Book Review of What Great Principals Do Differently

This work by Todd Whitaker is an easy read with some great tips to keep in mind for anyone aspiring to school leadership.  It’s not a game-changing book – it’s like a comfort resource that you might pick up and flick through to ensure things are on track and that you are being the best version of your leadership self.  I can see myself using it a lot, and seeking inspiration and self-evaluation from it.

He wrote the book through studying what high-performing principals have in common about the way they operate.  He collates these into 18 things we need to look at if we also want to be those great leaders.  The easiest way here seems to be to dot point them:

• Remember the quality of the school rests upon the quality of the people in it
• Be clear about who you are, what you do and how you are perceived by others
• Take responsibility for your own performance, and for the performance of the school
• Create a positive atmosphere and treat everyone with respect – all the time.  Everyone.
• Filter out negative attitudes
• Apply a range of strategies to improve teacher performance
• Work to hire and retain the best teachers
• Understand the dynamics of change
• Keep standardised testing in perspective and focus on the more crucial issue of student learning
• Know when to focus on behaviour or beliefs
• Be loyal to your students, your staff and your school
• Base decisions on your BEST teachers
• Ask yourself who will be most and least comfortable with every decision you make
• Understand, appreciate and make use of your high achievers
• Make it cool to care
• Work hard to keep relationships in repair
• Take steps to improve or remove negative or under performing staff members
• Set expectations at the start of the year and follow through throughout the year

Of course, this is a lot less simple than it sounds.  But there are some gloriously simple kernels of truth in here that resonate and govern good decision making, and a lot of it is about working with the people around you in the most effective manner.  This will be  one to keep on the office bookshelf.