b) Administrative Team

What leadership looks like to staff, students, and parents at the school will be based largely on how effective your administrative team is. How visible are you, your assistant principals and deans? How responsive are you? How perceptive of other people's needs? How effective are you in making things happen?

How do you build a high-performing and responsive administrative team? This is one of the most important jobs of the principal--to inspire the best work of the individual administrators and to teach them how working as a team will add major value to their individual effectiveness. If your goal is to develop the very best administrative team possible, where do you begin?

The four phases of team dynamics are detailed in many books and articles under many different names. Here is the common sense truth in just a few words:

Phase 1. Separate individuals come together. Your team begins as separate individuals, each talented in his/her own right, each having taken some required coursework in administration and selected for an administrative position. Each individual is probably willing to work hard in his/her assigned area and wishes to be effective, recognized for that effectiveness, and eligible for promotion sometime in the future. Each will be assessing the others.

Phase 2. They see how their jobs/talents are related. In the process of your assigning areas of responsibility, each administrator should become familiar with who among the group has expertise and interest in which areas. And they should begin to see where they can offer specialized experience and knowledge to help other members of the group. As the new principal, your interest is in ensuring that each member of the team is assigned at least one area where s/he can apply his/her strengths, and at least one new area which will require support, training, growth. This process of assignment and learning is important for the future of the team.

Phase 3. They establish working/communicating relationships. During the first six weeks of school, you will be constantly monitoring the activities of your admin team. You will be setting and clarifying your expectations on a daily basis. You will be recognizing the good things they are doing. And you will be working with them, helping them to reflect on the impact of their behaviors on both the team and on the school as a whole. Remember that your administrators are bright, talented professionals. They will figure out the best operating procedures if you remind them of the goal and give them time to reflect on their own actions.

Phase 4. They enjoy the excitement of being part of a high-performing team. As the team becomes successful and productive, they will receive recognition from the people they are working to serve (as well as you, of course). Reflection on what they are doing and how they are operating together will become a habit that is self-perpetuating.

Your job at this point will be to ensure that the team is aimed in the right direction, that their efforts are on target to attain the school's goals, and that each member is performing to his/ her potential.