School leader: Greg Whitby explains what it takes to be a good one

HERE’S a question for a reader’s poll: say the chief executive of the NRMA decided to embark on a career change and ended up as principal of a large school. Do you think she or he could do the job effectively?

Good leaders set clear goals and high expectations of teachers and students, accroding to Greg Whitby.

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HERE’S a question for a reader’s poll: say the chief executive of the NRMA decided to embark on a career change and ended up as principal of a large school. Do you think she or he could do the job effectively?

When parents think about makes a great school principal, it is often the visible personal qualities that they focus on — things like being a good ‘people person’, a good communicator and someone passionate and committed to education.

These are essential qualities but as we all know, just being a nice person doesn’t always guarantee that the person will be an effective school leader.

Leadership, like teaching, is highly relational. While these personal qualities are important an equally important aspect of the role of principal is the ability to lead the learning and instruction in schools. Good leaders must be able to ensure that teachers are working collaboratively, reflecting on practice and using data to inform their conversations about improving student learning.

Leadership, like teaching, is highly relational, Greg Whitby writes in this week’s column.

While the principal is not at the coalface of teaching all every day (many still teach classes regularly), their leadership does impact on the outcomes of students through what happens in classrooms, staffrooms and their engagement with the broader community.

Good leaders set clear goals and high expectations of teachers and students. These goals are made clear to everyone in the school community so everyone knows what students and teachers are working towards. Good school leaders are like good sports coaches: they inspire, motivate and encourage to ensure that everyone on the team is performing at his or her personal best in order to achieve common goals.

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While I would love to know how readers would respond to the poll question, bear in mind that like a good chief executive who can increase the value and reputation of the company, and deliver benefits to both customers and shareholders, a good school leader is one who raises the value of schooling and delivers improved outcomes to all students.

Greg Whitby is the executive director of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta. Follow him on Twitter @gregwhitby