In our second installment of advice for new principals, Education Week talked to Melissa Hensley, who just finished her seventh year as principal of Central High School in Woodstock, Va.
Hensley was the Virginia state principal of the year in 2016 and a finalist for the 2017 National Principal of the Year, an award given by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
EW: What words of wisdom do you have for a first-year principal?
HENSLEY: One thing that really comes to mind—and it is something that I know I've struggled with, but I've learned the deeper I've gotten into the career—is just the concept of being emotionally vulnerable with your staff and having the courage to be who you are and to not let a top down model drive what you think administration should look like.
I think that's very hard for a first-year administrator, who comes in feeling that I have to draw strong lines between [the principal and staff]. If you really want to get buy-in and build those relationships with people, you are going to have to be vulnerable with them. You have to know your people [and] what's important to them to gain those feelings of trust, buy-in, and leadership within your organization. [When] people trust in what you're doing, the productivity will be greater as well.
To create that, you have to be in the trenches with them. You can't be standing on the side and everybody else is doing the work, per se, and you are there judging or being perceived as a judge. You have to get into the trenches with them.
To read more of Denisa R. Superville's article, please click here.
Comments (0)