- Task Identification
- Show confidence in yourself and be willing to let others assume authority.
- Identify tasks appropriate for staff and beneficial to the school.
- Assume responsibility for tasks functionally limited to the principal (e.g. teacher evaluation).
- Maintain the symbolic leadership role (e.g. presenting important awards to
students and staff).
- Identification of Delegatees
- Identify delegatees appropriate for the task or tasks.
- Consider the stage of career development of the delegatee.
- View delegation assignments as staff development as well as task
accomplishment.
- Delegate tasks to the level nearest the action or concern (e.g. to teachers,
vice-principal or support staff).
- Authority and Responsibility
- Delegate authority sufficient to accomplish the mission.
- Accept different approaches or different conclusions.
- Specify the limits of delegatee authority.
- Clarify delegatee accountability to the principal.
- Support and Feedback
- Make available necessary resources (e.g. information, time, money, equipment, support services, facilities).
- Provide training.
- Maintain active interest and seek feedback.
- Make the school and community aware of the delegatees and their mission.
- Participation and Autonomy
- Facilitate task accomplishment without interfering in the delegatees’ work.
- Involve other individuals or groups in decisions as the work evolves.
- Maintain active communication with delegatees.
- Accountability
- Plan the review and reporting process for the delegated task/project.
- Focus on results rather than process.
- Exhibit confidence in delegatees.
- Tailor the level of accountability to the experience of delegatee and
significance of task.
- Assessment
- Assess participant performance.
- Act on task results.
- Recognize accomplishments of individuals and groups.
- Organize closure activity as appropriate.
(Source: Principals for Our Changing Schools, Knowledge and Skill Base, S. Thompson, pp. 7–15)
Decide What You Are Not Going to Do
The principal’s job is to ensure that essential things get done, not to do them all himself or herself.
What’s Worth Fighting For in the Principalship, M. Fullan, p. 36