As an aspiring administrator, building positive relationships with all school stakeholders will guide your reputation and set you apart from other administrators. The respect that you garner from others will allow you the possibility to make significant change within the school community and to be a positive example for all to follow.

Positive relationship building needs to start today! If you have colleagues where the relationship is not that strong due to past grievances or circumstances, find a way to mend those bridges and move forward. Being able to do that today will give you the experience and confidence to do it again in the future. I can almost guarantee, that as an administrator, you will have multiple opportunities to mend broken relationships and find ways to work together and do what is best for the school.

Administrators need to build and maintain positive relationship with students, teachers, parents, staff, the school board, and the greater community. This is not always easy as mistakes will be made, opinions will be varied, and confrontation will be had. All of these different groups, within a school community, will require various needs and a quality administrator will work tirelessly to support all groups while staying firm to the school’s philosophy and mission. If you stay true to your beliefs, are service oriented, genuinely want what is best for the students, and apologize when necessary…you are well on your way to bringing positive change and fully supporting the school community.

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Another aspect of relationships for aspiring administrators to consider is how your current relationships with colleagues will change once you become an administrator.

Moving from a teacher to an administrator within your own school can carry significant advantages. Knowing both the school and the community limits the transition time and can enable you to make a significant change in a shorter amount of time. However, along with this comes the complication of current relationships with staff and how this might impact your new role. Teachers will inevitably view you differently and conversations will change. They will be watching you closely to see how you interact with others, if you play favorites (either with people of curriculum areas), and even how you carry yourself outside of school. The conversations you may have once had with these colleagues about the problems within the school, over a beverage at the local establishment, will need to change.

This is not to say that you can no longer go out and spend time with colleagues (I would actually strongly encourage you to do so and to maintain these relationships), but you will need to be more intentional about your actions. These relationships that you have built can be extremely supportive in your new role, but at the same time they can also be detrimental if these people begin to question your integrity and commitment to the greater good of the school. Colleagues will recognize your new role and will understand, and even appreciate, the responsibility and change that comes along with it.