Next-Level Ed Leadership Interview Prep

If you are a highly effective principal your staff will respect you, if you’re lucky most of them will even like you. There are a couple of ways beyond the obvious of being nice that will positively influence your staff’s disposition towards you. In saying that there is something important that you should remember, some staff might not have an active dislike towards you but they may not completely trust you. According to an article at bloomberg.com entitled: Americans Can't Stand Their Bosses, and Bosses Admit They're Phoning it in half of the American workforce has quit their job to get away from a bad boss. Most likely, if you’re reading this you’re not a bad boss, however, the following three steps are easy everyday ways to build personal connections and lower that percentage. In doing so you can avoid and limit staff turnover and cultural instability in your school.

Coca Cola had it right
People inherently like the sound of their own name. It’s important that you use it when addressing staff who may not be on the same page as you. Calling them by name in staff meetings and providing them opportunities to express opinions in areas of alignment is a good way to soften overall tensions. Just like Coca Cola added personal names to their soda bottles and saw an increase in sales and positive brand recognition, you’ll find an increase in positivity interactions with your staff.

Work life integration
The life of an educator is often overwhelming and time consuming. Treating them as if education is their life and expecting them to treat it as such is a recipe for resistance. Learn something about their life outside of the four walls of the classroom. Once you do so bring that up in conversation or send them an email with a link that they may find interesting. If you’re able, and you have the resources and multiple staff members interested in similar areas provide team building opportunities that support those interests. Addressing all parts of the person is a great way to build credibility and rapport.

Knowing is half the battle
At this point in the school year you probably know a whole bunch about your staff. More than likely you actually have some things in common. Maybe you’re fans of Netflix’s Original Sense8, or ABC’s Elementary. One of the ways people connect is by belonging to the same “tribe”. Being fans of the same team or interested in the same television show gives you something to bond over. It will also increase your likeability as people with similar backgrounds tend to get along.

Your staff respects your knowledge about systems and protocols. They admire the way you handle parent interactions and student misbehavior. If you're lucky they like you too. However, there is always going to be a small percentage of staff members that don’t. Shrinking this percentage by addressing these staff members by name, treating them like they have a life and bonding over similarities are three strategies that will help build positive relationships.

Share your ideas for improving staff relationships in the comment section below.

If you’re a principal make sure you check out the new grant/scholarship available that honors the hard work you put in on a daily basis. K12 principals click here to learn more

For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out the other blogs and/or pre order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, new episodes weekly. To join the podcast as a guest email me at [email protected]. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.

As an urban school one of the difficult aspects of leading is preventing summer slide and competing with the resources and activities available to our more affluent colleagues’ schools. As schools of choice, charter schools and perhaps an impending voucher system for every state proliferate standing out and competing becomes more difficult. Helping to prevent summer slide is one way we can help our students stay even with their neighbors. These three etools can help you stay connected with your families and give them the power to compete.

Facebook
My guess is your school already has a Facebook account. If it doesn’t start one. According to Facebook stats, Facebook has the largest number of users between 25 and 35. That is a prime age for beginning families. Use FB Live to remind families to read to their kids. Have your students “friend” your school page so you can consistently deliver messages and challenges to them. Use the comment section to provide links to articles students may find interesting and have them leave their own comment. If you’re really brave and you’re at a high school engage in discussions around social justice and community politics.
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Principal Blog
What is it that you do particularly well. It might be playing ball or chess or maybe you like playing the drums or gardening. Whatever it is write a blog post or an article highlighting your hidden talents. Basically you want to give your students something to read. You have an email list. In marketing this is one of the most valuable commodities because it give you direct access to your families. Use that list to share your content. Parents often don’t know what to get their kids to read. It’s probably no surprise to you how interested your students would be in you as a person.

YouTube Channel
With a Youtube channel you are once again providing an opportunity for students and families to engage with and learn from you. Create one or two minute video shorts where you’re discussing something as simple as current events. Use the opportunity to ask questions. If you’re an elementary principal you could use this time to read to your students. Again use that valuable email and phone list and let your parents know where you are on social media. If they don’t have time to read to their children maybe you do. The best part about this is you can create a little storytime video library for your students.

With the power of etools you have the ability to impact student learning during the summer. Using these etools in a systematic way will expose your students to new learning opportunities that they may not otherwise have access to. Not only that, for those parents that are working two and three jobs you’re taking something off of their plate and giving them what they need.

What are some other ways to support educational leaders prevent summer slide in economically challenged schools? Share your tips in the comment section below.

