Building an Identity as an AP/Dean
Accomplish your goals without burning out.
In this article, Baruti Kafele offers two key insights for becoming the AP/Dean you want to be:
1. Protect your leadership experience. Kafele emphasizes how significantly our experiences influence our leadership and provide a foundation and frame of reference. He reminds us to remember both positive and negative moments—he shares the experience as an AP of being asked by his principal at the last minute to make 100 copies of a 70-page handbook that took him the entire weekend. He “protects” that experience as a reminder of how not to treat people.
For reflection:
- How are you using your previous experiences to enhance your leadership?
- How are you using your previous experiences to inform your current decision making?
- How are you using your previous experiences to frame your current leadership practices?
- How are you using your previous experiences to enhance your leadership?
- How are you protecting your experiences as a leader?
2. Protect your leadership work ethic. Kafele discusses being an “unapologetic workaholic” because he did not know better. He reflects on having associated the hours he worked with his value even though he admits to not always working smarter, but harder. Experience has taught him to “recognize, acknowledge, and use the talents of the people around [him] and reduce [his] time in the building by 30 to 40 hours per week.”
For reflection:
- In your assistant principal capacity, how many hours are you putting in each day and week?
- Are you putting in hours on the weekend as well? If so, how many hours?
- In what ways are you using the human capital around you?
- Have you contributed to the culture of your school in ways that make staff willing to do more?
- Is your work ethic productive for your school?
- How do you go about protecting your work ethic?
Discuss the above questions in your mentoring partnership. How do you each protect your leadership experience and your work ethic?