3 Things to Make Sure New Principals know Before they Start the Job

K-12 education is experiencing tremendous turnover right now at the administrative level and the reasons for this challenge are clear (COVID, parent/community unrest, disagreement regarding social issues…etc.). We can’t change the fact that administrators will face these issues, but we can arm them, especially new principals, with concepts which will help them succeed in their new environment.

Today, I would like to highlight three concepts which I believe can assist new principals (and other administrators too) if shared during their entry or induction processes. You might ask why focus on these three specifically? The answer is that although many lessons can, and likely should be shared, these three tie to areas of decision-making and change which I have seen frequently go poorly if not considered.

The first of the three relates to ensuring new principals recognize that leadership is gray. In other words, we are rarely presented with issues which have a right or wrong answer, and, in most cases, there is not a clear example of how that challenge might be managed. As this is the case, new principals need to have a process/mental model by which they address issues. The process will be different depending upon the individual, but the important piece is to have thought it through, vetted it with someone the principal respects, and reduced it to writing for ongoing use.

A second concept is to realize, in every situation, “there is a reason”. When faced with the decision to make a change take time to understand why it has been done that way first. I have often seen where something seems wrong or counterintuitive just to learn that there was a reason why it was done that way. New principals are especially susceptible to this situation where someone wants to change something, it gets changed, and later they find out it was a massive mistake. Part of their decision-making process/mental model ought to be to understand “the why” prior to making a change. Go slow to make the decision sustainable.

A final concept relates to the fact that context matters. Often new principals, especially those coming from a different school or school district, come in with a great idea or program which worked successfully in their previous school or school system only to find out that it doesn’t work here. It is important to deeply understand the underpinnings of why something worked well in the previous setting and determine how that aligns with the new context. It may be the concept requires tweaking to fit well in the new school, or that the teaching staff needs time to understand its benefits, but the lesson here is to know that it is rare to bring in an idea from a previous setting and expect it to be successful without considerable thought, planning and effort.

As I stated at the beginning, these are lessons I have found important to convey to new principals and you may have other thoughts that you share. If you do have concepts or ideas that you share with new principals/administrators, please place them in the comments section below. Remember, we all gain and accelerate our wisdom when we share thoughts and ideas with each other.