Begin with the End in Mind

Okay so you've got your office set up, your prepared to meet your basic physiological needs at school, and you are all settled in. Now the other big question to ask yourself is what do I hope to accomplish here at XYZ school? What do you want your impact to be? What do you want your legacy to be? You more than likely already defined and communicated your purpose as you prepared for interviews and the principal selection process. What you will soon find out is that within your first year as a school leader these questions will be much clearer and more solidified.

When I started my first role as a principal it was the middle of the school year on December 1st. I was named the “interim” principal because the principal before me was removed and demoted for various issues. The staff was seriously divided, and morale was extremely low.  When I was introduced to the staff there were a few chuckles and the comment, “How long will it take us to get rid of this one?”.  I knew this was going to be tough. My assistant superintendent at the time, told me to not change anything and concentrate on just building relationships. I remember thinking, “ok, sounds simple enough, I can do that.” After only a week I soon discovered it was not going to be that simple.  I had two main purposes that ended up driving me then and eventually the rest of my career. I believed my purpose was twofold. One was to provide a safe and secure environment for staff and students. Second was to ensure that the person standing in front of the classroom was most talented and well-developed teacher I could find.  These two statements encompassed so many aspects of what was needed at that school and eventually at all the schools I led.   

I visualized those two statements as an umbrella covering all of my responsibilities and day to day tasks.  For example:  under providing a safe and secure environment comes managing your facilities and aesthetics of your school, having strong safety procedures that work and are constantly reviewed and practice, providing mental and emotional safety and security by creating systems of building relationships and a sense of belonging and sources of appreciation. Under ensuring that teachers have the talent and development needed to successfully reach all students looks like feedback to walks and observations, determining staff development needs and creating a plan for ongoing growth and even how to manage difficult employees.  Those two statements that I lived by served as a filter for my decisions.  It helped to reduce the outside noise and increase my intentional focus.

Before the year begins think about what you want the end of the year to look like and what your role will be in that vision.  Steven Covey calls it “Begin with the End in Mind in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  Create a visual for yourself as constant reminder or create phrase or mantra you can memorize. I have provided my visual example to give you an idea.  Next week I’ll talk about time management.