Monday, December 6, 2010

What Makes an Excellent Administrator?

An excellent administrator is someone who demonstrates the unique ability to relate to all people and inspires, motivates, organizes, and implements programs and policies to ensure that the school excels so that all students lead exemplary lives in and out of the classroom.

An excellent administrator is someone who is kind, compassionate, understanding, flexible and has the respect of everyone in the building and local community. For teachers, s/he listens intently to the concerns of the staff and takes proper steps to rectify situations whenever appropriate but is also the school's number one cheerleader encouraging and challenging teachers towards creating an exemplary community of learners. An excellent administrator has the vision and is able to see the big picture and effectively communicates this vision to families, students, community partners, school staff and key stakeholders with ease. This communication is clear, concise, and consistent with the mission and vision of the school. To this end, s/he is hardworking and is usually the first one to arrive at the school and the last one to leave. Clearly, this individual is the most public person in the school and is not confined to his or her office.

He or she is humble and not above doing any and every job in the building, whether its picking up random trash on the school grounds to make sure the community is clean or if its taking over a classroom when he or she sees that a teacher is struggling that day because of a death in the family. The administrator has a “do whatever it takes” attitude. In all ways, he or she is flexible, filling into the places of the school to ensure that the program runs smoothly. He/she gives respect and earns the respect of others and is able to create a culture of connectedness with all and other teachers, staff, families and students.

The administrator creates a culture of shared responsibility. Yet, at the same time, the administrator provides clear expectations of everyones roles and responsibilities. S/he sets up, whenever possible and in close collaboration with staff, procedures, policies, monitoring and evaluation system that are consistent and fair. S/he encourages a participatory approach and provides ample opportunities for folks to take leadership opportunities in the school. Whether it is at staff meetings or in the hallways of the school, everyones voice is heard and honored. The administrator both public recognizes the contributions of others and rewards others as appropriate. Rarely does s/he take ownership of accomplishments but constantly looks forward to celebrating the success of the team and takes ownership of problems to alleviate pressure from an already often worn out staff. S/he consistently has gatherings outside of school and creates a family of educators that truly and sincerely care about each other. So even when the highly organized and efficient administrator who has transparent systems and protocols fails, the "family" quickly picks up the broken pieces and repairs the system so there is no disruption to the business of the school.

When it comes to students, this excellent administrator expects and demands exemplary performance from all youth. S/he creates mantras and expressions that all students recite and understand and plays meditator between students and the larger school community. He inspires and coaches students to reach their full potential, warmly greeting and learning each and every student in the building. Students trust his or her judgement and feel safe and secure in the building as a result of his/her presence and systems that are in place.

S/he brings best practices, both nationally, locally, and more importantly, recognizes the techniques, tools and resources that are taking place right in the classroom, in the community, with families and students all the time. Teachers and staff begin to feel valued beyond the work that they do just in the school but they feel valued as human beings. In this way, accountability, although deeply embedded in structured protocols, also lives in the lives in the hearts and minds of all who are in the quest towards achieving greatness for all students.

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