always have an ambition to create something new rather than following an already made things.

1. What Makes A Good Principal / Headmaster?
A good Principal is someone who is successful in getting the teachers, staff, students and parents to honour
them to achieve or exceedtheir School’s common goals. All good Principals possess the same or similar
traits and behaviors, such as passion, authenticity and a grand vision, to name a few. Now, possessing
these traits or behaviors doesn't guarantee success - but they do go a long way towards making success
more inevitable.
Basically, most of leadership comes from living. In the rest of this article, I will focus on defining what a
good Principal is and the type of leadership that is required in order for Schools to be successful and
sustain themselves over time.
1. Good Principals are primarily defined by what they do, not by the role they have been assigned. This is
important because leadership is about role modeling and accomplishment, not position assignment.
Common personality traits of good Principals are:
- Trustworthy - Confident - Intuitive - Visionary - Risk tolerant - Flexible
- Proactive - Empathetic - Able to develop good relationships
- Can be charismatic - High in emotional intelligence
2. A good Principal is respected for the consistency of their behaviours from day to day. They gain their
staff trust by doing what they say they will do, when they say they will do it. Good Principals are:
- Able to look at the School strategically in order to set its vision, mission, goals and objectives
- Effective at communicating these aspects so that others can fully understand their value
- Effective at communicating their values
- A guide to their subordinates in setting their own goals - and hold them accountable
- Able to influence and motivate their staff to higher levels of performance
- Adept at changing these methods depending on the person, the task at hand and the way the staff and
students responds to the Principal
Lastly, the quality of the relationship effective Principals have with their staff and students will help
determine how much they are able to influence and motivate them. And how willing the staffs, students
and parents are to perform up to the Principal's expectations.
3. Successful Principals earn the respect and trust of their staff, students and parents by:
- Getting to know each individual and learn what motivates each of them
- Always helping them to achieve their goals
- Knowing how to use the appropriate reward and consequence systems, depending on each of them and
the outcomes required
- Using their School resources to influence the School culture and ultimately, their receptiveness
4. As the Principal earns respect, trust and is able to influence their staff, students and parents will
naturally begin to buy into the Principal's vision. When all of them buy into the Principal's vision:
- They work harder and longer to achieve their shared goals
- They evidence an increased level of engagement and commitment
These are the things that enable good Principals to become great leaders. Great leaders recognize that the
key to their success rests with the quality of the commitment of their staff, students and parents.
There are good Principals who have had leadership "thrust" upon them - and succeeded- and others
whilst it was thought would be good - that ultimately fail. These Principals may or may not have some of
the inborn leadership traits I have mentioned.
However, their success is probably the result of a couple of things:
1. They have offset their lack of inborn leadership traits by learning and practicing leadership behaviors
2. The situation they are in will dictate whether or not they are successful - i.e. does the Principal employ
the right resources at the right time, the right management support, the right staff, etc