The Principal as Leader in a Culture of Change: The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

           We all know the role of the principal has shifted over the past two decades.  Principals were considered building level management and trained in the principles of transformational leadership.  The new norm over the past decade has shifted to the principal as the instructional leader of the school.  The past two years have shifted this again to the principal as the instructional leader of the building….in a culture of change, which has a tremendous human capital component of leadership.  Simon Sinek said that “leadership is a choice” and “leadership isn’t about authority, it’s about influence; not being in charge, but taking care of those in our charge.”  More now than ever in leadership, taking care of employees, with the patience of Job, is critical to organizational success. 

          Fullan (2001) says “My point is that the principal of the future has to be much more attuned to the big picture, and much more sophisticated at conceptual thinking, and transforming the organization through people and teams. This, too, was my conclusion when I examined successful leadership for businesses and in school system.”  While I’m always excited and love the instructional leadership component of being a principal, I realize that one of the most important things we can do as principals right now is work on our culture in the school with a focus on taking care of our teachers and staff, and our teachers/staff taking care of our kids, with administration and teachers having patience and compassion for parents/community showing signs of stress.  Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2002) claim that emotionally intelligent leaders and emotionally intelligent organizations are essential in complex times. 

          We took a step back and put some of our instructional plans on hold this year, or adjusted to fit the needs of the situation we are in this school year.  Last year our middle school professional development series was called “High Impact Instruction” and looked at the factors that had the most positive significant impact on student learning.  These included clear learning targets, instructional pacing, explicit teaching/questioning, data motivated instruction, cumulative daily review, classroom discourse, literacy across the curriculum, multiple exposures/differentiation, formative assessment, and reflective practice….with building collective efficacy as the foundation of all we do.  We made the decision to not add new professional development or instructional practices or book studies or anything else that might put more on our staff.  We adjusted out professional development for 2020-21 to “High Impact Instruction: In The Virtual World” to not add anything new but provide support in moving to hybrid and virtual learning this year.  Teaching online and in a hybrid model is stressful for students, teachers, parents, etc.  Our job as administrators should be to make it easier for teachers to do their job well. 

          Fullan says “sustained improvement of schools is not possible unless the whole system is moving forward”. This commitment to the social environment is precisely what the best principals will do in 2020-21 in realizing this supports and enables instructional capacity throughout the school.  People operate within systems and do what systems allow them to do.  While we will continue to build instructional capacity, it requires the right culture and mechanisms of support from both an instructional and emotional standpoint.  Many instructional leaders are heavily focused on numbers and data, instructional practices, and moving test scores…….but for significant learning to take place at a high level this school year we must focus on our teachers and students' emotional health to ensure we are taking as many things off of them as possible, providing as much support as possible, and doing everything we can to help them be able to do their jobs well!  If there's one things principals must do this school year to be successful.....it's take care of your people!