3 lessons from my first 100 days as Head of School.
After 3 and a half months at this job, I still feel like a noob. But that’s okay. I am supposed to be a noob. I will probably feel this way during my first school year as a Head of School. A school year is filled with many different components, and the experience changes from month to month. I have held on to the 3 leadership principles to guide my first 100 days, and here is what I learned.
Lesson 1: Being a nood requires self-confidence.
It is difficult to say I don’t know or tell me more about it. It is not easy to be someone who cannot answer simple questions and run to others to ask for help. I had to manage how I viewed myself. In moments where I don’t know the answers or what I should do in a certain situation, it is tempting to let it tie my lack of knowledge with my self-confidence. As if I needed to know everything to feel confident about myself. It was difficult to own the fact that I was not the smartest person in the room or didn’t have all the answers. As a man of God, I know that my value is not tied to what I know or don’t know but lies with whose image I reflect. I am made in God's image and created to be God’s image bearer. That alone should have given me a lot of self-confidence, but the world is telling me something different. The world is telling me that I need to be smart, capable, and decisive to be a person of value. When the world’s message creeps in, I am grateful to have a community of believers who would speak the truth to me and remind me that I can be a proud noob because neither my knowledge nor my ability to make swift decisions can take away my self-confidence unless I allow my self-confidence to be taken away. A person who can say, I am a noob, and I am proud of it, is a person with self-confidence, and I want to work towards being that guy.
Lesson 2: Be the last person to speak.
My second principle was to listen and listen some more. It is incredibly important for me to listen, learn, and understand the people I work with and the school that existed long before I showed up. At the same time, the school needs leadership. It needs a leader to make decisions. Problems cannot be left unsolved, and concerns cannot be unaddressed. So what can I do? I can be the last person to speak in meetings. I am learning that when my team brings a question or a situation to me, they often have thought about it. They probably talked to someone about it. Sometimes, they just want permission, while others feel the decision is above their pay grade. So I would invite them to share the problem, ask them clarifying questions, and then ask their recommendations. I may ask a few more questions about their recommendations or bring in someone with slightly different or opposing views to balance the room. When everyone said their piece, then I gave my decision or permission. I still have a lot to learn to be the last person to speak. The times when I spoke first, I noticed that people got quiet and just went with it without debating with me to see if it is a good idea or not.
Lesson 3: It takes more energy to maintain than to change.
During these 100 days, I have heard from a few staff who came to me and shared that they appreciated me not changing everything just because I am the Head of School. At the same time, I had a handful of staff and parents who talked to me and sought change. I understand where they are coming from. They saw issues they wanted to change, and in their words, they were waiting for a leader to make these changes. It takes a lot more energy to share and explain why these changes will not benefit the school in those moments. Changing leadership brings uncertainty, and people are still getting used to a new person with a unique personality, communication style, and leadership style. When people are anxious about changes and uncertainty, they are looking for stability and predictability. Saying no to "good change” and putting them on the back burner requires much more effort than I anticipated. I need to tell them that the ideas are good, but the timing isn’t good. When the time is right, these changes will make a tremendous difference to our school. I am practicing balancing the affirmation of ideas with what the school currently needs, stability.
I am a lifelong learner, and these lessons are hard to learn, but they are valuable to my development. Putting leadership principles into practice was hard. At the same time, it gave me an anchor I needed to feel grounded and safe. What makes principles good is that they are timeless, applicable, and beneficial to leaders growing their influence. I hope to keep practicing them during my next 100 days.
