This book is about exceptionally effective school principals and how they meet the challenges for leadership in a new era of educational reform. It describes the major elements of successful facilitative leadership from the perspectives of teachers. Drawn from a study of highly successful principals affiliated with Carl Glickman's League of Professional Schools, the study identified the characteristics of shared-governance principals that directly and indirectly contribute to teachers' sense of empowerment. Chapter 1 presents a brief overview of the professional literature on teacher empowerment and empowering leadership as well as a description of the study on which the book was based. Chapters 2 and 3 focus, respectively, on two fundamental principal strategies--building trust and developing enabling structures. The ways in which principals use basic supportive resources such as staff development to enhance teachers' instructional capabilities are examined in the fourth chapter. Chapter 5 discusses two strategies--extending autonomy and encouraging innovation. The effects of several personal characteristics of principals, including optimism, caring, honesty, friendliness, and enthusiasm, are highlighted in chapter 6. Chapter 7 focuses on the significance of reducing risk and threat to teachers. The benefits of rewarding teachers are examined in chapter 8, and chapter 9 discusses the importance of a problem-solving orientation. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of several guidelines. The final chapter presents a portrait of today' successful shared-governance principal and discusses possibilities for the future of facilitative-democratic leadership in schools. Research methods and recommended books are included in a resource section. (LMI)