Establishing a Leadership Mindset

Holland’s Establishing a Leadership Mindset: A Guide to Using the Power of the Human Brain to Motivate Learning is a “must read” for community college board members, presidents, fellow staff members, and all of those teaching professionals. No one brings more relevant experience in the design and implementation of effective strategies to the open-door college than does Tony Holland. He has spent his career helping faculty design creative and successful learning strategies in their classrooms and labs. This volume provides good insights and practical advice for getting students more actively and positively engaged in the learning process. The book emphasizes “the how” in positive student involvement and the roles that all personnel play in helping community colleges truly make good on the promise of the open door.

-- John E. Roueche, Executive Director, Roueche Center for Community College Leadership, College of Education, Kansas State University; Sid W. Richardson Regents Chair and Director Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin, 1971-2012

Leadership is critical throughout America’s community colleges. Tony Holland reminds the reader of the critical nature of instructional leadership in developing equitable learning opportunities for all students. Drawing upon Carol Dweck’s focus on growth mindset, and brain development, faculty and other learning leaders are provided strategies for instilling belief and engaging underserved students who, all too often, contribute to a fixed mindset and self-fulfilling poor outcomes. Tony draws upon his extensive experience in working with faculty to create and implement effective strategies that contribute to achievement by fostering underlying belief in students’ ability to learn. Establishing a Leadership Mindset: A Guide to Using the Power of the Human Brain to Motivate Learning, a must-read for effectively working with incoming students, provides motivation and is a seasoned practitioner’s guide for practical strategies to improve student success.

-- Margaretta B. Mathis, senior director, John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership, Department of Educational Leadership, College of Education, Kansas State University

Tony Holland is a seasoned instructional leader with a rare talent; he knows how to herd strategies for student success through institutional pastures, and he has a gift for capturing the journey through robust writing. Establishing a Leadership Mindset: A Guide to Using the Power of the Human Brain to Motivate Learning reflects a lifetime of creative thinking and problem solving anchored in his vision for change in his astute observation that “Making an uncommon commitment to a common goal of improving and expanding learning produces uncommon results.” If you read this book carefully and resonate to its message of hope and student success encapsulated in proven instructional strategies, you will discover uncommon results in your own work.

-- Terry U. O'Banion Ph.D, President Emeritus, League for Innovation in the Community College, and Senior Professor of Practice, Kansas State Univer