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"Leaders who embrace open inquiry, the sharing of problems and solutions, and collective responsibility will foster creativity, resourcefulness, and collaboration in the work of staff and the learning of children." In seeking to define the good principal, it's useful to first describe the "bad" principal — that is, to pinpoint which qualities are undesirable in school leaders. Apparently, there's no shortage of potential data. Plenty of principals — as many as one-third — get fired, according to Clete Bulach, Winston Pickett, and Diana Booth. The three researchers pulled together some findings on common blunders for a 1998 ERIC Digest, Mistakes Educational Leaders Make. One study found 15 categories of mistakes, including, among others, lack of vision, avoidance of conflict, lack of knowledge about instruction and curriculum, a control orientation, lack of ethics or character, inconsistency, showing favoritism, and failure to hold staff accountable. At the very top of the list were "poor human-relations skills" and "poor interpersonal-communication skills" — two areas that are tightly entwined and wrap around just about everything else that happens in the building. Behaviors falling under these two problems include an uncaring attitude, lack of trust, failure to circulate with staff, staying distant, not calling teachers by name, failure to delegate, failure to give feedback, and failure to listen. Keeping these gaffs in mind, now flip the question, and ask, What does a good principal look like? The answer, it turns out, is almost a mirror image of the "most common mistakes" list above. Sifting through a decade of research, Education Week's Keller pulls together eight traits or behaviors that add up to effective school leadership. A good principal:
The two related activities in item 5 above — spending time in classrooms and listening to teachers — pop up again and again in recent writings about school leadership. Together, they encapsulate the collaborative (and caring) nature of school leadership today. Scholars agree that unless a principal is fully connected to the people and instructional programs that form the heart of any schoolhouse, he cannot be an effective agent for change. Karen Seashore Lewis, a professor at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities, found that "good principals spent time not so much on the formal apparatus of a reform agenda, but simply listening to teachers," Keller reports. Lashway and colleagues, writing in School Leadership, cite a number of findings in this vein. For example, Shirley Hord and Gene Hall found that principals who were most actively involved with teachers were the most effective in facilitating instructional improvement. "One result is high visibility," Lashway writes. "Involved principals walk the hallways and poke their noses in classrooms rather than sequestering themselves in their office." Richard Gorton and Kenneth McIntyre found that "effective principals listen to students, community, and staff." Arthur Blumberg says, "Every time I asked an administrator what was most important for him or her to be able to do well, the response was, 'Listening.'" Joseph Murphy, a professor at Vanderbilt University, sums up the changing landscape of school leadership this way: "Principals are learning to lead not from the apex but from the center of a network of deep relationships with teachers." In Seattle, Principal Testa-Cross is knitting together just that kind of network. When she came to John Hay Elementary four years ago, she found a strong faculty but little cohesion: No unifying idea guided them; no shared goal steered them. Quickly sensing the void, the new principal pulled together 75 staff, parents, and community members for a nine-month vision quest. After countless committee meetings and conversations, the group arrived at five goals. Testa-Cross (convinced that voluminous vision statements disappear as fast as wet snowflakes on sloshy pavement) compressed the goals into a pithy phrase — what she calls a "sound bite" — that everyone could remember and recite: Personal success, public stewardship, and a pathway to the stars for every student. This "living vision," as Testa-Cross calls it, is being carried forward by parents and a leadership team of seven veteran teachers (selected by staff) and herself. "For a couple of years," she says, "I was really perplexed about what to do with these teachers who are so terrific. I felt I had nothing to offer them — they're masters. Then I realized that my job with them was to nurture leadership, because they had something to give others." John Hay Elementary, which has seen test scores rise and enrollment climb for several years, is a testament to the power of shared leadership and collaborative decisionmaking. "The critical element of great leadership is that you can take a vision globally," Testa-Cross says. "You encourage people in a personal way to add value to that vision. You respect and appreciate that contribution so that it's constantly growing and changing and new people are coming on board all the time with great ideas."
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The New Principal Special Report:
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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