WHO IS THE IDEAL 21st- CENTURY PRINCIPAL?

 

 

WHO IS THE IDEAL 21^st- CENTURY PRINCIPAL?

 

October 2021 presentation by Joseph AYODELE BSc, MBA, CMC, FAPCI, FIMC, Director-General of the African Principals Conference Initiative at the Annual General Meeting of the Federal Unity Colleges Principals in Gombe, Gombe state, Nigeria.

 

The 21^st-Century Principal is the individual the stakeholder holds accountable for his/her particular school. This focused responsibility on a single individual is the primary basis for discussing the ideal 21^st- Century Principal, who must be multi-talented, and multi-tasking as a teacher, as a learner, as a security expert, as an environmental analyst, as a chief financial officer, as a community medicine expert, as a nutritionist, as a parent, as a professional caregiver, etc. 

 

Here are the key areas for which they are accountable:

1. Lead the school to positive learning growth.
2. Develop tomorrow’s Teachers: Making sure that Teachers and non-academic staff get proper coaching and training is vitally important.
3. Superior knowledge of government policies, students, parents, and the community. The Principal should be the most informed person in the Ministry of Education with respect to all aspects of their school in Nigeria/ any country. This knowledge represents the real power base of the Principal. He/she should be totally aware of enrollment trends and school awareness/ trial preferences, in-depth understanding of students learning styles and key teaching dynamics- online learning, hybrid learning, strengths and weaknesses of schools in their area/ community of operation, not only differences in management approaches, funding and enrollment strategies but in the academic performances of students in key competitions and external examinations.
4. The Principal must guarantee the future of the students.
5. The Principal as a super- Teacher
6. The Principal must be entrepreneurial and innovative.
7. The Principal is the Chief Accounting Officer of the School and must ensure that every income is used to promoting effective learning.
8. The Principal must be smart in applying government policies and initiatives if and when a decision is made at the government or ministerial level. e.g. for a major ICT introduction/ upgrade or e-learning upgrade, excellence and speed of execution are of critical importance in maximizing the benefits of new policies. 
9. Delegating upwards: The Principal must coach and empower small teams; deploy talent based on skills, not on hierarchy, and fill gaps through training and development. The bottom line: better employees experience to deliver better results.
10. The principal must give hope to the hopeless in his/her community.

 

HOW TO BECOME A WINNING PRINCIPAL?

Two aspects of personal attitude are key: a) Professionalism and, b) Winning as a way of life.

 PROFESSIONALISM:  Do you know the main difference between an amateur and a professional?  It’s very simple. It’s mastery of the fundamentals. A leader by definition is at the front of the group, and therefore, ahead of everyone else. Having someone who’s more skilled, more determined, and more courageous than they are going first and say: “It’ll be okay, follow me”. You must master the fundamentals of the business you’re in, the functions you perform, and the process of managing people.

WINNING: The winning Principal has trained his mind to win against benchmarks as well as against opponents in all phases of life. What benchmarks? All kinds. In business, if you have a quota, beat it. If you have a budget, underspend it. If you have a financial target, exceed it. If you bring that attitude to your work, a constant striving to beat the benchmark, you will find yourself developing the essential tools of competitive advantage that you’ll need to win always. Continually find new ways of winning.

 SKILLS: I want to talk about three – communication, prioritization, and strategic thinking. All of them require techniques that you can develop over time across a broad spectrum of competence, ranging from bland mediocrity to black-belt mastery.

 

 DATA-DRIVEN COMMUNICATION/ DATA CENTRIC PRINCIPAL

If you want to run the show someday and run it well, you had better learn to think (gather & analyze data), write, and speak, in that order – clearly, forcefully, concisely, and to the point. You can learn how to do that. At the Africa Great Principals Academy, we teach people to do data-driven communication. We think it expands a Principal’s capacity enormously if he/she communicates with vital statistics. 

 

SETTING PRIORITIES/ PRESS THE NEED FOR SPEED

Speed has been a fundamental characteristic of the Covid-19 pandemic- the virus hit fast, sending much of the world into lockdown, organizations reacted rapidly, adopting remote-work models, switch to e-learning by schools, and speeding up decision making with surprising velocity. For long-term resilience, Principals must be able to answer five questions:

1. What kind of demand shift should we expect (for learning & professions of the future), and how do we get ready for it?
2. How do we incorporate new ways of learning/ working to enhance productivity and health?
3. How do we get the most value out of school real estate or brick and mortar schools?
4. How can we reimagine capital allocation to promote resilience in our learning environment?
5. What broader role should school play in their communities?

 

STRATEGIC THINKING

It is easier for certain kinds of principals to formulate a losing strategy with great zeal. These are principals who have a superficial knowledge of the facts of their school, a misguided view of the strength of their competition, or a limited understanding of the options available to them. Good strategic thinking begins with superior knowledge of the market and a clear understanding of the critical issue in each situation. The ideal 21^st – Century Principal must engage in field research; do the SWOT analysis of their own school and other schools before taking any major decision, before spending money or developing a schools’ improvement and development plan.

 

PERSONAL GROWTH

Only lifelong learners can win in the 21^st- century. A lifelong learner is someone who keeps acquiring new skills and capabilities well past their formal education years.  It consists of personal development and professional development.

 

CHARACTER

Education without character is no education. Just a few comments on personal character – traits that you can work to develop as you grow and learn to win as a Principal.

 

I’m not going to sermonize on the importance of honesty, ethics, respect and obedience to the law. I’d like to talk about just two elements of personal character that can make you a winning Principal: a) social intelligence and b) Trust.

 

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE

“You can have great academic intelligence and still lack social intelligence – the ability to be a good listener, to be sensitive towards others, to give and take criticism well. People with high social intelligence admit their mistakes, take their share of the blame and move on. They know how to build team support”.

 TRUST

Trust is a character trait that does not come easily to many people, believe it or not. But I believe that winning principals inherently trust the judgement, competence and integrity of their subordinates. They treat every worker fairly; if not, it makes them look dishonest. Fairness means you’ll play by the same rules as everyone else. Trust is built mainly on three things: honesty, fairness & good judgement.  A winning Principal lead leader, while losers lead the followers. 

 

Losing principals, on the other hand, are often inherently distrustful of the judgement, competence or integrity of their people, and they inevitably transmit that feeling, much to their own detriment and to the detriment of the enterprise.

 

LEARN TO WIN

Success in management is a win/lose process, and you have to learn how to become a winning Principal. It’s not something that most people just get out of bed and do. It all begins with attitude, striving to attain professionalism and embracing winning as a way of life.

 

Winning requires intense efforts to develop acquired skills, particularly strategic skills which are not always well taught. Finally, don’t ignore the development of your personal life thus far. The world of business will bring new stresses and new interpersonal relationships into your life, and unless you happen to be perfect, you’re going to have to work on yourself as you grow.

 

Joseph Ayodele, BSc, MBA, CMC, FAPCI, FIMC 

Director-General, African Principals Conference

[email protected]; +234(0)8023308188

 

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