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What Great Principals Do Differently

Introduction & Study Guide 

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As part of a new video series from Leaders Building Leaders, Dr. Tom Miller, Chief Transformation Officer, brings you better practices, leadership principles and top tips to help grow and strengthen your leadership and school's performance based on Todd Whitaker's book, What Great Principals Do Differently. 

What to Expect...
How to Prepare....
How to Participate Full Out and get the most out of this study!

WGPDD Intro from Leaders Building Leaders on Vimeo.

Listen in Podcast Format

Mastermind Session #1 

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 1: Why Look at Great? 

What are some of the highest performing schools that you have walked the hallways of?

Who are the leaders of those schools?

If you had a chance to spend 30 minutes with them, what questions would you ask? 

Write them down!

I believe that if you desire to be more, you have to see more. But I have learned that it's hard to improve when you have no one else in your life to follow. In this lesson we take a deep dive into why we should look at and model our selves after great...not good.
Bonus Resources: Great NC Principal Interviews

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 2: It Is People, Not Programs

What are the characteristics of your ideal team player? 

Who make up the top 20% of your team based on that description? 

Where did they come from and where do we recruit more people like them?

How will you spend more time with your top people?

A school’s degree of excellence is perceived from the quality of its teachers. Administrators have two choices: hire new teachers or improve the current ones. Effective teachers build relationships and motivate students to do their best. Effective principals do the same and use input from their most effective teachers in making decisions for the school.
Bonus Lesson: Hire the Right Person Every Time Workshop

Mastermind Session #2

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 3: Develop an Accurate Sense of Self

What role do I have in the problems at the school I lead?

How am I improving as a leader based on the feedback I receive from the people I lead?

What changes will I make based on this lesson?

Everyone, including principals, would like to be held in high regard by others, but great principals would rather be respected than liked and work accordingly to earn that respect. We have all heard principals say, my door is always open. What should this look like, in practice, for principals who are sincerely interested in interacting with teachers at the school? How can an effective open-door policy help principals develop an accurate sense of self?
Bonus Lesson: School Leader Rule of Five

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 4: Who is the Variable?

How can school leaders help teachers increase their acceptance of responsibility?

How do you need to lead differently?

Are you an energy producer or energy consumer?

The few teachers in every school with the most discipline problems are the “elephants” of the school; these teachers have and cause huge problems that must be recognized and dealt with. The starting point is to examine their attitude toward students. Good teachers blame themselves when students do poorly on quizzes and tests and constantly search for ways to improve their teaching, taking a high degree of responsibility for their classes. Applying this standard to principals, effective principals take the attitude that they are responsible for everything that happens in their schools. In response to a query about who is responsible for school climate, ineffective principals placed responsibility on the faculty or simply the teachers. “The more effective principals responded, ‘I am’” (p. 16). Effective teachers and effective principals have high standards for themselves.
Bonus Lesson: School Culture by Design & How to Lead and Communicate With Difficult People

Mastermind Session #3

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 5: Treat Everyone With Respect, All The Time

What must principals do to keep the best teachers on their side when dealing with a teacher who is ineffective.

What is your definition of respect? What does it look like? Feel like?

The importance of teachers treating students with respect and principals treating staff and students with respect cannot be overstated. Effective teachers choose every student to be their favorite. Along the same vein, effective principals can improve school climate by increasing positive interactions with staff members, especially through praise.
Bonus Lesson: Choose Recognition over Resentment

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 6: Be the Filter

How does the principal's response to questions and situations affect teachers in the
school?

How should principals determine which information they should filter and not share with
staff members?

Principals set the emotional energy level of teachers and students through many different means. By responses to simple questions such as “How is your day?” to sharing the latest news, principals affect the desire of teachers to give their best effort in the classroom. While lying is not condoned, it is essential that principals selectively choose what information and attitudes to share with the staff and students, especially when the principal is angry or frustrated. A principal’s goals should be to squash negative attitudes and encourage enthusiasm for school among the staff and students. Anything that a principal says or does that opposes these goals is counterproductive.
Bonus Lesson: Five Keys to Empowering Your Team

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 7: Teach the Teachers

What is your responsibility in regards to Teaching the Teachers?

