Critical skill: Emotional Intelligence and being able to read the room. Another critical skill that coincides with EI is perspective, the ability to articulate another's point of view and to get others to do the same, often people look from their own limited perspective.
EI is the new leadership currency. I am always looking for leaders who demonstrate a high level of EI. The technical parts of f he job are learnable and repeatable. The human dynamic, perspective, empathy, compassion are the characteristics I’m seeing in great up and coming and inspiring leaders.
I consistently get a response saying that I did an excellent job in my interview and that they would have been completely comfortable offering me the position; however, there always seems to be one other candidate that has a slightly higher level of strength in one area or another. Example, I have a better presentation on discipline issues and communication, but another candidate is more qualified in instructional leadership or curriculum knowledge.
Coty, I totally understand. There are a ton of examples where you absolutely crush the interview and you know you’ve done well. There is another conversation that happens that you aren’t privy to and it is the internal group’s deliberations about what they need right now in that moment. This “second” conversation, the one you can’t control is where the hiring decision is made. Since you can’t control it…just always do your best to in the conversation you do control….your interview. Represent yourself best you can and let the rest play itself out.
Great take-aways! Gordon, you are such a gifted presenter. I honestly didn't realize how pumped up and excited I am at the prospect of landing the position I'm interviewing for soon. Thanks so much
Thoroughly enjoyed watching and learning from your video! Very informative! Adding these tools to my tool box! Thank you Dr. Amerson! Hope to update you with great news sooner than later that your insights elevated my interview!
I am so glad to hear that the episodes are helpful to you. Please keep us posted on your journey and also, thank you for helping us build our community. Much appreciated!
Don’t let that deter you…even the most gifted orators fumble over their words. Be sure to exude confidence and a passion for helping students. That will always help. Additionally, comprehensive prep of deconstructing the job description will give that sense of calm because you have prepared to tackle any question they might ask. The questions are always buried in the job description. 😊
I agree that what you mentioned are critical skills that you will need to leverage to be effective as a school leader. It is absolutely a best practice to develop a keen understanding of Board Policy but even sometimes more importantly…a deep level of knowledge surrounding the Union/Employee association contract. Remember school leaders are responsible for and empowered to enforce the provisions of the contract. Use it as a leadership tool.
A leadership quality that leaders should have, but is often overlooked is the ability to understand and affirm perspectives. Giving people the. space to share, but also add their own next step. People have to feel heard and add to the solution. Every initiative cannot come from the leader.
I couldn’t agree more. Leaders have to develop a maturity and a level of comfort to be able to let go a “control”. If the only person that can come up with a solution is the leader, then that leader has done a poor job of empowering others and that will cost the lead and the organization in the long run.
I am so glad to hear that the content/episode was helpful to you. Thanks for contributing to our growing community. Please do me a favor and let me know other topics or ideas you’d like me to cover or weigh in on. Thanks. Gordon
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is wonderful news. Please stay plugged into the channel and our resources so we can support your leadership as you move forward. 🎉
Biggest concern is another AP candidate having more experience in a sought out skill but having the professional strength to learn quickly once immersed in that skill/setting.
Thank you for the comment. In my experience, I deeply value the soft skills a candidate brings to the leadership interview. Sure there are some folks who may be highly skilled in a particular technical skill. But I care deeply about the soft skills a leadership candidate possesses because I am confident I can coach and mentor the technical skills but things like empathy, compassion, and resilience are skills that pay dividends for entire careers. Focus on fine tuning your EQ…it is your superpower. 😊
That’s definitely a critical skills. The ability to manage your calendar and the portfolio of responsibilities for an AP is essential. Thank you for sharing 😊
Hi. I totally understand. Interviewing is definitely a skill we get better at with practice. What specific areas of the interview do you need help with? Tell me more about the time aspect do the interview.
In a lot of your videos which are brilliant by the way you discuss what needs to be done but don't give a lot of details on how to actually carry those said things out. Maybe some real life examples would add value. The scenario based Qs is perfect. Give a couple of examples and how to tackle them as that's what most candidates struggle with. All the best with the channel. ✌🏼
Nima…I want to thank you for inspiring me. You gave me a great idea of how to link my current catalog of videos to new videos with deeper dives into specific strategies and ideas I’ve share before. This would include cover one key strategy along with examples and where applicable specific examples and stories of when I used that strategy in my own experience. I think this would address what you shared and allow me to share a lot more about what I’ve seen and experienced. Thank you so much!
My feedback has been to give concrete examples. I have added scenarios and how I problem-solved, but it doesn't seem to cut it. I am not sure if it is my face expression or body language or tone or the choice of words. Could you please help?
Hi Padma, I’d be happy to help. I am certain that you are improving with the strategies you are implementing in your interviews. I would stress to you that your breakthrough is not going to be on the technical level. I base that off of you sharing that you include scenarios, etc. to give your answers more breadth and context. So I think your next step is to go deeper into your mindset and overall how you are presenting yourself in the interview. Continue to explore my channel content as well as join my community (the link is in the pinned comment above). There are lots of tips and resources as well as opportunities for coaching and engagement with me directly. Wishing you the best and success in your next interview. We need good leaders with our scholars so let me know how I can continue to help you along in your journey.
