No Laughing Matter ─ The Value of Humor in Educational Leadership

Educators are not alone in perennially seeking the best leadership practices and applying them to their own leadership behavior. What constitutes effective leadership seems to be on the minds of people everywhere. Recently, there has been some seminal work done with regard to the role of humor in leadership effectiveness. Several contemporary empirical studies corroborate some earlier research that closely linked effective leadership to whether the leader possesses a well-developed sense of humor. In light of this connection between possessing a keen sense of humor and leadership effectiveness, this book profiles the leadership behavior of ten proven leaders from many walks of life whose leadership style included a highly developed sense of humor. The idea, of course, would be to look at the overall leadership behavior of these individuals, but focus especially on their symbolic frame leadership behavior in the form of humor, to determine how their behavior can inform our own particular leadership style.

Robert Palestini is graduate dean emeritus and professor of educational leadership at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He is also the founding executive director of the Educational Leadership Institute at SJU. In almost fifty years in education, he has served as a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools of one of the largest school systems in the United States. He has written more than a dozen books on various aspects of educational leadership.