How to be guided by your values ​​as a school principal (Opinion)

Self-reflection is an essential part of the leadership journey. One of the biggest challenges school leaders face is the discrepancy between their actions and their core values. When this discrepancy occurs, they may lead haphazardly and without clear direction or purpose.

Feelings of mental exhaustion and burnout can easily creep into the picture, and that’s when it’s most important to change your mindset. By maintaining a solid connection between values ​​and work, you can ensure you lead with purpose and clarity.

School principals are shaped by many valuable personal and professional experiences that show them what effective school leadership looks, sounds, and feels like. As a school principal, you should always look to other principals, assistant principals, deans, and others in leadership positions for examples of what to do and, very often, what not to do.

Reflecting on past experiences as a teacher, instructional coach, dean, or assistant principal can help school leaders reconnect with the emotions and motivations that led them to school leadership. As a former principal and headteacher, I recognize that our experiences as students in school, the attitudes of our students’ families toward school, and our own children’s experiences with school can influence our engagement as school leaders. These experiences have shaped us as people and educators.

These reflections underpin the reasons why a leader does something. It can be easy to forget this ‘why’ while immersed in the work, but reflection can help us stay motivated and move forward, especially during difficult times. Reflective practice is necessary to grow, develop and lead confidently as a school leader.

For example, growing up in a low-income, single-parent household, my family and I had a strong belief about school and how valuable it could be to our lives. In my mother’s eyes, school and education were the golden ticket to breaking the cycle of poverty, and so she was very strict about school. She also instilled the importance of commitment. We believed that keeping commitments was a sign of character.

When I took on a leadership role, I brought many of my family’s values ​​into my leadership role and had to grapple with the realities of fairness and equitable leadership. I have carried the value of school and involvement with me throughout my life.

As a principal, I realized that my value of engagement became a challenge when demonstrating my leadership skills early in my career. Every time a teacher came into my office and told me they couldn’t handle teaching and were “giving up” on our students, a pattern developed in how I responded to my teachers.

I took it personally. I mean, these are our Student. How could you leave her like that?

As I became more aware of my feelings and the how and why of their existence, I realized that these expectations brought negativity into the room. My conversations then shifted from unfairly judging these teachers to listening and responding with empathy and support. I started from my personal experiences that shaped my values ​​as an adult; the personal influenced the professional.

Without developing a practice of reflection and a willingness to accept feedback, I would never have been able to develop as a school leader.

A key step in this journey is to reflect on the values ​​that matter most to us. Sometimes it can feel like peeling back the layers of an onion, and the realizations can be painful. But the more you ask yourself why and peel back those layers, the closer you come to realizing your true values ​​- the things that drive you as a person, as an individual, as a family member, or as a leader.

This process can be uncomfortable, but if there are no uncomfortable feelings, your self-reflection is not being done properly. To begin to understand yourself and grow as a school leader, I encourage you to start with LOVE – to list, organize, appreciate and evaluate.

List Your core values, those closest to your heart and mind.

Organize to organize these values ​​thematically. This can cause discomfort. For each topic, ask the question “Why?” Find out why the core values ​​are important. This can bring up painful or possibly happy memories. Understanding the Why Your values ​​are important here.

After careful reflection and self-examination, you should think about how these Values can show up in leadership actions. For example, as you peel back the layers, you may find that honesty is a core value because you’ve learned from experience that honest people are reliable and trustworthy. You can then reflect that value in leadership actions by communicating transparently about budget, district messaging, and systems. It becomes an expectation and obligation to be transparent with employees at all times.

Take time every week for evaluate how your value-based actions and decisions align with core values. How does it feel when decisions or actions are made that conflict with values? Pay attention to this. Commit to actions that create self-awareness before you act or make decisions.

Our values ​​are shaped by our positive and negative experiences, which ultimately shape us as individuals. Identifying these core values ​​is crucial to developing your own leadership style.

As a school leader, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and forget to check in with yourself. That’s why it’s important to set aside time in the calendar and prioritize reflection. The more time we set aside, the more opportunities we have to align our values ​​with our leadership. We have the power to choose when and how we invest in ourselves so that our values ​​guide transformative leadership practices.