The podcast “PMPEncore197: 10 Tips for New Assistant Principals” by William Parker, accessed through the address, provides tips for aspiring and new assistant principals to offer excellent leadership. Teachers willing to advance to administrative roles can rely on various tips and resources to remain successful. In addition, the podcast provides several books and non-education reads suggestions that are helpful to new subordinate school heads. The recommended books are capable of helping novel assistant principals attain growth and demonstrate the appropriate leadership that fits school leaders (Parker, 2021). The suggested non-education reads provide traits for effective leaders and guidelines on keeping professionals organized and focused on attaining shared goals.
The podcast extends to provide numerous tips that are crucial for new assistant principals to be prosperous in their careers. The first tip provided by Parker entails discovering the head principal’s values and vision and concentrating on providing the right support. The second tip revolves around comprehending the administration’s expectations from an assistant principal and the various structural divisions. As a result, assistant principals should fully comprehend their job descriptions. The third tip is to make introductions to all school stakeholders and be friendly (Parker, 2021). Assistant principals should be sociable and introduce themselves to all stakeholders like students, teachers, parents, counselors, upper administration, and drivers, among others. The podcast proceeds to reveal more principles that novel subordinate school heads should observe to be effective.
In addition, the fourth tip exhibits that assistant principals should focus on learning how to be good listeners. Good listening helps new administrative leaders to speak at the right time and understand how to interact and respond to others. Fifthly, first-year assistant principals should expect the best while concentrating on protecting their trust until they determine trustworthy individuals in the workplace. The sixth guideline entails comprehending and following all policies within the school. The student handbook provided to the new assistant principals should reveal all school and district policies that they should be familiar with while accomplishing their tasks. The seventh tip requires assistant principals to follow all procedures and policies consistently and firmly to learn the culture and climate of the school (Parker, 2021). Consequently, all new assistant principals should recognize the operations and culture of the workplace and ask for clarifications from experienced and trusted administrators. The podcast extends to offer additional guidelines that fit all school leaders.
The eighth guideline spins around planning the whole year in advance with priority tasks to accomplish and manage all critical activities for higher performance. Additionally, the new assistant principals should commit to individual self-care habits to create time for exercising, sleeping, and eating. Healthy personal self-care habits make it easy to accomplish tasks and overcome most hardships. Lastly, first-year assistant principals should give themselves enough time to cope with the new occupation and gradually make the necessary adjustments. As a result, the new administrators should evaluate themselves after the end of the first year to determine what has been done and the needed improvements to improve future performance (Parker, 2021). New positions are always challenging, a situation that requires assistant principals to learn how to provide good leadership, enjoy their work, and overcome mistakes to remain successful.
My current work revolves around the field of kindergarten schools, which require the services of assistant principals to facilitate smooth administration and management while collaborating with board members and principals to improve school performance. However, some new assistant principals that have previously joined the school have failed to provide good leadership to all key stakeholders, leading to poor relationships and performance. In addition, most first-year assistant principals within the kindergarten schools fail to comprehend the right resources to utilize to advance their leadership skills and traits. Despite comprehending kindergarten schools’ policies, culture, and climate, new assistant principals need to demonstrate outstanding traits and habits to accomplish their tasks. This will help offer excellent leadership that can guide all individuals towards improving the performance of all young kids. Consequently, the podcast fits my current workplace to help new assistant principals remain successful.
New assistant principals require the appropriate guidelines to remain successful in their new positions and encourage other individuals to join the administrative occupations. This helps in developing the assistant principals to maintain smooth successive planning if the head principals quit their jobs or retire. The tips provided by the podcast allow all new assistant principals, counting those within kindergarten schools to provide good leadership while avoiding mistakes and keeping them satisfied and motivated in their novel positions. The resource recommendations allow the assistant principals to understand the materials to use to guide them in remaining successful. Discovering the head principals’ vision and values helps avoid unnecessary conflicts to allow the assistant principals to remain supportive towards attaining the common goal (Parker, 2021). Understanding the job description makes sure that novel assistant principals know their tasks and duties to prevent them from executing less important tasks.
First-year assistant principals must maintain a friendly atmosphere and trustworthy administrators while demonstrating effective listening to develop strong relationships and accomplish their tasks effectively. Learning the school culture and climate necessitates first-year assistant principals to maintain the needed behaviors and adhere to all policies to avert possible consequences like job loss and demotions. Planning creates an opportunity to achieve the anticipated goals by completing all activities within the required timelines to hone the overall school performance (Parker, 2021). Additionally, healthy self-care habits help overcome stress and maintain good health to remain focused on the workplace chores.
Reference
Parker, W. D. (2021). PMPEncore197: 10 tips for new assistant principals. Principal Matters. Web.