Ask Yourself This

If you are a leader, chances are you're an idea person. You see not only reality, but possibility. As a result, you probably generate many good ideas and are eager to see those ideas implemented by your teams, departments, schools or districts. But before you move that idea into the mandate column, you must ask yourself one critical question:
What do I want my people to stop doing in order to do this new thing instead?

PRINCIPLES FOR PRINCIPALS: The Principle of Change

“Focus change where it will last the longest and stay the strongest.”

I’ve often joked in my workshops that if school were a superhero, it would be called Immutable Man! And its superpower would be the ability to resist change no matter what anyone did to it. People expect us to change schools the way we change world health. When we beat Polio or Small Pox it usually stays beat. Once a solution is found and widely applied, the problem is solved or at least dramatically reduced in severity. In school, however, the ideals of progress are always threatened by the realities of regress. I’ve seen schools turned around with one or two years of hard work only to see them turn right back just as quickly when key people leave, when districts change policies that negate essential elements of a school’s success, or when the keys to the building are transferred from one principal to the next.

PRINCIPLES FOR PRINCIPALS: The Principle of Leadership

“Leadership is less about being in charge and more about being in change.”

Principals have many things to manage, but management is not what being a principal is principally about. When we speak of someone as a good manager, we do so with praise and respect for what they can maintain. They manage well, often through judicious use of their authority, keeping all the balls they juggle from ever hitting the ground. They keep their head above water, even when the water runs fast and deep, often by encouraging those they manage to swim hard with them against the current.

Blogs at The Principal Center

We're pleased to announce that school leaders can now write new blog posts at The Principal Center.

If you'd like to blog, but don't want to go to the trouble of setting up your own blog, feel free to click the "Write a blog post" link in the left sidebar to create and publish a new post.

If you aren't signed in, you'll need to sign in first, but it's free to create an account.

If you need help, feel free to email justin@principalcenter.com.

Bully for Us! Now What About the Kids?

Bullying is wrong and even bullies know it. What the bullies, the bullied, and their bystanders do not know is that anyone cares about them as unique individuals, or how they might find people who will relate to them in a simple, honest, and non-judgmental way.

National media, national programs, and national “weeks” do not address this. But good old-fashioned human-to-human communication does.

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