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From building managers to strategic leaders

Lessons from our Principal Leadership Professional Development Series

August 19, 2025, By Sadé Young, Director, K-12 Research Partner Engagement & Success

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K-12 Education

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This past winter, I had the opportunity to lead a new professional development series designed specifically for principals and school leaders. The goal was simple but ambitious: to help principals move from operational managers to strategic leaders.

This series wasn’t built in a vacuum. It was grounded in EAB research, which identified 16 best practices for equipping principals with the skills most critical to school improvement—from root cause analysis and data-driven planning to interpersonal leadership and time prioritization. Until now, much of our work focused on central office leaders. This was our first offering for principals themselves, created to build the very competencies our research said mattered most.

Across four sessions, we tackled what it takes to lead school-wide progress. Too often, professional learning for principals focuses on compliance or logistics. We took a different approach—developing the strategic and interpersonal skills that help leaders drive meaningful change with clarity, collaboration, and purpose. Principals learned to diagnose challenges using root cause analysis, navigate barriers to implementation, lead intentional change, and foster trust through compassionate leadership.

Strategic leadership is a skill—here’s how principals build it

The link between effective school leadership and better student outcomes is clear. Great principals drive teacher retention, improve instructional quality, and shape positive school culture. But the most important traits of effective school leaders—like strategic thinking and intrapersonal skills—are rarely taught in principal prep programs, which instead emphasize technical requirements and compliance checklists.

The truth is, most principals step into complex roles without the dedicated time or support needed to develop the high-leverage leadership skills their schools depend on. That gap is exactly what this Principal Leadership PD series set out to address.

What resonated most: Strategy and compassion in action

Across the four sessions, participants consistently pointed to two experiences as game-changers: our deep dive into Root Cause Analysis and the practical tools offered in our Compassionate Leadership session.

Root Cause Analysis

One of the biggest shifts we aim to make is helping principals move from reactive problem-solvers to strategic thinkers. That shift begins with how they approach challenges in their schools, starting with the questions they ask and the evidence they rely on to guide their decisions.

Take a common scenario: a school is experiencing declining math proficiency, and the leadership team suspects it’s due to ineffective instruction. They respond with new coaching cycles and curriculum tweaks. But six months later, scores barely budge. Why? Because ineffective instruction wasn’t the root cause—it was a symptom. The real issue was inconsistent student attendance in key math classes, especially among a subgroup of students who were frequently pulled for interventions.

This is where Root Cause Analysis becomes essential. While many leaders use the language of RCA, few apply it with fidelity. Too often, teams identify a list of potential causes but stop short of testing or disproving them. Our process teaches leaders to go further—to examine each hypothesis using data and evidence, rule out false leads, and zero in on the one cause within their control that will make the biggest difference.

The outcome? Clearer priorities, more targeted interventions, and less wasted time. One principal shared that RCA helped their team stop spinning their wheels and instead focus their energy where it would actually move outcomes. That kind of disciplined, reflective leadership is what turns school improvement from theory into practice. And it is a skill we can teach.

Compassionate Leadership

Despite the name, this wasn’t a feel-good session. It was a practical one. We focused on what it truly means to lead with empathy in a high-pressure role without burning out. Principals often carry the emotional weight of their entire school community. Compassionate leadership doesn’t mean saying yes to everything or absorbing every problem. It means putting empathy into action by setting boundaries, restoring trust, and channeling resistance into collaboration.

Two tools sparked especially strong reactions:

1.Perspective-Taking Framework
This tool goes beyond the age-old advice to “walk in someone else’s shoes.” It gives leaders a structure for doing just that by prompting them to analyze a situation through another person’s lens using specific, guiding questions:

What might this person be feeling, fearing, or prioritizing in this moment?
What pressures or constraints are they facing that I might not see?
How might my decision affect their day-to-day work?

One SI noted that using this framework helped balance their leadership team’s thinking. They realized the group often over-relied on operational logic and under-leveraged emotional awareness. This tool created space for both and improved their team’s ability to anticipate how changes would land with staff and students.

2.Complaint Translator
This tool helps leaders move past surface-level frustrations to understand what’s really being communicated. Participants learned to reframe complaints as insight:

“No one tells us anything” might mean “We’re craving transparency.”
“This won’t work” could mean “I’ve seen a version of this fail before, and I don’t want to be burned again.”

The exercise helps leaders stop taking complaints at face value and start hearing what’s behind them. It’s a mindset shift from managing negativity to mining it for information that can lead to better decisions and stronger relationships.

What this means for districts

For superintendents looking to better support their principals, here’s the big takeaway: The qualities we associate with effective school leadership—like strategic thinking, time management, and trust-building—are rooted in skills that can be learned and strengthened with the right support.

This PD series was built to do exactly that. It gives principals the space to practice analyzing complex challenges, leading teams through change, communicating decisions clearly, and modeling empathy under pressure. One principal shared that after applying the root cause process, their team stopped chasing surface-level fixes and instead made one meaningful change: redesigning staff schedules to improve intervention time. It took time and courage, but it directly addressed a persistent challenge and created lasting impact.

At EAB, we help superintendents and their teams grow their leadership capacity. That often means adopting new decision-making approaches or rethinking how leadership teams tackle persistent challenges, such as building trust with skeptical stakeholders. While the work is not always easy, it is guided, intentional, and rooted in what works.

If you are thinking about how to strengthen strategic leadership in your district next year, fill out the form below or reach out directly at [email protected].

We would love to support the work ahead.