An Entry Plan for New Administrators

School leaders—new to the job or to a school—will find it useful to spend the first part of the year listening and immersing themselves in the school’s culture and values.

After long years preparing for a school leadership position—volunteering for faculty committees, juggling graduate school with your regular classroom job, envisioning yourself running your own school—you’ve just heard the words you’ve been waiting for: “We’d like you to be our next principal.” Immediately, a sense of accomplishment washes over you, soon followed by the question “Now what do I do?” Psychologists term this anxious feeling imposter syndrome, a sense of doubt that you really have the capabilities required for the job. 

For a new school leader, one cure for imposter syndrome is to create an entry plan: a road map for getting to know the school’s culture, the issues it faces, and its influential stakeholders over the critical first months on the job. An entry plan entails two leadership building blocks. One is to gather information about the school’s curriculum, instructional practices, history and culture, modus operandi, etc. The second is to foster relationships because, as Simon Sinek affirmed, “leadership is a team sport.”