Principal Development

Finding the right leaders for your school district is the first step toward success. But simply hiring a talented person for the role won't yield the greatest results. In order to make the most of your investment, you have to do something with those talents. That means building on what's right instead of what's wrong, and making the most of a leader's natural abilities.

The key to doing so is the Clifton StrengthsFinder, a Web-based talent assessment. Based on the belief that developing strengths is a more powerful and productive approach than remediating weaknesses, the Clifton StrengthsFinder helps aspiring administrators, assistant principals, and principals learn about their themes of talent and how to use them effectively in their leadership roles.

The Clifton StrengthsFinder also enables supervisors or other staff to provide efficient and effective developmental feedback about an individual's talents. Principals receive a report listing their top five themes of talent, or Signature Themes. Superintendents and central administrators can also opt to have their principals receive a full listing of their remaining 29 themes of talent and learn more about those themes. Equipped with this understanding, supervisors can work with aspiring or existing principals in new ways to improve individual and school-building performance.

Gallup's Education Practice offers several opportunities for discovering leaders' strengths, as well as helping them learn to leverage them to be more effective in their interactions with teachers and students, in their roles as mentors, and as change agents in improving school culture.

Principal development options include:

• Leading With Strengths, a two-part program designed to help principals and central office personnel know and leverage their strengths, then bring that same understanding to their teaching staff by creating a strengths-focused learning community.
• Exploring My Strengths offers participants in-depth learning about their unique talents. This one-day seminar is ideal for new or experienced teachers, and is also great for equipping mentors with greater understanding of themselves and their mentees.
• How Full Is Your Bucket? Workshops: Recognition is key to success in any workplace, especially in education. The best-selling book, How Full Is Your Bucket?, explores the theory of the dipper and the bucket as it relates to recognition. In the How Full Is Your Bucket Workshops, Gallup consultants present a one-day or half-day exploration of bucket-filling ideas to foster a positive work and learning environment. Gallup speakers are also available for keynote addresses on the important and timely How Full Is Your Bucket? message. Our speakers can present an inspiring, motivating talk to a large group as part of a development day or can provide a half-day seminar that includes workshop activities as well as the keynote address.

For more information about innovative ways to develop your principals, contact the Education Practice at 800.288.8592.