Leadership
Isolation—A lonely place.
I currently work with a cadre of new principals through a state approved mentoring program. In New Jersey, a new principal must participate successfully in a two-year mentorship program when they get hired into their first job requiring a principal certification. Most states across the nation have some sort of entry mentorship program. I enjoy the work and feel as though I help my residents. Having 33 years of administrative experience, I believe I have something to offer. I have probably handled most situations in many leadership positions and can help guide new principals navigate his/her path.
Last week when meeting with one of my residents I had a bit of a revelation that I had a hard time understanding. Over the course of my career, we have come a long way in the training of new principals. I applaud the state effort to require mentors. However, my revelation showed me that in so many ways we are no better off than we were 35 years ago. When I was hired for my first vice principal position, I was given a ring of keys (back then the size of your key ring communicated your importance), showed my office, and wished good luck. My major responsibility was running an attendance office of a fairly large sized urban high school. Thankfully, the principal who hired me was supportive and patient but provided little direction in how to perform my day to day activities. My personality lends itself to being a good crisis manager and perhaps these innate skills put me on the pathway to success. I sensed last week that my residents within their given districts received no better day to day training than I did.
They were isolated, overwhelmed, and very frustrated. My support consists of a once a month meeting and of course e-mail and phone availability. I would also increase my visitations if they were requested, and I thought they would help. First of all, most new principals are reticent to ask for help and would probably rather drown than seek assistance and the support that they need. This support I believe can only be provided by a person who is living inside of their district and maybe has done that job or a similar job at one time in their own career path. I remain convinced that districts, especially large ones have it in their power to make this happen. Conversations need to be structured and meetings kept at a high priority. The importance of this structure cannot be allowed to be pushed aside by any competing entity. This has to be structure such as a Professional Learning Community for new administrators. One that is collaborative and provides a vehicle for communication. A PLC that each person will look forward to participating in and not view as a chore. I have seen, at times, regardless of my perceived positive relationship with my residents, that my visits are burdensome and tedious. I do not take this personally because with all of the competing priorities of a new administrator meeting with me is probably the last thing they want to do. But I also feel that in most cases, after the meeting has been held, they probably feel pretty good about it.
Over the past few decades, we have spoken about, written about, and began to understand the negative impact that isolation has on teachers. We have built elaborate networks to attempt to mitigate the feeling of isolation and the negative effects it has on our teachers and schools. If you do a search on this topic, you will retrieve volumes of information. Do the same search on the same topic regarding principals and your search will provide, by comparison, limited results. I would bet that every school assigns an in-school mentor or “buddy” to help the new staff member succeed. Rarely does this practice occur for administrators. Sadly, I must confess as a superintendent, I did not have this process for my new people, and I knew that my peers did not have a program in place. My residents that I am working with today do not have an in-house process built to serve this need.
Our new principals need someone to provide a context to their daily experience within that given district. The individual needs as a principal will vary among districts. New principals need to find their personal style of leadership within a given district. An in-district new administrator PLC will enable novices to become reflective and provide support for one another. Hopefully this will be done in an environment away from the clogged desk of a pressing “to do” list. As I developed a new list every day, it was demoralizing to look at the list at the end of the day and see that little was accomplished, yet I was busy my entire time at work. If each new principal had an in-house mentor, I am sure many mistakes could be avoided. More importantly, the wrong way of doing something will not become personally ingrained in this novice. They could go through their career thinking they did something right when it was not.
We need new young principals to replace the large cohort of principals retiring and leaving the field. Our new aspiring principals may be better trained from graduate school but are not being brought into the field in a productive way. We need to continue to grow the state developed mentoring programs. More importantly, each district must provide the necessary support to their new leaders to not only help ensure their individual success, but the long-term success of the district as leadership transitions to a new generation.