What time do you schedule to research, develop and plan out this teaching time?

One of the principal’s most important tasks is to help teachers improve their instruction and rapport with students. Finding an effective means of helping teachers improve is critical to school improvement. Usually a good assumption is that teachers already are doing the best that they can and would do better if they knew what to do. One solution the book proposes is to have teachers observe each other in action: Get the ones who need improvement into the superstars’ classrooms. Such exchanges will benefit the entire school in building professional relationships among the faculty.
Bonus Lesson: Do It, Delegate It, or Dump It

Mastermind Session #4

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 8: Hire Great Teachers

What is the essential variable in hiring new teachers? What factors are secondary in importance to this core indicator of future success?

In what ways can a principal informally begin the process of induction during interviews?

As a principal, set your standards high: look for educational leaders rather than applicants who would fit in with the non-leadership of the current staff. The author encourages principals to search for and hire teachers with the most talent.
Hiring Great People for All Positions Workshop and Studyguide

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 9: Understanding the Dynamics of Change

Being an agent for change is a critical skill for school leaders. 

What are the key qualities a leader must work to improve in themselves and as a team to create positive change?

The best leaders never forget that their ongoing focus is improvement, not perfection, and continue to ask themselves and their teachers, “How can we get better?” Leading is a daunting task, but the best school leaders understand how to navigate the change dynamic so that all students can have the outstanding school they deserve.
Ten Success Indicators School Assessment

Mastermind Session #5

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 11: Focus on Behavior, Then Focus on Beliefs

Why is it more effective and productive for the principal to focus on teachers’ behaviors rather than on their beliefs?

What are some behaviors that teachers demonstrate that are detrimental to students, their colleagues and the school’s climate.

While ideally everyone in the school shares the same beliefs on issues such as the best teaching and classroom management techniques, there are usually a few staff members whose past negative experiences or simple fear of the unknown cause them to resist change. When change is needed, avoid philosophical arguments. Rather, focus on the desired behavior. Teachers’ beliefs are not as important as their actions, and with practice in new methods, their beliefs will likely come around as well.
Bonus Lesson: Move From a People Pleaser to People Leader

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 12: Loyal to Whom?

Why is it more important for teachers to be loyal to their students rather than the principal?

In dealing with staff members, what focus should guide the principal to make the right decision?

Principals often have a choice to make when hiring a new teacher: Should they hire someone whom they feel will be loyal to them or hire a teacher who is talented but obviously strong-willed? Furthermore, questions sometimes arise where concern for an individual student will conflict with concern for the rest of the students. Dozens of other scenarios can be imagined where the good of teachers and students can come into conflict. In all of these situations, the real question should be: What is in the best interests of all students, all teachers, and for the school? A strong-willed teacher may be difficult to handle, but his or her loyalty to the principal is secondary. What is important is getting the most talented teacher in the classroom. These are not easy choices to make, but the question of loyalty is clear: The principal must act in the best interests of all students and staff for the good of the whole school.
How Well Are You Coaching Your People (Self-Assessment)

Mastermind Session #6

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 13: Base Every Decision on Your Best Teachers

Learn why it is critical that principals take the time to identify and rely on their best teachers to give them feedback and make decisions with them in mind. 

Each high-achieving teacher in the school is a treasured resource, one that should not be wasted. Principals should ask for input before making decisions that affect the staff, surveying them afterward for feedback. Ask these valued staff members to model any school improvement idea because they are already respected by their peers. Rather than waste time with trying to convert the resistant or mediocre teachers to new ways, let the “superstar” teachers lead them. Do not hamper these innovative teachers with research-based suggestions; rather, let them start in a limited way in their own classrooms, then introduce research to expand whatever creative direction they choose.
Bonus Resource: Assessment of Quality Staff

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 14: In every situation, ask who is the most comfortable and who is the least comfortable. 

