Take a real look at your campus right now. Is there drama? Are people acting unprofessional in one way or another? Side conversations, frustration, negativity, things that just feel off? If that’s happening, it’s not random. Most of the time, you can trace it back to leadership. Either a problem wasn’t addressed early enough, or there isn’t a clear line of communication, so people start connecting dots that shouldn’t be connected. When there’s no clarity, people fill in the gaps themselves,...

At some point this time of year, a lot of principals start thinking about next year and come to the same conclusion: “I just need to move some people around.” A new grade level, a different team, maybe a different role. It feels like a solution. It feels like progress. But in most cases, it doesn’t fix the problem. I’ve done it. I’ve seen others do it. What usually happens is the same issues show up in a different place. The frustration just moves. The conversations you’ve been avoiding don’t...

This time of year is tough. Testing is here, everyone is tired, and most days feel like you’re just trying to get to the end of the day without anything blowing up. I’ve been there, and here’s the biggest mistake I used to see principals make during this stretch of the year. They wait. They wait to reflect, they wait to plan, and they wait to fix things. They tell themselves they’ll deal with it after testing or once the year is over, but that time never really comes. What usually happens is...