Elevating dreams to reality. (Executive Perspective).

In a world of a million questions, what are the most important for leaders to ask? The first is really "what is leadership?"

Certainly leadership is more than managing. While we must manage complex enterprises, we aren't merely managers. Leadership at its core is about people. It is about the kind of people we are and the kind of world we want to create. More than anything else, leadership is about dreams and possibilities. It is about creating the world anew.

Leaders are creators. We are midwives to the future. We bring forth what is to be by creating the possibilities for our students and staff. Our task is to make the rough places smooth and to uplift and inspire. In some ways, we are sculptors. We must shape the children we serve. Michelangelo once said that as a sculptor his task was to free the art from the stone that imprisoned it. Educational leaders must free our children from the rocks that keep them from their possibilities.

Our jobs are also to make connections. We must connect the dots. But more importantly, we must connect people.

I have told many people that as difficult as the days following Sept. 11 were, I was so very proud of our school leaders and all you did to help your staff and children through that very tough period. It reminded all of us of how fragile we are, but also how connected we must be. It is through our connection to and compassion for each other that we gain strength. Leaders are about making those connections.

Heighths and Depths

At its core, leadership is also about making the journey and taking folks along with us. Much of that journey is very close to what it must be to go on a mountain climbing expedition.

We all face mountains every day. In fact, life is really an endless expedition--a never-ending journey over mountain range after mountain range. We know that the struggle is tough but success leads us to the summit. And while we prefer the rarefied air of a mountaintop experience, we also have to remember that the valley's depth marks the mountain's height and gives it meaning. Let me just repeat that because sometimes it is a hard lesson to remember. It is the valley's depth that marks the mountains height and gives it meaning.

Sept. 11 was one of those valleys in the shadow of death that we all shared, but how we handled it charted a path back up the mountain. Life is about the climb and the progress we make. It is about the going up. It's about the coming down. It is about facing danger and then overcoming it.

I often have reminded folks that these jobs are what we do--they aren't who we are. Our task is to make certain that these two things are as connected as the two sides of a coin. Because how you do what you do is what you pass on to others--for it defines who you are.

More than anything, leadership is about dreams. In the recent Harry Potter movie, the headmaster of Hogwarts School reminds Harry that he can't let his dreams interfere with his life. That is true. Life is about doing. But of course the obverse of that is also true--you can't let life interfere with your dreams. For without dreams we have nothing to aspire to.

Educational leaders are really about helping our children dream and live as fully and completely as they can. More than anything else, education is about giving wings to children's dreams.

No mountain was ever climbed without the dream of it happening first. But simply dreaming isn't enough for no mountain was ever climbed by sitting in a chair and dreaming it. Success is the interplay between dreams and doing--between imagining and then making it so.

Every book ever written, every discovery ever made, every mountain ever climbed always started with the same thought: What if...?

Acting an Dreams

At our recent National Conference on Education, we honored Dolly Parton--not for her value as an entertainer but for what she had given back through her foundation to support literacy. She dreamed of making the world better and then acted to do so. The motto of the foundation she created to bring greater literacy to her home state of Tennessee and beyond is: "Dream more, Learn more, Care more, Be more."

What if we all dreamed more? What if we dreamed of climbing the highest mountains we could imagine in our lives? What if we all learned more--and then learned to pass that on to others? What if we all could care more for each other? Would there be any more acts of terrorism or war? Would there be hunger and sadness? Would there be illiteracy and failure?

What if we all learned to be more than we are? What a world we could create! Leadership is about raising the most important question anyone could ask--what if?--and then helping folks find the answers in themselves.

Paul Houston is AASA executive director.

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