Leadership Impact—Your Leadership Identity, Mission, Purpose, and Vision

Is your school a better school because you lead it? Baruti Kafele delves into this question by breaking it down into a variety of reflective questions to help you gain clarity and insight into your impact as a leader—a great way to assess this school year and gear up for next! Working through these questions and the article in your mentoring partnership would be a powerful way to collaborate around strategies for increasing your effectiveness.

In an article in Educational Leadership, Kafele challenges us to think about our leadership identity, mission, purpose and vision (read the full article):

What is your identity?

What does your presence mean in the eyes of your students, staff, parents, and the community?

When your students and staff see or think of you, what comes to mind?

Does your leadership identity affect the climate, culture, and achievement in your school?

Is how you see yourself consistent with how others view you?

What, if any, shifts do you want to make in your identity as a principal moving into this next school year? What will that mean in terms of your leadership behaviors?

What is your mission (your what—what is your work about)?

With all that is on your plate, what's the one thing you feel you must absolutely accomplish? What is your plan—your next littlest thing?

What drives you above all else and keeps you up at night?

What is your leadership mission?

What is your purpose (your why—why do you do it)?

Why specifically do you do this work?

Why did you make the decision to lead a school?

What do you value and are you living in alignment with your values? (Your response to these questions helps surface values)

What brings you joy?

How do you spend your time?

With whom do you spend your time?

How do you spend your money?

What is your vision for leadership and for your school?

What have you learned this year? How has this learning brought you closer to your personal vision for leadership and for your school?

How will you improve and become more effective as a leader one year from today? How can the ISSL support your growth?

What will this improvement look like? 

Where will your school be in five years as a result of your direction?

To what heights will it rise because you are at the helm?

In what way will it distinguish itself from other schools?

Are you having the impact you want to have? How do you know?