The Principal 50

Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence

Baruti K. Kafele

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781416620143
• eBook ISBN: 9781416620174
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

"Why do I lead?" With this deceptively simple question, best-selling author Baruti K. Kafele begins a powerful examination of what it takes to make a school community achieve the greatest success in the classroom and beyond.

In The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence, Kafele, a veteran school administrator, guides motivated school leaders through 50 self-reflection exercises designed to yield a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the work that they do. Along with many other insights, this book shows how best to

• Inspire and motivate students, teachers, and other school staff to approach their work with vigor and purpose;
• Ensure that all students, regardless of color, creed, or origin, are valued and represented in the school culture;
• Focus mission and vision statements to address students' most critical needs and integrate shared values and objectives into the fabric of the school; and
• Engage parents and other community members so that they feel a stake in the school's success.

Brimming with passion, written from the heart, and informed by hard-earned experience, this transformative book is essential reading for principals and other building-level administrators determined to reinvigorate their practice, revitalize their staff, and—most importantly—guarantee the strongest outcomes for students.

Q: Do I lead with a definite purpose that drives everything I say and do?

• → Why do I lead?
• → Why do I want to lead?

For your leadership to be successful, you must ask yourself these two questions daily. The answers to the questions represent your purpose for leading, which is certain to drive your approach to inspiring excellence in your school. Your purpose serves as a constant reminder to you of who you are—of what you are about—as a schoolwide leader.

I'm fond of the saying, "A person without a purpose is like a word without a definition—meaningless." You can't achieve maximum results without defining why you do this work in the first place. Why do you get up in the morning and come to school only to face the countless difficult challenges that crop up every day?

• → Your purpose is who you are as the leader of the school.
• → Your purpose is the foundation upon which your passion is built.
• → Your purpose is you.

When I worked as a principal, I defined my purpose as follows: To motivate, educate, and empower my students daily. This was why I woke up in the morning—this was why I did the work that I did. My purpose drove me—it pushed me and pulled me. To my knowledge, I never deviated from my defined purpose. Additionally, I ensured that my leadership style reflected my purpose, making it evident to the entire school community. In order for me to inspire excellence in my school, I needed to motivate, educate, and empower students daily.

After you have defined your purpose for leading, you must further answer the following questions:

• → Will I walk in my purpose?
• → Will I lead in my purpose?
• → Will my purpose be evident to the entire school community?

When you can answer a full-throated "Yes!" to those questions, you will be on your way to inspiring profound excellence in your school.

Q: Do I aim to be intentional about what I do as a leader?

• → Random
• → Reactive
• → Responsive
• → Haphazard

These four words spring immediately to mind when I reflect back on my first year as a middle school principal. During my first year, I reacted to situations as they arose, which left me "putting out fires" all day, every day. As the leader of the school, I had to respond to crises as they occurred, but doing so took me away from fulfilling my purpose.

As I grew in the principalship, I came to the gradual realization that a random and haphazard approach to events was not compatible with effective leadership. I needed to "step up my game" in a big way—to think and act with intentionality. In fact, over time, "intentionality" became my byword. I learned that if we as a school community were going to meet all the pressures and demands that were thrust upon us, we had to be able to spend our days acting on our intentions rather than reacting to situations.

The same is true for you. With all the pressures you will endure throughout your career, you do not have the time to devote entire days to taking a random, haphazard, and reactive approach to leadership. Instead, you must

• → Define your purpose,
• → Resolve to be intentional about living your purpose, and
• → Live your purpose.

Every morning, before you get started for the day, envision yourself living your purpose so you can see beforehand what you are going to accomplish. This foresight will help you to turn your intentions into reality—you can now be constantly and consistently intentional both about student outcomes and about your students' daily school experiences. In high-performing schools, leadership focuses on creating memorable buildingwide experiences—the type that help mold students into successful adults. The key is to employ intentionality when creating these experiences for students.

Q: Do I treat my leadership as a mission rather than as a career?

• → Your leadership should be your mission.

It's normal to think of what you do or plan to do for a living as a profession, a career, or a job. The problem with these labels is that they're limiting—they don't tell the complete story. I suggest that you look beyond these labels and consider what you do to be your mission.

I always say that if you want to stop a person on a job, all you have to do is put your hand up and say, "Stop!" By contrast, a person on a mission will refuse to stop. When you are on a mission, you have a completely different mind-set than you do when you are simply doing your job; you will not stop until your mission has been accomplished. I'll take an educator on a mission over one on a job on my team any day.

As you live out your purpose as a school leader, you are bound to encounter students who are dealing with a wide variety of life challenges—in some cases, challenges so great that they eclipse the importance of school for students. Among other negative ramifications, these challenges can prevent your students from understanding the correlation between working hard in school and achieving success later in life.

This is where you come in.

You have to think, I don't care how great the challenges my students face are. They are with me right now, and I'm on a mission to see all of them achieve excellence! When you as the school leader express this attitude in the things that you say and do, your students' chances for success increase exponentially. You are no longer defining what you do as a job, profession, or career—you are proclaiming it to be your mission, with the ultimate goal being the academic excellence of your students.

Q: Do I have a vision of what I expect my students to achieve?

• → Vision: the ability to see that which has been projected but has not yet been attained.

To inspire excellence from your entire school community, you must possess and foster a vision of excellence that the entire school community shares.

I have said to countless educators over the years that earnestly envisioning success is more than half the battle. Unfortunately, I have met any number of educators who have told me that they simply cannot envision widespread success in their schools due to the challenges that their students have to endure in their homes and communities. I find this to be highly problematic. All school leaders, but particularly those in communities facing systemic challenges such as poverty, drugs, or violence, must inspire excellence by helping students and staff to envision it in action, and must also consistently reinforce their own expectations for the school. Ask yourself:

• → What is my vision for my students?
• → What will my students achieve?
• → How high will my students soar?
• → Can I envision where my students will wind up as a result of my leadership?
• → Can I envision many of my students on the honor roll?
• → Can I envision most of my students going on to college?

A word to the aspiring school leaders: The mission of the principalship doesn't begin once you become a principal—it begins once you have made the decision to become a principal. It is at this point that you must begin to develop a vision for how successful your students will be as a result of your leadership—a vision that must always remain at the forefront of your thinking. Be sure to encourage your school community to claim and take ownership of the vision: Schools that have a collective vision of excellence have a much greater chance of attaining success than those that don't.

Q: Do I see myself as the number-one determinant of the success or failure of my students?

When I ask this question in my professional development workshops with school leaders, it usually generates lively, passionate, and heated discussions. Some school leaders absolutely see themselves as uniquely responsible for their students' success. They believe strongly that once their students arrive at school, those students belong to them—the outside world and its influences no longer matter. Students succeed or f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Attitude Of The Leader
• Chapter 2. School Brand
• Chapter 3. Climate And Culture
• Chapter 4. Building Collegial Relationships
• Chapter 5. Instructional Leadership
• Chapter 6. Accountability And Responsibility
• Chapter 7. Planning, Organization, And Time Management
• Chapter 8. Professional Development For The Leader
• Chapter 9. Professional Development For Staff
• Chapter 10. Parental And Community Engagement
• Conclusion
• List of 50 Questions
• Bibliography
• About The Authors
• Related ASCD Resources
• Copyright