Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships in Communities and Schools

"This important book identifies the teachable characteristics of collaborative leadership, and offers sound guidance about how to develop them in yourself and others. I believe this candid and practical work can have a profoundly positive impact on all who study it."
―Bob Barkley, Executive Director (Retired)
Ohio Education Association

"Readers will find in Hank Rubin′s work both a useful theoretical framework and very practical advice for creating and sustaining collaboratives that foster improved student learning. This book provides insights for anyone engaged in collaborative efforts to improve student achievement―whether you are working at the school, local community, state, or national level."
―Judy Wurtzel, Executive Director
Learning First Alliance

Learn how to maximize collaboration for the realization of goals!

By cultivating skills of relationship building and relationship management, educators, as well as community, and government leaders, can empower themselves and their institutions with the tools needed to achieve their missions and create positive systemic change. In his provocative book, visionary Hank Rubin goes beyond the traditional roles of school, community, and government leaders and gives readers usable, successful tools and models of collaboration that can boost their performance and capacity. Key features of this insightful guide for practitioners and students include:

• Straightforward discussion of 24 specific skills and attributes that foster successful collaboration
• Exploration of the 12 phases of collaboration, including a checklist and practical framework
• 7 essential characteristics of effective collaborative leaders
• Definitions and discussions of the contexts and purposes of collaboration that are practical and thought-provoking

Collaborative Leadership is an important contribution to the growing demand for strategic alliances in education, community organizations, social service agencies, government and political offices, philanthropies, and businesses. The author asserts―and provides compelling illustrative evidence―that collaboration skills are essential tools for leaders hoping to have long-lasting systemic impact on school communities.

Hank Rubin is president of the nonprofit Institute for Collaborative Leadership, former distinguished visiting scholar at George Mason University, and dean-in-residence at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He was previously joint dean of education at The University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University.

With corporate, political, business, and nonprofit experience, Rubin is a nationally respected collaborative leader, educational spokesperson, and children’s advocate. Rubin’s work reflects the vision of one who sees the world through the eyes of a broad cross-section of those who influence the national, regional, and local partnerships needed to make sure that all children can succeed.

He has taught seventh- and eighth-grade students, run three nonprofit organizations and created several others, directed and taught in the Midwest′s largest urban graduate school of public (government and nonprofit) administration, served as vice president for sales and marketing in an international manufacturing firm, served as associate vice president for institutional advancement in a large urban univer­sity, taught graduate students in education and business manage­ment, run for―and held―public office, and started and managed his own consulting firm before founding the nonprofit Institute for Collaborative Leadership.

Rubin was an early researcher and leader in the field of nonprofit leadership. He was co-convener of the Clarion Initiative (a series of symposia that began at Harvard′s Kennedy School of Government and produced a framework that has guided nonprofit trainers, educators, and researchers since the 1980s). With more than 20 publications on topics including school reform, educational goal setting, public ethics, philanthropy, and nonprofit management, Rubin is a respected consultant, speaker, and advocate for innovative and collaborative approaches to leadership, training, and public education. He served as Ohio′s first associate superintendent for students, families, and communities and was a founding member of both the Ohio Learning First Alliance and the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance.

Rubin earned his PhD from Northwestern University and his MA and BA from the University of Chicago with early coursework at the State University of New York at Geneseo.