What You Don’t Know Just Might Be What’s Inhibiting Your Leadership Growth and Development

 

Before I get started, did you catch yesterday’s session (12/23/23) of the AP & New Principals Academy (WEEK191) with my guest, Director of the Office of Violence Prevention & Trauma Recovery in Newark, NJ, Keesha Eure? We had a powerful conversation on the topic, A Conversation on Violence Prevention & Trauma Recovery in Schools. If you missed it, see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT4HZvAkDWY&t=1334s

 

As I sat there listening to Director Eure, I was reminded of a recurring theme in my mind with so many of the guests I have had on the platform….there’s so much that I simply didn’t know as a school leader. As a principal over a period of fourteen years, I prided myself on being well-informed and an ongoing learner of all things education and leadership but to know it all is probably an impossibility. Be that as it may, when I sit right in this seat every Saturday morning and listen to my guests, I’m thinking to myself, “WOW…had I known this, I could have done this or I could have accomplished that.” In other words, in listening to my guests, not only am I learning something new, but I am also discovering what I either didn’t know or what I don’t know. My point then is that there is so much to learn and know in school leadership.

 

The world is constantly changing and evolving daily. The children that I led twelve years ago are not the children of today. The teachers that I led twelve years ago are not the teachers of today. Both the children and teachers of 2023 are operating in a world today that is vastly different from the world that I led in twelve years ago. My question to you is as you consider your current leadership philosophy, approach, strategies and style, are they current and consistent with the times and with the population that you lead? Is there any chance that your leadership philosophy, approach, strategies and style are outdated, misinformed, obsolete, irrelevant or out of touch with today’s climate? Whew! It matters. I am often asked would I ever consider going back to school leadership. I think about it daily and I dream about it nightly. The reality though is the question, “Do I possess the skillset to lead today?” Said differently, “Do I currently know what I need to know to lead effectively in today’s schools?” I would think that I do because I have remained current in my learning, but this essay isn’t about me…it’s about you. Do you know what you need to know in order to be highly effective as a leader today?

 

The title of this essay is, What You Don’t Know Just Might Be What’s Inhibiting Your Leadership Growth and Development. What I am implying in the title is simply that learning matters. If the last book relative to your work that you read was in graduate school, that’s a problem. And I use the word “book” loosely. Whatever your source of learning, you must engage in it. You must learn, learn and learn. Your students are dependent upon it. Your teachers are dependent upon it because at the end of the day, the challenges in your school are immense. I don’t expect you to know it all. That would be unrealistic of me. I am saying however that as a school leader, learning must be an ongoing priority and it must be intentional because at the end of the day, “What you don’t know just might be what’s inhibiting your leadership growth and development.”

 

For more discussion on the role of the assistant principal and the new principal, visit my AP & New Principals Academy YouTube channel, subscribe, and see them all here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtualAPLeadershipAcademy

Every Assistant Principal Deserves a Champion!

Before I get started, did you catch yesterday’s session (12/16/23) of the AP & New Principals Academy (WEEK190) with my guest, Dr. Marques Stewart? We had a powerful conversation on the topic, Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Workplace. If you missed it, see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQKFl7ZL_dg&t=2335s

 

When the great educator, Rita Pearson uttered the words, “Every child deserves a champion,” I wonder if she even imagined that her words would become immortalized worldwide. It’s a powerful quote and I continue to use it regularly. In fact, the entire quote reads:

 

“Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

 

As many who will read this essay know, I am fully locked in on the role of the assistant principal and the new principal (1st – 5th year). For this essay, I will focus on the AP. I believe with every fiber of my being that the assistant principal needs a champion…a PRINCIPAL “who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be!”

 

The assistant principalship is so critical to a school that I have argued for years that, “The assistant principalship is the most misunderstood and underutilized position in all of education.” In other words, the days of the assistant principal being reduced to a full time disciplinarian for example must end…and this is particularly so in urban environments where I spent my entire twenty-one year career. The problem is when there is a district-wide culture that exists and it is assumed…an unwritten given that the role of the assistant principal is to react and respond to discipline…undesirable behaviors all day, week, month, year and throughout their tenure. In a situation like this, the assistant principal deserves a champion! They need someone who concludes that the assistant principalship is NOT a disciplinary role but instead the 2nd in command to the principalship. The assistant principal therefore needs a principal who not only understands that the assistant principal must be nurtured into becoming a multi-faceted amazing leader, but requires a principal who is a staunch advocate for the assistant principal becoming the multi-faceted amazing leader that he/she was meant to be. The assistant principal deserves a champion! And that champion must be the principal. That’s right, I said it. The principal MUST BE a champion for his / her assistant principal.

 

Imagine an assistant principal who supervises “X” number of teachers but seldom if ever has the time to coach them, or to supervise them, or to observe them, or to assess them…and these same teachers are in classrooms with children every day and are not in collegial relationships with their evaluators of record. Children suffer immeasurably in these situations. Children are not the only ones who suffer though. Society suffers immeasurably as well because the children who are in classrooms with teachers who lack coaching toward becoming amazing will become the adults of the world very shortly. Just imagine how the trajectory of a child is impacted when his / her teacher performs at extraordinary levels consistently due to sustained coaching. The assistant principal deserves a champion...and that champion is the principal

 

Imagine an assistant principal who’s a full time disciplinarian coupled with daily cafeteria duty (which can comprise two to four instructional periods per day I might add) and never has or had exposure to a school budget. The assistant principal never learned how money is allocated relative to accounts, never learned how to balance a budget, never learned the process of spending money, never learned anything about school finance beyond the school finance graduate school course, but three years later, is appointed principal of a school with a multi-million dollar budget. A recipe for disaster! This assistant principal deserves a champion…and that champion is the principal.

 

I could go on and on…but I won’t. You get the picture. The assistant principal deserves a champion…and that champion is the principal. It matters!

 

For more discussion on the role of the assistant principal (and the new principal), visit my AP & New Principals Academy YouTube channel, subscribe, and see them all here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtualAPLeadershipAcademy

Then join us LIVE every Saturday morning at 10:55 ET on YouTube LIVE @ AP & New Principals Academy.