First Principalship

As a leader, how 'authentic' are you?

The staff's reaction to me and to my way of leading was largely negative, and my newness contributed to my own uncertainty.  I began to believe I would need traits other than the ones I had, in addition to all the competencies I needed to master as a principal.  To veil my uncertainty, I thought I needed to present myself as having an assurance that I frankly didn't yet have.  I thought I needed to act "as if" until I got there.  I sought to become a principal they would respect and value, yet I wasn't sure how to do this.  I mistakenly had confused being nonauthoritarian with being authentic, but authenticity does not mean abdicating authority.  In addition, being authentic was even more of a challenge when so many people had their own, different expectations about what I should do and be.

I knew who I was as a person, but I needed to learn what it meant to be authentic as a principal.  It would not work to define my leadership by the traits other people had used to define their leadership.  I would be an authentic leader only if I used the attributes I already had to become the principal I aspired to be.  With the help of mentors and other allies, I found the support I needed to once again feel and display the self-confidence I had had before becoming a principal.  I was moving closer to true authenticity as a leader, which required claiming the authority of my own experience, claiming my own thoughts and feelings, and sharing them.

From:  Are you Sure you're the Principal by Susan Villani
Published by: Corwin Press