DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE
Dec 30, 2021
Do you know what your leadership non-negotiables are?
Can you share, with absolute clarity and conviction, the principles that guide your decision making and the "why" behind them? Does your team know and understand your "why?" Being able to clearly articulate what drives your leadership decision-making is a characteristic of a highly effective principal.
Effective principals take time to reflect on what their leadership non-negotiables are. They do so because they recognize that every decision they make - from approving classroom furniture to student discipline outcomes to hiring - are all based on their beliefs about what is best for the students and school community they serve.
So, back to our opening question....
Do YOU know what your leadership non-negotiables are?
Do you know what you believe?
Here's a quick exercise that will set you on the path of clarifying your leadership non-negotiables and your "WHY."
1. Take 5-10 minutes and "brain dump" everything relative to leadership that is important to you. Use bullets, no full sentences. Don't think too hard about it, just write it down. Get it all out of your head.
2. Look at what you wrote down and begin numbering them in rank order with 1 being most important. Do this until every item you wrote down has an assigned number.
3. Look at your list and determine if any of the items can be combined as similar beliefs or philosophies.
4. Once step 3 is completed, examine your prioritized/combined list and begin framing "I believe" statements.
These "I believe" statements become your non-negotiables and the "WHY" that guides every future decision.