School leaders are the latest texture of the varied and ever changing academic fabric. Schools are going all out to hire such talent for their administrative positions.
If you have the inclination of becoming such a leader, this is the time to:
- Set your goals – It’s important to know where you ultimately want to end up. Knowing the direction you want to go is important. A clear vision allows you to focus energy on the most important things to do.
- Be a leader from the get-go – It is important to start at the bottom and gain experience. If already in the teaching profession, then you should start getting involved in various school activities like after school programmes, cultural events, department budget planning and the like.
- Find out the degrees required – It’s good to get your degrees so that when opportunity comes knocking you can take advantage of it. Start working towards it as soon as possible.
- Know what you are giving up: As a school leader you will be working more out of the classrooms and dealing with teaching staff, parents and administrators.
- Take care of yourself: You will be working for long and stressful hours, so make sure you make some time for a leisure activity to balance out.
- Develop your people skills – Good school leaders are flexible and ready to meet challenging situations. They are excellent listeners and are armed with the soft skills to de-escalate situations.
As a leader you might miss the innocent, contagious energy of eager students, but will gain the immense satisfaction of having influenced more students as well as helped in guided decisions, thereby your impact being felt on a larger level.
“I believe that leaders are not born, they are made”. Leaders are those that truly understand themselves and understand the basics of human nature. Communication is the most telling characteristic of an effective leader; if a leader can empower followers to clearly understand the message, production and success are the result. Power, money, and title does not a leader make.Remember, the effectiveness of a leader will be determined by the followers.