School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff. This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might sabotage your prospects for promotion or retention, and provides strategies to remedy the situation. Two new chapters address the political realities of the No Child Left Behind Act and answer these queries: (1) What causes an educational leader to derail? (2) What are potential accountability and high-stakes testing derailment factors? and (3) What skills are most important for improving data-driven decision making, student achievement, and test results? This new edition will help you start, or keep, your forward momentum and get you closer to your ideal job. Following the Contents, Preface, Acknowledgments, About the Authors and Prologue: A Cautionary Tale, this guidebook is divided into seven sections: (1) Accountability and High-Stakes Testing; (2) Self-Assessment Checklists; (3) What Causes Educational Leaders to Derail?; (4) Antiderailment Strategies; (5) Professional and Personal Plans for Development; (6) Preparing Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow's Leadership Positions; and (7) The Seasons of An Educational Leader's Career. This guidebook concludes with Afterword, Resources, References and an Index.