boss Want Your Competence or Your Strokes? | 274 |
| Who Is Your Boss's Boss and Who Cares? | 275 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Knowing Who Is the Boss | 277 |
| 23 | Staying in Power and Staying Power | 279 |
| Real Lessons from the Real World | 287 |
| How to Survive Losing to The Turk: Getting Fired | 289 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Staying in Power and Staying Power | 291 |
| 24 | Idealism vs Ideology | 293 |
| Machiavelli and Don Quixote: The Odd Couple | 293 |
| Is It Crass to Care? | 294 |
| Dreams vs Pipe Dreams | 295 |
| Guidelines for Success | 296 |
| Your Own Guidelines | 304 |
| Caveats, Codicils, and Conundrums about Leaders and Leadership | 306 |
| Notes | 309 |
| Index | 319 |
| Biographies | 323 |
| To Our Readers | 325 |
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