A promotion to the role of principal can be both exciting and intimidating. While the role represents a promotion, it also is accompanied by numerous challenges that can catch novice principals off guard. The following sections provide a brief overview of five common areas that can serve as stumbling blocks for new principals.
1. Leadership Pitfalls
Principals function both as the instructional and managerial leaders of a school. Often, when a new principal steps into the role, faculty and staff members may test the new administrator to determine their boundaries. This presents a delicate “tightrope” on which the new principal must walk. While being personable and approachable is important, it is equally important to hold to school policies and draw a hard line against any violations.
The principal’s goal is not to be a dictator; however, it is their responsibility to ensure that contractual and policy-related obligations are met. As a result, new principals should develop a leadership style that enables them to connect with their faculty and staff members while also maintaining high standards of professionalism and compliance.
2. Instructional Missteps
Within the field of education there always seems to be a “next best thing.” Advertisements for new and improved textbooks, learning apps, websites, and manipulatives flood inboxes, and latest buzzwords are used repeatedly at professional meetings and conferences. A common misstep new principals make is attempting to keep up with the latest new initiatives while not following through on ones that were started previously.
This is especially true for first-year principals. The first year primarily should be an exercise in observation. The new principal should take stock of what currently is being done throughout the school year and weigh the pros and cons. The tale of a new principal who enters a new school and changes everything on the first day is extremely common, and it is a surefire way to lose credibility with faculty and staff members. Instead of following the latest trends, new principals should carefully weigh any new initiatives from the perspective of what is best for their students and staff based on the needs of their specific geographic area.
3. Communication Challenges
One of the common mistakes new principals make revolves around communicating too much information at once. In most cases new principals are passionate about the success of their students and have invested significant time preparing for the transition to administration. However, new principals must remember that just like students, adults learn best when information is chunked into smaller portions and shared over a period of time.
Principals who begin their tenures composing lengthy, multi-paragraph emails to their faculty and staff members every day soon will find that their emails go unread. This is not because the faculty and staff willingly disregard the emails but because they do not have the time during a busy school day to process copious amounts of information via email.
The same concept applies to faculty meetings. Agendas should be kept brief and limited only to critical information, especially for meetings after the school day. People, in general, will “tune out” after more than 10-15 minutes of information, so principals should be sure to keep both spoken and written communications clear and concise. Otherwise, their messages will go unread or unheard.
4. Financial Management Faux Pas
One of the roles of the principalship for which new principals often are unprepared is the aspect of managing a budget. The budgeting process varies from one school system to the next, but one element remains critical regardless of budgeting style: requisitions. All school systems require requisitions to be completed by staff members who wish to make purchases via the school budget.
During budget season, which usually runs from January through early spring, principals may encounter hundreds of requisition forms. Given the volume, simply signing requisitions without reading them can become a common faux pas. Principals must be aware of how money is being spent within their buildings, and they are responsible for ensuring that the funds allotted to their buildings are spent wisely in a manner that benefits all school stakeholders.
Although it is a taxing process, the principal must review all budgetary requisitions beyond general school supplies and challenge them if necessary. Few things are worse than being questioned at a public meeting about money being spent in one’s building and not having an answer at the ready. Being a principal is challenging, and financial matters often are placed on the back burner. This should not be the case, and new principals must build in the time necessary for monitoring the budget process within their schools.
5. Time Management Mayhem
Time management is perhaps the greatest challenge for new principals. The principal role requires individuals to think on their feet and move quickly from one thing to the next. An example of this is a high school principal who, within an hour, may deal with student discipline issues, address sports-related matters, field phone calls from parents, make curricular decisions, and observe a classroom.
In the principal’s chair, everyone and everything seem to be clamoring for time. As a result, principals must set aside time before and after the school day to think, plan, and complete tasks that must be accomplished without distractions. The job of a principal does not begin and end with the first and last bells of the school day. Consequently, new principals must be prepared to invest the time necessary to complete the job successfully.
Most importantly, new principals must reserve a window of time each day to decompress for the sake of their own mental health. This looks different from person to person, but principals must take the time to look out for their own wellbeing because it directly affects their interactions with their students and staff members.
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