Education Success Profile: School principal

This success profile is one in a set of complete functional and behavioral qualities that, when fully realized, can help lead to professional success. View all competencies.

Overview

When you are considering and interviewing candidates for a principal position, use the following responsibilities and competencies to evaluate candidates. This information can help you identify people who are likely to be successful in this position.

Primary responsibilities

When interviewing for a new principal, look for a candidate who will be able to perform these primary responsibilities:

Represents and promotes the district’s mission and values
Confronts and remedies inadequate teaching practices
Creates and maintains a safe school climate
Sets expectations and effectively delivers results for academic achievement, climate safety, budget efficiency, and employee/student performance
Selects effective faculty and staff
Organizes and budgets resources creatively and appropriately

Core Competencies

Candidates who are likely to be successful in this position will demonstrate a basic grasp of the following 12 Education Competencies. Those who will be the most successful will further demonstrate a desire to improve their skills in—and eventually master—these competencies:

Decision quality and problem solving: Uses analysis, wisdom, experience, and logical methods to make good decisions and solve difficult problems with effective solutions; appropriately incorporates multiple inputs to establish shared ownership and effective action.
Directing others: Establishes clear directions; sets stretching goals and assigns responsibilities that bring out the best work from people; establishes a good work plan and distributes the workload appropriately.
Drive for results: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; does not give up before finishing, even in the face of resistance or setbacks; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
Functional/technical skills: Possesses required functional and technical knowledge and skills to do his or her job at a high level of accomplishment; demonstrates active interest and ability to enhance and apply new functional skills.
Integrity and trust: Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
Interpersonal skills: Is warm and easy to approach; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact to diffuse tense situations; has a style and charm that immediately puts others at ease and disarms hostility.
Managerial courage: Tactfully dispenses direct and actionable feedback; is open and direct with others without being intimidating; deals head-on with people problems and prickly situations.
Managing and measuring work: Clearly assigns responsibility for tasks and decisions; sets clear objectives and measures; monitors process, progress, and results; designs feedback loops into work.
Managing vision and purpose: Communicates a compelling and inspired vision or sense of core purpose; makes the vision sharable by everyone; can inspire and motivate entire units or organizations.
Motivating others: Creates a climate in which people want to do their best; can assess each person’s strengths and use them to get the best out of him or her; promotes confidence and optimistic attitudes; is someone people like working for and with.
Priority setting: Spends his or her time and the time of others on what is important; focuses on the critical few and puts the trivial many aside; can quickly sense what will help or hinder accomplishing a goal.
Valuing diversity: Manages all kinds and classes of people equitably; supports equal and fair treatment and opportunity for all; fosters a climate of inclusion, where diverse thoughts are freely shared and integrated.

Copyright © 1992, 1996, 2001-2003 by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This work is derived from the LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT® Competency Library developed and copyrighted by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo for Lominger Limited, Inc.