If you’re a principal make sure you check out the new grant/scholarship available that honors the hard work you put in on a daily basis. K12 principals click here to learn more

For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my other blogs at the http://www.theprincipalentrepreneur.com/ and/or pre order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, new episodes weekly. To join the podcast as a guest email me at [email protected]. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.

In this episode I get a chance to talk with elementary Principal, Motivational speaker, Author, and CEO of Jackson Consulting Dr. Marcus Jackson. Dr. Jackson is the author of children’s book Because My Teacher Said I can. We dive into the inspiration for that particular book a few minutes into the conversation. But before we do so we tackle is origin story and learn how a negative teacher powerfully impacted his decision to get into education.

Dr. Jackson also describes his challenges as a principal and how he overcame them. In addition gets into the key resources he used that helped his team go from a two star school to a five star school and the book that helped inspire the transition of the high school he lead out of priority status.

Three keys to success that he gave include:

I do not have the me, my, I virus We’ve always had a culture of we us ours.

Drop your ego soup and take a bite of humble pie.

Even when you’re chastising it should be in the form of glow and grow.​

In this episode we have a conversation with superintendent Dr. Benjamin Edmondson. You'll learn the advice he has for new principals, what parents need to do help schools and the hypocrisy within the educational system.

We also talk about his journey to the principalship and the reasons for choosing that path despite internal conflict. We also dig into the political challenges he faced and overcame and his vision for the Ypsilanti Community School District.

Thanks for taking the time to listen. Check out more blogs
@ theprincipalentrepreneur.com and if you’re listening on Itunes or Podomatic please take a minute and subscribe and if you have two minutes give a ratings and review or share with a college. If you’d like to apply for the $500 dollar Revive and Renew Grant for k12 principals you can check that out at the principalentreprene.com as well.

If you’re interested in joining the show as a guest to talk about the great things your school is doing or your educational passion email me at [email protected]

Part of figuring out how to be a great principal is balancing the demands of the job with your family. This is something that, admittedly, I’m still working on. The reason I’m bringing this particular topic up is my wife recently asked me why I never invite her to anything. My answer, “Why would I do that?” didn’t go over very well. Especially when I followed up with, “I wouldn’t want to go to your functions”. Needless to say I immediately invited her to the next school function. :-) The following 3 tips may keep you out of the dog house and off the couch.

Shut if off
You know this might be the hardest tip to follow. With the laptops and tablets that some districts are giving to administrators (as well as our cell phones) the upper administration, our staff, and students have constant access to us. In fact this has become a norm. However, it’s okay to shut it down once you leave the office. I’ve found that staff, students, and even upper administration are okay waiting until the next business day to get a reply. I have yet to get a repercussion for not responding to an email or text message after 6pm. Once you’ve shut it off make sure you’re fully engaged with your family.

Schedule it
One of the tips that helped me was actually scheduling time to be involved with my wife and children. One night of the week is date night. Sunday and Monday are typically family dinner nights as neither my wife nor I work. Tuesday and Thursday I try to make sure I’m spending some time with the kids while mom is at work. Friday is a free for all where everybody is kind of fending for themselves. I’ve found that when I do stick to the schedule everything else falls into place and I’m actually more productive at work because I know nothing will be going home.

Show’em off
This is the latest tip I’ve added and it ties into the anecdote I mentioned in the opening paragraph. I didn’t realize that my wife was feeling excluded because I have no need to attend her functions. I was basing my choices on my own perspective and personality instead of focusing on her. And essentially this is what I needed to change. Not only does including her in after school activities help her be part of other aspects of my life I’m also hopeful it demonstrates the high regard with which I hold her.

One of the aspects of being a great principal is figuring out how to intertwine all aspects of your life. Turning off electronic communication after a set time, scheduling family time and showing off your significant other are great ways to connect and reconnect with what’s important.

What are some other strategies you use to make sure your family continues to feel like a priority? Please share your ideas in the comment section below.

If you’re a principal make sure you check out the new grant/scholarship available that honors the hard work you put in on a daily basis. K12 principals click here to learn more

For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my other blogs and/or pre order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, new episodes weekly. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group. To be a guest on The Principal Entrepreneur podcast email me at [email protected].

In this podcast episode of the principal entrepreneur we get the honor of talking with nationally recognized keynote speaker and author Dr. Craig Boykin. His keynote GED to Phd is an inspirational talk focusing on his journey from drop out to doctorate. And more importantly the strategies educators can use to overcome and reach at risk youth. Dr. Boykin is the author of My Life Your Inspiration, College Success 2.0, and Right Motives Wrong Methods: Teaching with Poverty in Mind.