Why must principals- at times- make decisions that are exceptions to explicit rules and
guidelines? When does the situation most often arise?

Gain a few examples and set your plan. 

Principals are familiar with the scenario where an issue is discussed and there are strong feelings on either side with no easy way to come to consensus. In such a case, the principal needs to ask himself or herself, “Who is the most comfortable and who is the least comfortable in this situation?” (p. 73). The implementation of ideas that causes some teachers to feel uncomfortable may be good, especially if they are ineffective teachers. However, if the effective teachers are uncomfortable, the plan is poor and should not go forward. The habit of asking “Who is comfortable and who is the least comfortable?” can also be applied to parents and students, and one of its implications is that everyone should be treated as if they always do the right thing.
Bonus Lesson: Lead and Communicating with Difficult People

Mastermind Session #7

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 15: Understanding the High Achievers

Why is it more important for teachers to be loyal to their students rather than the principal?

In dealing with staff members, what focus should guide the principal to make the right decision?

The effective teachers in the school are rightly seen as sources of creative energy and power that can launch any school into an improvement mode. But how do principals protect this precious resource? The high achieving teachers in the school are just that – they desire to help and support everything and everyone, and taking responsibility is their automatic response to any request for help. The principal must delegate tasks that others can do because there are many tasks that only the principal can perform. Likewise, high achieving teachers must not be given work that other teachers can do, because there are many tasks that only these achievers can perform. Strategies for accomplishing this goal are discussed.
How to Prioritize (The Three R's)

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 16: Make it Cool to Care

Why is it more important for teachers to be loyal to their students rather than the principal?

In dealing with staff members, what focus should guide the principal to make the right decision?

Principals often have a choice to make when hiring a new teacher: Should they hire someone whom they feel will be loyal to them or hire a teacher who is talented but obviously strong-willed? Furthermore, questions sometimes arise where concern for an individual student will conflict with concern for the rest of the students. Dozens of other scenarios can be imagined where the good of teachers and students can come into conflict. In all of these situations, the real question should be: What is in the best interests of all students, all teachers, and for the school? A strong-willed teacher may be difficult to handle, but his or her loyalty to the principal is secondary. What is important is getting the most talented teacher in the classroom. These are not easy choices to make, but the question of loyalty is clear: The principal must act in the best interests of all students and staff for the good of the whole school.
Empowering People to Huge Success Worksheet

Mastermind Session #8

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 17: Don't Need To Repair, Always Do Repair

We discuss techniques that principals must use in teaching students and teachers how
to repair damaged relationships.

Why is it counterproductive to focus on getting teachers to admit they were wrong? What is a more productive approach?

Certain teachers are insensitive to others’ feelings and frequently cause hurt by what they say or do. In contrast to them, effective teachers and principals constantly “repair,” that is, they constantly work to avoid hurt feelings, apologizing quickly for any hurt that they believe they may have caused. They are on alert for the feelings of others, and in the case of effective principals, they have a great deal of knowledge about their staff’s families and interests. Engaging in constant repair, even when things are not obviously broken, is a way to keep school relationships strong.
Are You Leading Yourself?

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 18: Dealing With Negative or Ineffective Staff Members

Why must principals do something about negative staff members?

What do the best teachers expect from their colleagues who may not be as effective or energetic as they are? 

The beginning of the year is the only time when the principal can talk about classroom management and not have the teachers and staff feel guilty or angry because no one has had any negative interactions with students yet. This is the best time for the principal to set forth school-wide classroom management expectations. Bringing up this subject in an effective and positive manner will set expectations at the beginning of the school year, and make it easier for the principal to discuss these issues with teachers if any problems do occur.
Crucial Conversations (Audio Lesson)

Mastermind Session #9

 

What Great Principals Do Differently

Chapter 19: Setting Expectations on the First Day

Why is it more important for teachers to be loyal to their students rather than the principal?

In dealing with staff members, what focus should guide the principal to make the right decision?

Daily Expectations and School Improvement Checklists