Foundation #3: Commit to Excellence

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 third foundation, Commit to Excellence, refers to following through on your plans and getting results.

All educational leaders hope that their schools provide the best education possible for their students. Yet we’ve all heard which road is paved with good intentions.

Hope and enthusiasm are not enough to move schools beyond where they are today; instead, leaders must commit to find accurate markers of progress and take action based on those markers.

While excellence does not necessarily mean perfection, leaders must demonstrate through their words and actions that inferiority is unacceptable. 

Author and leadership consultant Michael Hyatt discusses the importance of setting goals in the “discomfort zone.” He says that individual and organizational goals should be challenging, yet realistic and attainable goals.

Goals that are too easy to attain are not motivating, and goals that are unattainable cause frustration and are quickly forgotten. Leaders who strive for excellence should keep this in mind when planning next steps for themselves and for their schools.

Of course, committing to excellence requires a clear vision of the end result–think Covey’s habit “Begin with the End in Mind”–but it is also vital to set up benchmarks along the way to measure progress.

Big goals that take several months or years to complete should be divided into shorter, more actionable goals. School and district leaders should be adept at assigning specific tasks and deadlines to projects that will ultimately lead to attaining the big goals.

If excellence is demanded in the small tasks, then excellence will be ensured for the big goals. 

In order to stay on track and not have to make drastic course corrections, educational leaders should have sufficient data to monitor their progress and to guide their decisions.

When I became a principal, some of my first data conversations were met with confusion. I would ask about a certain student’s academic progress, and the teachers would talk about how good that student’s behavior was in class.

I finally got the point across to my teachers by saying intentionally:

Data means numbers. We have to put a number on it so we can measure it.

Isn’t that always the case?

Most people who have ever had success losing weight have tracked numbers, whether by counting calories, counting carbs, running or walking a certain number of miles, or taking a certain number of steps every day. And the weight loss is measured by stepping on a scale.

A student’s grade is based on a percentage of correct or completed work for the term.

Tracking the right numbers and measuring progress toward specific targets is the quickest way to achieve excellence.

While setting goals and measuring data is important for excellence, another component of this foundation is to feel the progress being made.

Did you or your team hit an important milestone toward a big goal? Celebrate your win. Shout it from the rooftops!

Did you fail to hit your target? Mourn your loss, find out what went wrong, adjust your next goal, and try again. 

A former colleague once joked that “only an insane person would stake his career on the performance of a bunch of teenagers on a basketball court.” Yet many teachers and coaches are able to get consistently good results from their students and teams.

These educators have learned not only how to manage the data, but also how to reach their kids’ hearts to bring out their best efforts. 

Committing to excellence means more than setting and achieving personal or professional goals. It also means encouraging others to set their own goals, working with others to set team and organizational goals, holding others accountable and being held accountable for hitting your targets, and celebrating wins and mourning losses together as a team.

The best leaders understand that excellence is not achieved in a vacuum, but instead is found when everyone works together toward a common goal.

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!