In this short 25 minute conversation Dr. Boykin touches on his rough child hood and his journey from drop out to doctorate. During the conversation he also offers advice to educators on working with "at risk youth" and the inspiration for his book Right Motives Wrong Methods that has even more strategies than we had time to get into.

He also suggests a couple of books that had a strong impact on him; anything by Principal Kafele and Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges

I land on the introverted side of the Myers Briggs personality test. I find large gatherings of people and the social interaction needed in those moments exhausting. Especially if the event is purely a social function. I do much better if there is a purpose that I set out to achieve in large group settings. Which means that as the principal at dances, graduation, or other after school activities where I know that I’m going to be interacting with the community, I must mentally prepare myself to be welcoming, friendly, and engaging.

I was worried about this when I first started as a principal but have come to realize that being introverted, while not as exciting as some of my more extroverted colleagues, doesn’t hinder my impact as a leader. The following three characteristics of introverted leadership have helped me support my staff and students in an authentic way.

Introverts are great Receptors
Just like a receptor organ that responds to outside stimuli an introverted leader is more likely to accept and respond well to outside input. When working with a great staff an introverted leader is able to listen and take the expertise of that staff with an open mind. According to an article from the Harvard Business Review titled The Hidden Advantage of Quiet Bosses “groups with proactive followers performed better under an introverted leader”. I have a great staff and they consistently have good ideas that help move the school forward. Because I don’t feel the need to be front and center they have the space necessary to grow.

Authenticity leads to greatness
As I researched this topic I came across an article titled Are you an Introvert? You can still be a great leader. One of the strengths that struck a chord with me was the idea that introverts like to authentically connect with people in small group or one on one situations. This is absolutely true for me and is why I really like being the leader of an alternative high school. While there are certainly stressors, I truly enjoy the close connections I can make with staff and students.

Still waters run deep
The third way introverts leverage their natural tendencies is when we do eventually speak up. I’ve found that when I finally do have something to say everybody stops and listens and then seems to take a second to process what I’ve said. Whereas those who speak more often, sometimes their ideas or viewpoints are dismissed because they are always chiming in. According to an Entrepreneur.com article 6 Truths on why introverts make great leaders, “[I}ntroverts leverage their power of presence: they “own” the moment by speaking calmly and deliberately, which translates to a positive perception.”. When introverts speak people listen.

Introverts while not as flashy as extroverts can still be and are great principals. They are receptive to others’ ideas, authentic in their relationships and have the power to leverage conversations that matter. What are other strengths or introverted principals? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

If you’re a principal make sure you check out the new grant/scholarship available that honors the hard work you put in on a daily basis. K12 principals click here to learn more

If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast at The Principal Entrepreneur podcast, new episodes weekly. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals, please join our private FB group.

I recently made $500.00 revive and renew grant available for K12 principals. I know how important it is to make sure we take care of ourselves. One of the common themes we deal with as principals is the never ending work, be it meetings, corresponding through emails or simply staying late to get the day to day paperwork done that accumulates because we’re out in the halls, at lunch, and in the classrooms.

The reason why this grant is available is because it provides a couple of benefits. One of those is, I can help a colleague get the relaxation they deserve. Taking time off actually increases productivity. It gives your brain time to relax and make connections you can’t see when you’re continually grinding. According to Scientific American, a wandering mind unsticks us in time so that we can learn from the past and plan for the future. This is important for us as we finish up our school year and begin planning for the next.

The other benefit is part of the stipulation for applying for the grant is the agreement to be interviewed on my podcast. On the podcast I’ll get the opportunity to discuss that particular principals’ innovative leadership, their area of expertise or their area of passion and share it with the larger educational community. By leveraging this grant I get the opportunity to learn from the best in the business and spread the word about the great things other leaders are doing.

Taking a break is essential to being an effective school leader. Often times we feel guilty for taking that time even if we know logically that we should. Our gut and self-identity is tied up in what we do. Finding time to uncouple ourselves from our work can relieve stress, lower blood pressure and actually increase our productivity when we come back.

Killing yourself with the daily grind of work reduces your capacity to be an effective school leader. Give yourself a break. The work will be there when you get back.

How do you find time for yourself in a busy school year? Share your best tips in the comment section below.

If you’re interested in learning more about the $500.00 revive and renew grant for k12 principals click here.

For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my other blogs at the http://www.theprincipalentrepreneur.com/ and/or pre order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. If you’re an auditory learner you can download my podcast The Principal Entrepreneur, new episodes weekly. Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.

