being able to imagine possibilities and innovatealong the way. That abil-
ity, in turn, expands a leader’s sphere of influence. The Habits of Mind
are fractal in that by adopting one, others tend to emerge on their own as
part of the larger pattern. For example, by thinking flexiblywe also find
creativeoptions. In addition, thinking flexibly requires that we listen to
others with understanding and empathy. As leaders,thinking about our
thinkingis key to our success and helps us build healthy organizations
that foster excellence.
Opportunists—Seeking Every Opportunity
As a way to explore these cognitive processes, we offer vignettes from our
own careers as educators. We hope these vignettes will help you clarify
how you might cultivate your own thinking and actions—and find ways to
be a leader who makes the difference that matters. Each leader must learn
to connect his or her own dots; here we describe how we connected our
dots. In retrospect, we know that our leadership has created legacies in
both the people and the organizations that have transcended our tenure.
One of the many traits we have in common is that we are both oppor-
tunists. By this we mean, when we get a mind-set, we seek every opportu-
nity to get to our destination. Some might call it stubborn, others
persistent; we say it is also about focus so that we can seek every opportu-
nity that brings us closer to our goals.
A story comes to mind about when Bill became a principal in an
urban school where the dropout rate was 275 out of 2,000 students. When
Bill asked why it was so high, the response was “It is always that way.”
Here was an opportunity to confront an issue that was assumed to be
unsolvable. By staying focused on the task, bringing in other staff who
wanted to make a difference, and engaging the students to be part of the
solutions, he emboldened his staff to seek every opportunity to keep stu-
dents in school and was able to cut the dropout rate in half in one year.
Looking back on the process, he questionedthe belief that nothing
could be done; he worked to establish clarityabout intentions; and he lis-
tenedto students, staff, and parents. He createda small learning commu-
nity that stayed focused on this group of students and that was persistent
Leading Is a Habit of Mind 309