Education columnist for the Washington Post recently created “7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals” based on the paper by University of Minnesota school leadership scholar Joe Nathan who studies what makes great leaders in schools and companies.

Here is the list:

1. Insist on being trained at one of our leading schools of education.
2. When you become a principal, make sure you keep your goals to yourself and avoid mission statements at all costs.
3. Fight the current fad to assess students regularly. It is intrusive and insulting to teachers.
4. Crack down on mistakes.
5. Don’t let teachers meet regularly to talk about students and share ideas. They will only gossip and plot against you.
6. Inspiration is for saps. Your staff must know you’re their boss, not their preacher.
7. Whatever you do, don’t try to select and train a successor.

The most important habits on that list, in my opinion, are the ones of mission statements and inspiration. The really great leaders are able to inspire their people to overachieve because they believe in the mission and are willing to go above and beyond because they have a sense of purpose. Especially in a field like teaching, in which performance is tied to effort, being inspired can make a huge difference. Therefore it is much better to have a leader that is inspirational rather than intimidating.

Teacher Voices came up with some additional habits of ineffective principals

8. Bully and intimidate to get things done.
9. The more meetings the better.
10. Respond to the crisis of the moment…do not stay focused.
11. Use observation as punishment.
12. Provide teachers with lots of negative feedback.
13. Play favorites.
14. Avoid any suggestion that teachers are accountable.

Photo by James Jordan