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20 Biggest Mistakes Principals Make and How to Avoid Them - Book Cover

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Bestseller!

20 Biggest Mistakes Principals Make and How to Avoid Them

By: Marilyn L. Grady

Learn to navigate the principalship by avoiding the major roadblocks that can arise along the way! Don't let bad decisions and unnecessary oversights ruin your school day—or worse, your career! By surveying both teachers and administrators, and applying her own experiences as both a teacher and principal, Grady examines the crucial errors from the following seven key categories:

People Skills—managing interpersonal relationships
People—working with staff and parents
Principal—examining professional behaviors inherent in the position
Job—juggling time demands and heavy workloads
Tasks—looking more closely at administrative duties
Personal Issues—focusing on family and health
Fatal Attractions—addressing judgment errors that can be disastrous for your career

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9780761946014
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2004
Page Count: 144
Publication date: January 08, 2004

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Description

"The information presented is true to life; school principals will see themselves on every page. The strategies presented to 'fix' or avoid our mistakes really do work! You don't have to be a new principal to benefit from this one."
Kaye Peery, Superintendent
Maxwell Municipal Schools, NM

"I wish this book had been written many years ago to help me with my first principal's position. It is an indispensable resource for new and seasoned principals to avoid the pitfalls of administration."
Ron Joekel, Executive Director Emeritus
Phi Delta Kappa International

Learn to navigate the principalship by avoiding the major roadblocks that can arise along the way!

Don't let bad decisions and unnecessary oversights ruin your school day—or worse, your career! Marilyn Grady examines the twenty most critical mistakes principals make, and provides the strategies you need to avoid them. By surveying both teachers and administrators, and applying her own experiences as both teacher and a principal, the author examines the crucial errors from the following seven key categories:

People Skills—managing interpersonal relationships and communication
People—working with staff and parents Principal—examining professional behaviors inherent in the position
Job—juggling time demands and heavy workloads
Tasks—looking more closely at administrative duties
Personal Issues—focusing on family and health
Fatal Attractions—addressing judgment errors that can be disastrous for your career

While everyone makes mistakes, you'll have the crucial insight needed to avoid the biggest ones!

Key features

We are capitalizing on the success of Orange's book, so we should consider packaging them together, emulating the Orange marketing plans (for the appropriate audience), and using the Orange buyers list to market this title.

Author(s)

Marilyn L. Grady

Marilyn L. Grady, is professor of educational administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). She is the author or coauthor of 23 books, including From Difficult Teachers to Dynamic Teamwork (2009) with Brock, Getting it Right from the Start (2009) with Kostelnik From First Year to First Rate (2007) with Brock, 194 High-Impact Letters for Busy Principals (2006), 20 Biggest Mistakes Principals Make and How to Avoid Them (2004) and Launching Your First Principalship (2004) with Brock. Her research areas include leadership, the principalship, and superintendent-board relations. She has more than 175 publications to her credit. She is the editor of the Journal of Women in Educational Leadership. Her editorial board service has included Educational Administration Quarterly, International Studies in Educational Administration, International Journal of Learning, Rural Educator, Journal of At-Risk Issues, Journal of School Leadership, Advancing Women in Leadership On-Line Journal, Journal for Rural School and Community Renewal, International Journal of Learning, and Journal for a Just and Caring Education. She is the recipient of the Stanley Brzezinski Research Award, NCPEA’s Living Legend Award, the Donald R. and Mary Lee Swanson Award for Teaching Excellence, UNL’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and UNL’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Status of Women.

Grady coordinates an annual conference on women in educational leadership that attracts national attendance and is in its 24thyear. She has been an administrator in K-12 schools as well as at the college and university levels. She received her bachelor’s degree in history from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and her doctorate in educational administration with a specialty in leadership from The Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

About the Author

I. The People Skills

Mistake 1: Interpersonal Shortcomings

Mistake 2: Communication Flaws

II. The People

Mistake 3: Neglecting the Professionals

Mistake 4: Mismanaging Parents

III. The Principal

Mistake 5: Being Too Bossy

Mistake 6: Inconsistency

Mistake 7: Displaying Weakness

IV. The Job

Mistake 8: Endless Work

Mistake 9: Mismanaging Time

V. Tasks

Mistake 10: Ignoring the Preparation

Mistake 11: Displacing Goals

Mistake 12: Decision-Making Dilemmas

Mistake 13: Change Dilemmas

Mistake 14: Professional Development Vacuum

Mistake 15: Failing to Supervise

VI. Personal Issues

Mistake 16: Forgetting the Family

Mistake 17: Ignoring Health Issues

Mistake 18: Succumbing to Stress

Mistake 19: Etiquette Gaffes

VII. Fatal Attractions

Mistake 20: Errors of Judgment

VIII. The Leader's Response

Response 1: Never to Err Again?

Response 2: Over the Horizon

Resource A: Building Visibility in the Community

Resource B: Verbal Skills Self-Assessment

Resource C: Principal Access Self-Assessment

Resource D: Principal Self-Assessment

References

Reviews

"The information presented is true to life; school principals will see themselves on every page. The strategies presented to 'fix' or avoid our mistakes really do work! You don't have to be a new principal to benefit from this one."

Kaye Peery, Superintendent
Maxwell Municipal Schools, NM

"I wish this book had been written many years ago to help me with my first principal's position. It is an indispensable resource for new and seasoned principals to avoid the pitfall of administration."

Ron Joekel, Executive Director Emeritus
Phi Delta Kapp International

“I quickly learned that the situations I faced were similar to other principals’ experiences. The answers to my dilemmas were based on common sense and experience such as the examples in this book.”

Barbara Marchese, Principal
St. Philip Neri School, Omaha, NE

"An excellent resource for principals to examine their effectiveness."

Principal Navigator, September 2007

Other Titles in: Principalship | Principal Mentoring, Induction & Coaching

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.