Principal Interviews: Domain 4 - Developing Leadership Capacity

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others" — Jack Welch

The quotation above, outlines one of the key responsibilities for leaders. Whether it be in the beginning stages of leadership e.g. self-management, personal development, courage and growth - to leadership at community level e.g. encouraging and helping others to do those things - developing leadership capacity is vitally important.

When you're applying for AP or Principal positions - you are drawing on your memories of the times that you've stepped up rungs on your career ladder.

Creating a Career Journal

Creating and utilising a career journal is a useful strategy to reflect and realign with what you want to achieve in your career. You can use it to record important lessons you’ve learned, facts that made you think and experiences that are forming who it is that you are becoming.

In your journal reflect on these prompts to help think about things you've done in the past:

Effective Leadership

• Effective leaders reflect on what successful leadership looks and feels like: What are your expectations of other staff and school management? Do you have those qualities too? Remember, that you will be better at some qualities than others and that's natural... be authentic outlining your strengths.

• Effective leaders are team players: Do you work well in a team? Can you think of a successful project you completed and explain why it was so successful? What were the results?

• Effective leaders continue to grow their practice: What have you done to ensure that you are working on your professional development and leadership capacity? What courses have you enjoyed and how can they help you to become a better leader?

• Effective leaders are reflective practitioners: They critique their practice as leaders and develop their understanding of effective and sustainable leadership.

• Effective leaders create opportunities for their teams to grow: Leaders empower staff to take on and carry out leadership roles.

• Effective leaders ensure that everyone feels valued and heard: They promote and facilitate the development of pupil voice and pupil leadership.

• Effective leaders allow and engage support: They build professional networks with other school leaders.

• The position of AP post, deputy principal or principal takes a broad focus on how the school is developing in terms of curricular changes, staffing, developing strengths and following the mission statement of the school for the future. Have you checked your school mission statement recently and are how closely aligned you are with it? How can you realign with it if you need to refocus on it for the future? By taking a step back, and observing your learning, progress and inspired action to date you can identify key tasks that you need to do to further develop your leadership capacity and how you enable others to grow in your team.

Other posts from this series:

• Sample Questions for Domain 1 - Leading Teaching and Learning

• AP Applications: How to Prepare for Domain 2: Managing an Organisation

• School Management AP Applications: Domain 3 Leading School Development

Email me at hello@orladempseycoaching.ie to work with me in developing your personal and professional practice.