I am going to tell you something that most educators in my position do not say publicly, because saying it requires the kind of honesty that professional culture does not reward. There were teachers who left buildings I led because of how I led. Not all of them. Not even most of them. But some….
Most first-year principal advice focuses on what to do. This post is about what not to do — specifically the mistakes that are so common they have become structural features of the first-year experience, and that almost no one names directly until after they have already cost someone something significant. These are not small tactical…
There is a term in psychology — secondary traumatic stress — that describes what happens to people who are regularly exposed to the trauma of others. Social workers have it. First responders have it. Therapists have it. The research on these populations is substantial: repeated exposure to others’ trauma, without adequate support and processing, produces…
Most principals say they want teachers to feel valued. Far fewer have asked themselves honestly: what does my staff actually experience in their interactions with me? Not what I intend them to experience. Not what I believe I am communicating. What they actually receive. There is a significant gap in most schools between the principal…
The textbook version of emotionally intelligent leadership in a crisis goes like this. Stay calm. Acknowledge the emotions in the room. Validate the people who are upset. Communicate clearly. Make decisions that consider impact. Follow up. The textbook version is fine. It is also written by people who have never had to do it on…
You know this person. They have an answer for everything. A reason for every missed deadline. A context for every performance concern. A circumstance that explains away every expectation that was not met. And here is the complicated part: sometimes the reasons are real. Life happens. Teaching is hard. Classrooms are complex. Not every missed…
The first 90 days of a principal’s tenure at a new school are not a honeymoon period. They are a data-gathering period — for you and for every person in that building. Your staff is not waiting to see what you do. They are watching what you do not do. What you let slide. What…
They are not the same thing. And the difference between them matters more to the health of your school than almost any other distinction in leadership. Respect, in the context of school leadership, is often the result of authority and competence. People respect the principal who runs tight meetings, who knows the data, who makes…
Emotional labor is a term coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild to describe the management of feeling to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. Flight attendants were her original research population. Service workers, nurses, therapists — these are the roles most commonly studied. Nobody studies principals. But if they did, the findings would be staggering….
The people in your building have been disappointed before. They have watched a leader come in with language about transformation and leave three years later having transformed nothing except their own career trajectory. They have been told that things were going to be different. They have believed it and been wrong. Some of them are…