Foundation #1: Bring Your Best

This article is a selection from the introduction of the new book, Five Foundations for Great School Leadership, available on June 30. Click here to preorder your digital copy on Amazon Kindle!

The first foundation, Bring Your Best, is all about planning and preparation. 

New principals are required to complete certain requirements before taking an administrative role at a school: hold a Master’s degree, pass the School Leadership Assessment or another required exam, and receive training and support from district personnel. 

However, the best educational leaders go beyond these minimum requirements and meticulously prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.

Before taking any journey, leaders should have a roadmap of where to go, and they should understand what it takes to get there.

Without a clear plan, you and your school will wander aimlessly and will never achieve at your highest level.

In Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the first three habits are Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First. Covey groups these habits together to form what he calls the personal victory–mastery over oneself to lay a foundation for success in the public sphere.

In order for leaders to bring their best, they must act in accordance with Covey’s first three habits.

Thinking ahead, setting goals, and prioritizing tasks and responsibilities are key components of an educational leader’s success.

Understanding the different hats you will wear throughout any given day–manager, disciplinarian, coach, colleague, spouse, parent, friend–will help you to be prepared for whatever situation arises.

Bringing your best does not mean you have to perform at 100% capacity every single day.

Some days your best may be to complete a crucial task, bring your email inbox down to zero unread messages, and have meaningful conversations with a large number of teachers and students.

Bringing your best for teachers may look like completing all of their grading and making five positive parent phone calls; your students who bring their best may show up with their homework and have a great attitude. 

Other days, your best may be to just show up in the morning and be present. The same is true for teachers and students. 

Different people are going to have different levels of “best,” and results are not the only indicator.

Take the teacher who helps a student wrestle with a concept for hours before he finally understands it, and compare her with the teacher who teaches a student who breezes through the lesson and gets it on the first try. Perhaps both teachers brought their best that day. Every situation is different. 

Bringing your best also means employing high-leverage strategies to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. In other words, you won’t be able to perform at your best if you are not organized. 

Organization is a developmental skill that must be taught at certain stages throughout life.

A five year old may be able to sort objects and help with some chores, but don’t expect a five year old to keep an organized homework binder without lots of help from a parent or teacher.

A high school student may be able to keep an organized binder, but she may have difficulty managing the time needed for academics, after school sports and activities, and an active social life.

Educational leaders must be highly organized in order to perform all of their job functions effectively, and they also must teach others organizational skills. 

Bringing your best means increasing your capacity in the essential areas that matter for success.

There is a reason that the best athletes are able to win consistently over time–they train and practice to perform at the top level.

The highest-scoring students on college entrance exams do not take the ACT or SAT only once. Instead, they take multiple practice tests and sign up for testing dates as often as they can. 

You and the people you lead can increase your level of “best” through training and practice.

Any skill can be improved, whether that’s reading fluency, shooting free throws, public speaking, or having crucial conversations.

In order to bring your best to every situation, you must constantly raise the bar for yourself, for the people you influence, and for your organization. 

Want to read more about the Five Foundations? Learn more in Five Foundations for Great School Leadership, available on June 30, 2025.

Click here to preorder on Amazon Kindle!