Overcoming Adversity

Imagine you’ve just become principal of a middle school with a highly-diverse population where hate speech, discipline referrals, on-campus vaping, and physical conflicts are major issues. Then as the school year begins, add a major disaster that displaces hundreds of your students! How can a principal deal with overwhelming challenges like these?

This is the type of situation that Katherine Holden faced as a first-year principal in Oregon. In this article, she discusses what it’s like to dive head-first into the lead administrative role during challenging times, and she shares her tips for overcoming adversity.

Building Better Relationships

Strong, positive relationships lie at the heart of all effective leadership. And building better relationships is even more important post-pandemic as many educational leaders are encountering challenges they’ve never faced before.

In this article, an award-winning principal shares how she builds an engaged sense of community in her school and community. She discusses the power of relationships in school leadership and the strategies other leaders can use to take a similar approach.

Building Better Relationships

It’s logical that a strong relationship between school leaders and their staffs can greatly enhance the overall effectiveness of a school district. But what are the best ways to build and strengthen those relationships?

That was the topic of a recent Education Week “Seat at the Table.” Three experienced administrators discussed this important topic and shared their insights. This article summarizes the key points of that interaction, and offers suggestions on how you can help build healthy, effective relationships between principals, superintendents, and those they serve.

Communities of Practice

Relationships are the currency of effective school leaders. Too often we skip relationship building and go straight into the technical aspects of leadership development. But school leaders play a pivotal role in creating the systems and structures needed for relationship building.

In this article, James Harrell takes a look at how creating Communities of Practice can enhance your ability to build effective relationships.