This week’s review is on The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence by Baruti K. Kafele.
The Principal 50 is exactly what it claims – fifty questions, divided into ten chapters arrayed by theme – with some exposition about each. The ten chapters cover the various roles of a building leader in a school system. As such, the text is both hard to summarize and provides a basic starting point for leaders. For experienced ones or those mired in professional development, most of the questions would hopefully already be considered; for those new or lost, such a guide might be helpful.
In the context of the text itself, I found several aspects helpful. Starting with a mission orientation, rather than a career one grounds the book in what is essential. Here the commentary reminds that “the mission of the principalship doesn’t begin once you become a principal — it begins once you have made the decision to become a principal” (8). School brand picks up from here an extends this sense to “everyone in the school” and ensuring they “speak the same language when describing the school’s identity” (13). Culture and climate follow and promote the idea of “motivation, guidance, leadership, and direction– allow of which you must supply” (23). These big picture sections undergird the role of the soft side of leadership.
The next several chapters focus on the more day-to-day aspects. Here instruction takes precedent ensuring “the school leader must reprioritize and rethink the way responsibilities are allocated with the building” to ensure “student achievement and improvement of instruction” are “absolutely central to your mission as a school leader” (38). This leads to ensuring feedback systems are strong for students and teachers. This modelling should also be echoed in the way we plan daily: “you must plan for excellence daily” (53). Too many leaders fail to plan their days and priorities around their mission and reality – a catastrophic mistake that weakens their leadership and schools. The last helpful reminder for me was to extend this planning to enable professional learning, but more importantly the “need to find ways to observe excellence in action at other schools” (63). This sense of leading by example is a key theme in the text.
The Principal 50: Critical Leadership Questions for Inspiring Schoolwide Excellence by Baruti K. Kafele.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Good For: Those who don’t know where to start when it comes to excellence.
Best nugget: We lead by example.
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