Evolving into a Great Principal

In my 21 years of education, some as a teacher and the rest as an administrator and principal, I have pieced together the tips that I have learned to derive what being a great principal should include. Elements of teaching form the foundation for this answer as you learn to work with students. Yet elements of being an administrator were redefined because the job calls for working with both students and teachers, and this has taken my entire career to understand. 

To begin, the first tip on becoming an effective principal lies within your ability to communicate. 

Communication consists of 2 main skills, listening and speaking. Most people are talkers, and they are great at it. Some are amazing listeners and can be so comforting because of that. Principals must be both. I know principals that love the sound of their own voice, and yet the response they give usually includes something like, “You know, when I was a teacher…” or “I remember when that happened to me…”. Even their responses are about themselves, and they prove themself not worth your time and effort to seek out and bounce off of. 

When a good principal speaks, they are polite, considerate of the audience, and will absolutely apologize if they are incorrect or mistaken. A good principal has the conversation with parents when teachers don’t want to, or when the information is really tough to communicate. I remember having a parent who was so loud and disrespectful immediately out of the gate and for no reason - we call them the “bully parent”. Not calling them was not an option, yet no one wanted the task. 

That’s when a good principal finds the gear that others don’t have, and does what is necessary with the utmost professionalism. I took claim after claim about wrong doings and why we’re a bad school right on the chin, and I apologized when she was done and asked how we could address her concerns. We knocked the first issue she had out of the park by finding a solution and her tone changed. Although I was beaten mentally, the moves got me through the chess match and the end result of the call was a success. 

Listening is just as powerful as speaking. Letting that parent blow off steam is not a part of my job description, but it is a part of being human. Your communication efforts are key to successes as a principal. 

Communication also means sending out notifications, newsletters, emails to staff, attending meetings and speaking, and making statements on the fly or when asked although not planned. 

If your message is negative because the news is negative, send it out. Make sure it’s polite, professional, planned, and appropriate, but send it nonetheless. Not sending it or not having the conversation will prove worse results. Trust me. 

The second tip I’ve learned that makes me a successful principal, is by making every decision after asking myself the same question over and over, “Is this what’s best for the students in my school?” 

It’s not that I don’t value teachers equally - but your end result, your product of your school - is a person. That’s the real difference between education and all other industries out there. 

We don’t make parts, we make adults. 

Everything you buy, all of your time, each hire, curriculum shift, schedule change, parent conference, etc - all must be vetted with the same question, “Is this best for the students in my school?” If the answer is yes, you can support yourself wholeheartedly. If the answer is debatable, then create a team to further define the why behind the action, and go from there. OR, don’t do it at all. I’ve halted from making moves that everyone wanted, but wasn’t an investment in students. 

My favorite response to those situations was, “What do you think this is, a Holiday Inn?” I love that commercial, because it calls out ridiculousness when it needs to be. 

Don’t invest in technology just because you want to tell parents that your school is a 1:1 ratio of devices per student so it looks good for the school. Invest because your school is a suburb of Menlo Park, CA, and google, facebook, twitter, amazon, and apple are all in the neighborhood - so you want to best prepare your students for the world around them and the potential futures that they can prepare for best. 

Perhaps the most underrated tip I can give, that certainly enabled me to evolve into an effective principal, is trusting in and using my people.

I absolutely adore my office staff, and treat them like family. My admin team is closer to me than my own family. This is because day in and day out, I rely on them to carry out the vision that we all share, which defines our best version of education that we offer to students. I trust when we’re working on something that it’s being done correctly, and if not, I’m there to assist. 

My staff trusts that I’m not judgemental, I’m supportive - therefore they come to me when something’s not right or they need help. I don’t point and everyone jumps, we come to the decision together as to what should be done, and decide who’s responsible, what follow through looks like, and set a timeline for goal completion and support. Because of this method, I can rely on my people. 

I had to learn their worth, as they did mine in new positions and at new schools - and that’s part of the job. The relationship I had with the staff at my first AP gig in the Bronx, New York was trial by fire. With an understaffed and over crowded school, we were working as fast as we could, all hours of the day and night, 6 days a week, and the efforts began to prove successful. I asked for help with projects, planning, implementing new ideas and different ways to educate, and staff asked me for support, materials, assistance, and guidance just the same. 

As a principal, you can’t do it by yourself. You can’t expect school wide successes if you aren’t including the school, then it’s just your own success if whatever you’re doing works.  You’ll get more ideas by working with teams, creating buy in, fostering camaraderie in collaboration, and will free yourself up as well - to focus on more. 

My last tip is crucial - if you don’t know something, don’t fake it, find it. 

I am smart enough to know what I don’t. Some principals out there feel as though they have, “21 years in education and have experienced everything in education possible”. This is an extreme version of what I say about myself, however I say it as, “21 years of experience on both coasts, and in all kinds of schools.” I know I don’t know it all, no one does. 

Everyday on the job, I learn something new. Everyday I encounter a situation that I am familiar with, yet the outcome defines a fresh perspective never seen before. A gambler would prove an unsuccessful career if education was their focus for action, as the odds are so unpredictable. 

An administrator who thinks they know it all is an administrator who tries to fit everyone into the same place, in the same way, no matter the variables. This makes outcomes fictitious at best, because no two people are alike, no situation exactly the same, and although we are jaded by similarities - the differences albeit slight - are still apparent and the reason for individual attention. 

When I find something I do not know about at all, I ask. I’m not afraid to ask anyone anything. I’ll email someone even just to make sure. The outcome of failure, when having a person as your end result or product, can be detrimental. If that outcome is on account of not knowing or not reaching out as the cause for failure, it all falls on the principal. 

I have trained educators to be Assistant Principals and Principals, and would love to help out in any way. I know about networks for school leaders that are incredible and can share them out. Email me at [email protected] for more.