I recently interviewed elementary principal Craig McCalla on my podcast. His educational philosophy is rooted in inclusion. One of the things he said that really stuck, it was really the passion with which he said it, was all kids means all kids! As Principals we are trained to be inclusive. In order to be great we must believe that every child deserves a chance to be treated equitably regardless of background. However are legal policies in place to be exclusionary either by erecting a wall or discriminating through immigration policies how are the children of these excluded groups going to be welcomed in our schools? How do we ensure that every child feels safe when the world around them isn’t? For me the idea of a sanctuary school is one where all children feel welcome and safe. These three secrets of inclusion are really best practices

Money Matters
This is where most of us can start. We have the power to allot money to posters, books, guest speakers and classroom materials that highlight our community's’ diversity. Using these funds and our staff we can decorate our buildings with images from around the globe. Asking students, families, and community members who their cultural heroes are and then finding ways to display them creates a learning experience for everyone. Even if you’re in a homogenous community, finding books from multiple cultural, socioeconomic and if you’re really daring, sexual identity perspectives and having them in your school and classroom libraries is essential.

Secret Software
Just like the interactive software program Rosetta Stone, you want to be interactive with your students who come from different linguistic backgrounds. Something as simple as “good morning” in a student's’ home language will bring a smile to their face and help them feel safe. Especially if you’re like me and mess up the pronunciation. This small gesture lets the students know that they are welcome in your school and that you have the courage to try to meet them where they arel. As your staff and students see you model this behavior they will follow your lead. This act of personal kindness and cultural sensitivity will help break down superficial barriers.

Apps connect communities
This is a simple tip that must be used judiciously. An app like Google Translator doesn’t always address context. When you send newsletters and other communication out to families, using Google Translator is an easy way to translate your information to all families. If you’re lucky enough to have someone in your district for each language that is spoken having them review the newsletter is always a good idea. I’ve found that even if there are mistakes the families appreciate you reaching out to them and making that attempt. It shows that you respect them and their culture. A school practice of spreading your message in multiple language will help bring your community closer.


Creating a safe school community is the first thing a Principal establishes. Using these tips to help bring your school together is a way to combat the fear that some of our students feel as national policies change.

What are some ways you help your students and families feel welcome? Check out the corresponding blog at theprincipalentrepreneur.com

Below you'll find a list to see if you're a sanctuary school.

You know you’re a sanctuary school when you promote a safe and orderly school environment for all students.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when you have a robust ELL program.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when you send out newsletters in more than one language.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when your graduation includes an interpreter.
You know you're a sanctuary school when your school consistently celebrates multiple cultures throughout the school year.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when your staff works towards cultural proficiency.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when minority students come to school at the same rate as the general student body.
You know you’re a sanctuary school if Immigration and Customs officials treat your school as a “sensitive location”.
You know you’re a sanctuary school when multiple staff members speak some of the languages of your student body.
Finally:​ You know you’re a sanctuary school if your students’ families bring food in to share with members of your staff.

What are other ways your school demonstrates its commitment to all children? Share your views in the comment section of the corresponding blog.

For more short articles and tips that support educational leaders check out my blog at the http://www.theprincipalentrepreneur.com/ and pre order my newest book How To Be A Great Principal: 36 Shared Leadership Success Strategies. If you're interested in applying for the $500.00 Revive and Renew K12 Principals' Grant you can check that out at theprincipalentrepreneur.com Finally, I’m part of a community of supportive principals please join our private FB group.

With Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education the momentum behind charters and voucher systems continues to increase. However the momentum behind these options was already building and her selection merely highlights the trend towards schools of choice. According to a document from the National Alliance for Charter Schools, charter schools have grown six fold in the last 15 years. Which means there are close to 7000 charters educating about 2.9 million students.

The reason this is important is because it illustrates the reality of the current educational landscape. That being said, how can public schools embrace the reality and ride the wave of change instead of being swept away like Blockbuster was by Netflix.

One of the main things public schools can do maintain the status quo is simple but not easy. Talking with all you parents consistently is key. Focusing on parents/guardians and families will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Focusing on this single aspect will create a ripple effect over time. Calling parents is the one thing you can do from a communication standpoint than can impact your student count. It will help you retain and acquire more students.

This kind of mindset, where we’re battling against other schools for students, is easy to fall into. Which leads to the question: how can we have an abundant mindset? Are there ways that traditional public schools can partner with charters. What can public schools learn well performing from charters? I have no concrete answers, but it is a question worth asking.

Just like in teaching good questions elicit thoughtful answers. What are some other questions or comments surrounding this topic? Share your ideas in the comment section below.

For more articles check out my website theprincipalentrepreneur.com. If you’re an auditory learner check out more of my podcast right here on podomatic and iTunes and subscribe to The Principal Entrepreneur.