How is a Principal a Leader

Awesome Power of the Principal
In my school setting, I can see some of the principal traits described by Fullan (2010) in our principal: there is a focus on instruction and the need to personalize education—but only to a limited extent. Fullan (2010) argues that this focus needs to be deep and that the principal needs to be obsessed with it, making sure that every student is getting results. In my school, the principal talks about the importance of this objective but does not really provide teachers with help or tools to make it happen. The principal is more of the type of person who says the right things but when it comes to backing up words with action he is MIA.
Fullan’s discussion of “ready, fire, aim, change, savvy” resonates with my own thinking regarding change and the planning of my IIP. I feel that Fullan (2010) is absolutely correct, especially with regards to the fact that the “size and the prettiness of the planning document is inversely related to the quality of action” (p. 14). I feel that action should be supported my than the words and idealistic phrases used to make everyone feel good about an initiative. It should not require a lot of words to get the team moving in the right direction—at least not words on paper. Instead, what is needed is supportive relationships. Here is where the principal really needs to come forward as a leader. In my IIP, I tried to focus on the idea of developing relationships between stakeholders so that they could all work together to support one another and help one another achieve the objectives identified at the outset. These relationships are what matter most in the long run—much more so than the motivating words written in a planning document. The planning document is basically like the script of a movie—the director and actors should know it, but once it comes time to shoot they are given room and support to go off script if necessary or if it seems to work best.
References
Fullan, M. (2010). The power of the principal. NAESP.