Whether you are new to the job or you’ve been managing schools for years, it can get very overwhelming keeping up with the hectic schedule of a school administrator.  These 3  effective school management techniques are industry worthy and they are guaranteed to help the busiest principals and school heads keep things under control:

1. Delegate. Delegate

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do – Jessica Jackley

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According to educationworld’s Principal Files, delegation is one of the key solutions to school management. As a rule of thumb every leader should know how to delegate. This means a school administrator must know that not all tasks are his/her alone to perform. It takes a lot of practice to work out just which tasks to delegate and to whom. Most administrators already practice this in some form but there are 2 common mistakes even the best of us make while delegating:

• You do not encourage group responsibility: It may seem like a good idea to just delegate away but it can easily backfire if everybody starts to think the other person’s job is not their problem. By encouraging group responsibility, each member of the team may be responsible for carrying out a task, but the whole team is held accountable.

• You don’t play according to strengths: Know your team. It is impossible to delegate efficiently when you do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of members of staff. It’s much easier when you put people in charge of areas that are their strong suits.

2. Go Digital

There is a reason Concordia University blog listed this among their top 5 time saving skills for school principals. Technology is not just a ‘trend’. It can be harnessed as a life changing tool that you can use to improve the running of your institution. Find out what new tools your competitors are using or even schools that you aspire to be like and adopt those that would most benefit you. Encourage your staff to also become technology savvy for these two very important reasons.

Read these 7 signs to see if your school is in need of a management solution.

3. Change your hiring policy

This third secret can make all the difference: Hire qualified staff! They are much easier to manage and ironically, they require less management. Set the standards early on for the kind of teachers and staff you want to work with. If you get it right, they should be people you can trust to make decisions without your constant input.  This is one of the surest ways to make your job as an administrator less of a nightmare.

Whatever you do, don’t forget that even the most competent staff need regular training; including yourself.

Check out more time management tips from other principals and school heads here and here.

What other changes have you made that improved the running of your school, as a teacher or administrator? Feel free to share them in the comments.

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