The 10 Essential Skills of a Good School Leader
Before discussing what skills are needed to become a good director, let's first discuss the role of a director.
The OECD defines the head teacher as the link between teachers, pupils, their parents or guardians, the education system, and the wider community.
Essentially, a principal must oversee all aspects of school life, including but not limited to:
What skills are needed to be a successful director?
1- Leadership skills
As a director, you manage a large team of employees and a large number of students, and you are the mediator between students, teachers, and parents. Therefore, as a principal, you must be a strong leader so that students, staff, and parents respect you and listen to what you say.
It may be advantageous for school leaders to have held a variety of other leadership positions in education, such as department head or co-curricular activity coordinator, even though many principal positions require prior experience. Before taking on the role of principal, where you are in charge of the entire school, this gives you the chance to hone your leadership skills while overseeing a smaller group of people.
2- The ability to adapt and innovate
One of the skills that all educators, not just those in the film industry, should have is the ability to innovate and adapt. We live in a world where technology is constantly evolving and new educational techniques are constantly emerging. Principals should lead by example and should not be afraid of change, but rather should make adjustments to the curriculum and teaching methods as these new trends and techniques emerge.
3- IT skills
Additionally, to stay innovative and keep curricula and learning styles relevant, school leaders need to have confidence in the latest technology. As with anything, principals do, they need to lead by example because if they're not trying to use this new technology, they can't expect their teachers to either. This has become even more important with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shift to online learning around the world, meaning teachers now have to rely on technology more than ever before.
4- Communication skills
As a director, you connect with many different people: parents, students, and employees. You then need to make sure you communicate all the necessary information to them appropriately—how you address a student would be different from how you communicate with a parent or member of staff.
The most important thing is to keep all parties informed about what is happening at the school. For example, to communicate with parents, you could send out a weekly newsletter detailing school events and student achievements for that week. If you're particularly interested in building strong partnerships between parents and teachers, check out our course and learn more about this topic.
To communicate with staff, you can send out a weekly bulletin with all the relevant information they need about students.
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5- The ability to delegate
There is a common misconception that a good leader is someone who can do it all on their own. It is precisely the best managers (and therefore the best school principals) who know when to delegate a certain task to someone else. There may be tasks that other staff members could do better, or sometimes a director simply has too much work to do on their own and needs help from other staff members to get everything done. This is where the ability to delegate specific tasks to other staff members comes in very handy!
Want to help your teachers become their best selves? Check out our course on coaching and mentoring your educators and learn how to lead them to excellence.
6- Be decisive
Another essential quality of a principal is that he is decisive. Being assertive gives both staff and students the impression that they know what they are doing and are confident in their abilities. This, in turn, builds their confidence in your ability to run the school. It also usually means that if you act decisively and therefore quickly, the problem you are trying to solve will also be resolved more quickly.
7- Problem-solving skills
Problem-solving skills are perhaps one of the most important skills a principal should possess, as principals deal with a variety of problems daily, from funding issues to student housing issues. If someone (staff or students) has a problem, the principal is the person they turn to for help solving the problem.
If you want to develop, your problem-solving skills, among other foundational skills, check out our 21st Century Teaching Skills course and discover innovative approaches and techniques that can be applied in your school.
8- The ability to prioritize
Continuing the previous point, even if an executive learns of many different issues even on the same day, they are not all equally important. It is therefore essential that a client can prioritize the most important issues so that they can be addressed as quickly as possible.
9- Be sensitive and empathetic
In a school, there will be students, parents, and staff from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds and family situations. As a customer, you need to be able to empathize with people, even if you may not have experienced what they're going through. You must be able to actively listen and provide advice and solutions to help them. A friendly and empathetic principal is also much more approachable. You want staff and students to feel they can come to you with any issues.
10- Be visible
School administrators need to be visible in the hallways and in proximity to the pupils, employees, and parents. A director is also made much more approachable by doing this for both staff and students. It is also extremely valuable to the client as it allows them to learn about the community they serve and allows them to better understand themselves and their needs.
Conclusion
To become a good leader and, therefore, a good customer, you need more than just good communication and IT skills. But the most important thing is that you are accessible. Staff and students should feel that they can come to you with any problems and that you will respond efficiently and appropriately.
If you have any other skills that you think could be useful for a director, share them with us in the comments! Read more about the Learning Management Systems, LMS for higher education, LMS for Business, K-12 LMS for Students, and LMS for Corporate