Volume 4, Number 3 (July - September 2009)

There is a short supply, yet tacit demand, for creative and effective communication training for educational leaders. A field of literature indicates that a leader’s identity is a potent communication tool. A leader’s image can frame expectations for followers, symbolically evoking a family of concepts and patterns of meaning (receiving). The mindset of the transformational leader is politically recognizing that he or she either “define or be defined”. Research suggests that many educational leaders resist creative and effective symbolisms and that communication training is unsatisfactory. Eighty-three percent of study participants communicated their vision and/or mission through role modeling (sending), i.e., “walking the talk”. Paradoxically, 68 percent of these participants didn’t know of or express interest in their identity as perceived by their target audiences; hence, the identity crisis and mindset are addressed in this study. AVAILABLE AT: http://cnx.org/content/m26728/latest/