Brain and Strength Based School Leadership

Build on individual strengths for optimized leadership

Best-selling author Sheryl G. Feinstein demonstrates how educational leaders can apply a popular business prototype of leadership strengths and the latest brain research to lead effectively. Her new book, co-authored by veteran administrator and instructional leader Robert W. Kiner, outlines four leadership styles―executer, relationship builder, influencer, and strategic thinker―and shows how to recognize and capitalize on these styles in order to:

• Create a positive school culture
• Mentor and supervise teachers
• Keep track of standardized testing
• Foster community partnerships
• Use data to inform curriculum and instruction

The authors connect current cognitive research with the challenges of educational leadership, using vignettes and discussion questions to make clear the links between neural wiring, learning, and leading. Learn how to make the most of your own talents and also play to the strengths of everyone on your team.

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Sheryl Feinstein is an Associate Professor at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD where she teaches in the Education Department. She is the author of a number of books, including Secrets of the Teenage Brain 2nd Ed (2009), Corwin Press; The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain 2 vol. (2006), Praeger Publisher; Parenting the Teenage Brain: Understanding a Work in Progress, Teaching the At Risk Teenage Brain, and Inside the Teenage Brain: Understanding a Work in Progress (2009), Rowman & Littlefield Publisher; 101 Insights and Strategies for Parenting Teenagers (Fall, 2009), Healthy Learning Publishers; and Tanzanian Women in Their Own Words: Stories of Chronic Illness and Disability, (2009), Lexington Press.

In addition to teaching at Augustana College, Feinstein consults at a correctional facility for adolescent boys and at a separate site for Emotionally/Behaviorally Disturbed (EBD) adolescents in Minnesota. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2007-2008 to Tanzania where she taught at Tumaini University in Iringa and conducted research involving the adolescent. In 2006 she was a fellow at Oxford, UK.

Prior to joining Augustana College, Feinstein was an administrator for a K-12 school district in Minnesota and taught in the public schools in South Dakota and a private school in Missouri.

For nearly three decades, Dr. Robert Kiner was a K-12 public school administrator and instructional leader. He served as a middle school and high school assistant principal, middle school and high school principal, and held key central office positions including Superintendent to the Sioux Falls, SD school district. He has several journal publications and has spoken extensively at local, state and regional conferences and workshops.
During his K-12 experience, Dr. Kiner was a student and teacher advocate who always looked for new and different ways to help students achieve success in school. He was an educational entrepreneur who has been recognized for his work with at-risk and special needs students. He has a unique ability to create collegial relationships within schools and maximize academic success for individual students.
Dr. Kiner concluded his career as the Education Department Chair and subsequently the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. He currently holds the rank of Professor Emeritus in the Education Department at Augustana College.