WHEN VIEWING ON A TABLET OR MOBILE -- DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM The Leadership Journey Once you embrace them, these eight leadership qualities will serve as your moral compass to guide your thinking and actions as a leader. They will be your conceptual framework for organizational change and team development. Thus, the eight leadership qualities are what I call the road map to leadership success. If you stay true to these qualities while on your leadership journey, you will always move in the direction of effective and inspiring leadership. This chapter gives a quick overview of the eight leadership qualities. Then in subsequent chapters, I show you in more detail how the qualities have unfolded during my leadership journey in the field of early childhood education and how they have led to effective and lasting change on behalf of children and their families. I hope the stories culled from my thirty-plus years operating from my core values will engage and inspire you. I also ask you to apply these leadership qualities to your own situation—leadership that is motivated by these qualities always starts at the personal level before it can affect communities and organi- zations. You’ll find that when you take action that is based on these qualities, others around you will pick up on the positive vibes that you emanate. As a result, your attitude will become contagious, and you will be an inspiring and effective leader and agent of change. The Eight Leadership Qualities 1. Human Potential The human-potential quality ensures that you as a leader do the right thing because you recognize the untapped potential of every child and adult. With this leadership quality, you see each child and adult as a capable, competent, and resourceful individual in need of coaching, mentoring, and emotional support. Adopting the quality of human potential ensures that you always keep the interests of young children at the heart of every discussion and decision. The human-potential quality reminds you that there are no limits to learning for children and adults, just as there are no limits to an individ- ual’s potential. The human-potential quality also informs how you as a leader view and talk to others in the workplace. It even influences how you interview potential Chapter 1 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL