Goals

On the Way to the Principal's Chair

When I signed up for my first classes in the Master’s program, I had my eye on several topics ready for me to dive right into. Looking at classes on multiculturalism, school finance, and educational theory, my eyes fell upon a class I knew I could pass up: Principalship. Ever since I was a kid, I’d always had an opinion, an analysis, of my principal. As a black boy in a white school, it was inevitable that I would get to know the principals at my schools. What would I do different? In order to answer that question, I’ve spent my adult life attempting to acquire several key skills I believe will set me on a path to surpass all my childhood principals: presentation, leadership, project management, and networking. 

The best principals I’ve seen have done well in front of a crowd. When my future school is looking to interact or communicate with their principal, I plan to be able to influence and motivate them without having to resort to coerciveness or force. I have seen what one’s word can do when that power and trust has been developed in a community over time. To be effective, I must be able to communicate to parents and stakeholders in order to identify and promote the values of the community. I will utilize the Coursera platform to study Storytelling techniques that will enhance the way I communicate vision and purpose to my future school community. 

The best principals I’ve had inspired me to be and do my best. The primary role of a principal is being a leader, and a direct relationship exists between the effectiveness of a principal and that principal’s leadership capacity. I have learned several different types of leadership during the course of my graduate program, and the one I’ve come to see myself embodying is transformative leadership. The ability to make effective and lasting change with the community involved in the construction and maintenance of the solutions to problems is the highest potential of my leadership in a school. I plan to use Ronald Heifetz’s The Practice of Adaptive Leadership to continue learning and honing my leadership capacity. 

The best principals I’ve worked for knew how to get things done. Working in a project-based learning school, I have learned the importance of project management for not only my kids, but for my own work as well. As a principal, it will be important that I not only sound good and make a good impression, but that I am efficient in taking care of the business of the school. I am easily overwhelmed. Whether that be because of stress starting in the COVID years, or because my focus has been in developing other skills, I must cultivate professional habits that allow me to handle high stress work. In that effort, I will be utilizing Udemy’s Time Management for Project Managers course to help me develop those habits that will lead to successful business practice. 

The best principals I’ve heard of have connections everywhere. When I was being mentored by my principal in my previous school, he brought me into a secret that all black male principals and leaders in the area knew: you can’t do this alone. Networking is one of the most important skill sets when moving up the hierarchy ladder into administration. Since the pandemic, I feel I have lost my grip on my previously gregarious personality. Being alone has become too normal, and so I must practice and hone my conversational, outreach, and networking abilities to better secure a place of authority and influence. I plan to start by reviewing some of TED Talk’s videos, specifically starting with Rick Tuoczy’s video on an Introvert’s Guide to Networking.

Education is a big space with many moving parts that I have, at various points in my life, moved through and around trying to find my place. For the longest time, I have been some type of teacher. The classroom has always acted as a home away from home—a place where I can be all versions of myself and do work that has deep meaning for me. I have become the black male teacher I have always wanted. It is time to begin planning to be the black male principal I always deserved.