Superior school administrators exert positive leadership characteristics in working with people, and strive continually to

develop and strengthen the following traits:

1. COURAGE. It takes a great deal of courage to be a superior administrator. The administrator must do the best for the most.

Administrators must be able to take criticism from their board of education and the public. Criticism goes with any superior

administrator’s job. We administrators need feedback, and should admit it when we are wrong. But when we are right, we should keep going. Without courage, there is no strength.

2. DECISIVEN ESS. Superior administrators cultivate the ability to make decisions and announce them in plenty of time. We must communicate our decisions and back them, while scrutinizing their effects.

3. DEPENDABILITY. In any school system, no job will be accomplished on time and in a professional manner unless the administrator sets the tone. Superior administrators set the tone for educational leadership and statesmanship; they have impact on people. Thus adminis-trators must be dependable and strive to accomplish goals on time.

4. ENDURANCE. Superior school administrators must have mental and physical stamina. Each person has different levels of stamina and endurance; administrators should understand their own and others’ stamina levels.Superior administrators have very few bad days. (Superior administrators can not afford to have bad days.) Thus successful administrators take care of themselves. They get plenty of rest and exercise regularly.

5. ENTHUSIASM. Superior adminis-trators are sincerely interested in being adminis-trators. They feel good about themselves. They look for opportunities. They look for problems in order to make opportunities. Enthusiasm requires … PEP.

P = Perspective (use people in the entire school system;

E = Enthusiasm (administrators must be enthusiastic about their professional duties and responsibilities);

P = Purpose (we must have a definite purpose.)

6. INITIATIVE. Superior adminis-trators look and see what needs to be done and they do it. They do not wait, they act!

7. INTEGRITY. Do people know where you stand as an administrator? The quality that is most cherished and important in a superior

administrator is integrity.

8. JUDGMENT. Superior adminis-trators logically weigh facts and possible solutions, laying the groundwork on which to base sound

judgments.

9. IMPARTIAL AND CONSISTENT. Superior administrators treat everyone the same. This is very hard to do. The administrator must be very sensitive to people’s needs.Administrators must be able to discern and have the courage to make exceptions. Superior administrators make these exceptions known to others.

10. LOYALTY. Superior adminis-trators must be utterly loyal. Professional gossip is a villain, and the good administrator must have

the courage to stop it. Gossip kills enthusiasm, initiative, team work, and cooperation.

11. SENSITIVITY. Superior school administrators must be sensitive to all the different pressure and special interest groups.

12. KNOWLEDGE. Superior school administrators keep current. They take part in professional improvement and development programs, attend conferences regularly, and successfully relate theory to practice and practice to theory. They search for new ideas, and are open to change.

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Taken from an article by William A. Kristsonis. Kritsonis, assistant professor in Louisiana State University’s department of administrative and foundational services in the College of Education, has worked as superintendent, principal, field director, and teacher.

– William A. Kristsonis