Battles in the Trenches

Educational leaders work within a system that does not best leverage attributes of their professional employees. This book focuses on three areas: leadership, motivation, and organization, as they related to educational leadership. Each of these areas has a particular chapter devoted to it. Each chapter begins with a review of the extant literature covering the theme. 40 elite, professional, and Olympic athletes and coaches were interviewed for this book to learn their perspectives on what makes the best leaders in athletics in the areas of leadership, motivation, and organization. These interviews are subsequently interwoven into each of the three chapters outlined above. The book concludes with a chapter that pulls all these aspects together and utilizes a newly created Leadership Congruency Model.

Battles in the Trenches, Perry Rettig’s newest book on leadership, motivation, and organization, engages us in a distinctively different, novel approach. He breaks rank from the plethora of traditional leadership books sitting on my office shelves, comparing and contrasting historical theoretical underpinnings of higher education leadership with the perspectives of athletes and coaches collected from hours of personal interviews. The result is a fascinating analysis of theory and practice across two seemingly disparate worlds, handing us a reflective opportunity to reconsider leadership and management in the post-pandemic, technologically transformed educational world we now inherit. Only Perry can give us a book that is intellectually sound and fun to read!, Rettig and Sims score big with Battles in the Trenches. The stories of elite coaches and athletes paint a poignant portrait for the juxtaposition of theory and practice provided by the authors. Rettig's Congruency Model pulls the full Leadership dynamic together into a coherent body for leaders in K-12, higher education, and even corporate America.

Perry Rettig is a former university vice president and now serves as Distinguished University Professor at Piedmont University. This is his eight book with Rowman & Littlefield covering myriad topics in educational leadership. He has recently concluded 38 years of teaching and administration in both K-12 and higher education.Darryl Sims played on the defensive line for the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, and he coached in the NFL and NFL Europe. He played collegiately for the Wisconsin Badgers. Presently, Sims is the Athletic Director and Assistant Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.