The experience I gained from studying beyond my job titles in the past prepared me for the work. However, what I had to learn was far beyond just curriculum. I walked into a situation in which I had to learn how to lead inexperienced directors, build relationships with people that perceived me as an “outsider” and take a district that was taken over by the state through state accreditation.

As I worked in this new role, I learned so much. District leaders have the global view of what our students need and the practices, activities and resources they must provide to fulfill the needs. The thinking might be ….If our students have this need, what might their teachers need? If our teachers have this need then what might our school leaders need? If our school leaders have this need, what might our administrators need? The reflection questions assist with the writing of the District Strategic Plan.

Administrators determine what is needed at the school level to align with the district goals. However, most administrators that I’ve worked with understood alignment of expectations and would even use the language within their planning with school level staff however they struggled with the actual depth of the work. This revelation helped me to develop my mental model of my work with them which started with building relationships. School level administrators had to see me as a team member in order to release external locus of control to become vulnerable enough to receive my support. They had to also view me as a person with no hidden agenda and as truly invested in what was best for students. Once I took the time to establish all of those basic but needed steps, administrators saw me as a partner within their “think tank”. They saw me as a person that would not just nod and grin because they were the principal but as a person that was a strategic partner that empowered them to become the leaders in which they needed that support in becoming.

Again, the wealth of knowledge I acquired from learning educational pedagogy prepared me for acquiring the position. However it was not about me, the “leader”. The lessons I learned was more about relationships necessary for “leading” leaders as they developed skills necessary for fulfilling the district’s goals.