Massive paperwork will definitely be a part of your work. Do your best to systematize how you deal with paper…build intentional calendar time to only deal with paperwork. Set a timer. If you give yourself 60 mins on the calendar. Do 4 15 minute periods (1st 15 - reading emails and responding, 2nd 15 - responding to teacher and staff written requests, 3rd 15 - reviewing classroom walkthrough and supervision notes, 4th 15 - completing district/county compliance paperwork) this structure will give you focused and intentional time to make progress on critical paperwork. But it won’t get you sucked into hours of paperwork and then you lose out on the opportunity to be in classrooms seeing instruction. Hope this gives you some insight and perspective.
Glad to hear that you are confident in the duties of the job! That’s a huge asset. I wouldn’t get too worried about not knowing the answer to every question. Focus on always getting the big ideas at the forefront of your mind. 1. How to provide quality instruction? 2. How to build an engaged and inviting classroom environment? 3. How you will be collaborative and contribute to the team environment? 4. How you will be an excellent communicator with all stakeholders both inside and outside of your classroom. From these big ideas hundreds of questions can emerge but if you have a clear picture of these ideas you should be able to answer numerous potential questions that are asked. Hope this helps. 😊
@@cartig9051 Absolutely! They are still relevant. But definitely check out some other videos on the channel for more samples. Additionally, I have some more episodes in the pipeline that will give more information about relevant questions for interviews right now.
Tawnya. That is a common fear…so I totally understand. There are 2 strategies I’ll offer. 1. Focus your attention whenever you can on relevant experiences that you do have and can highlight. Additionally, if you have tangential experience for example, serving as a department chair or grade level lead who may have given input or feedback to the master schedule lead is another way to address the question. 2. For areas that you know are important to the organization, ask for opportunity to help with the design or completion of that task. This will build your experience in areas you want to grow in. This strategy may not help immediately but is another way to build your knowledge and experience.
My biggest fear is that no matter what your experience is and no matter what you have achieved, if they have internal candidates or if your face (or foreign accent) does not fit, you stand no chance and you have invested a tremendous amount of time preparing for the job for nothing.
David. Thanks for sharing and I would totally agree that the scenario you described would be extremely frustrating. I would also use the frustration as drive to cast a wide net to seek out as many opportunities as possible. Where one door close another one opens. This is the perspective I took when the scenario you described above actually happened to me personally.
I think the best strategy is always to be honest about what you do well and what you don’t. It never helps to be disingenuous with someone considering hiring you. Additionally, as a Gallup Strengths coach I always advocate for people to learn their strengths and then invest time and energy learning about your strengths. Then you can provide much clearer and authentic responses about your strengths and weaknesses.
I can understand you feeling that way. Just remember to fill in your leadership picture for the interviewer whenever possible. We only know two things what you wrote on paper (resume, application, and, cover letter) and what you tell us (in the interview). If your thin on paper experience, fill the gaps with stories of successful work you’ve done LEADING while serving as an instructional coach. Demonstrate times of facilitation, share times of collaboration, share examples of excellence on completing initiatives or project. As interviewers we will never know what you don’t explicitly tell us. Don’t assume we know…make sure we know because you told us.😊
Don’t be fearful of that…be mindful of that but build up your skills, knowledge, and expertise to aid you in effectively leading your staff. There will be times you have to hold people accountable. That’s a baseline expectation of leadership but how you do it and your mindset for how you support your staff will be the most important. Balance the two issues, strictness and kindness and you will find a sweet spot.
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Critical skill: Emotional Intelligence and being able to read the room. Another critical skill that coincides with EI is perspective, the ability to articulate another's point of view and to get others to do the same, often people look from their own limited perspective.
EI is the new leadership currency. I am always looking for leaders who demonstrate a high level of EI. The technical parts of f he job are learnable and repeatable. The human dynamic, perspective, empathy, compassion are the characteristics I’m seeing in great up and coming and inspiring leaders.
I consistently get a response saying that I did an excellent job in my interview and that they would have been completely comfortable offering me the position; however, there always seems to be one other candidate that has a slightly higher level of strength in one area or another. Example, I have a better presentation on discipline issues and communication, but another candidate is more qualified in instructional leadership or curriculum knowledge.
Coty, I totally understand. There are a ton of examples where you absolutely crush the interview and you know you’ve done well. There is another conversation that happens that you aren’t privy to and it is the internal group’s deliberations about what they need right now in that moment. This “second” conversation, the one you can’t control is where the hiring decision is made. Since you can’t control it…just always do your best to in the conversation you do control….your interview. Represent yourself best you can and let the rest play itself out.
@@gordonamerson28 I finally got that ever elusive offer...💪
Great take-aways! Gordon, you are such a gifted presenter. I honestly didn't realize how pumped up and excited I am at the prospect of landing the position I'm interviewing for soon. Thanks so much
Best of luck!! I am rooting for you. Thank you for the kind words. And I appreciate you for being a part of our growing community.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching and learning from your video! Very informative! Adding these tools to my tool box! Thank you Dr. Amerson! Hope to update you with great news sooner than later that your insights elevated my interview!
I am so glad to hear that the episodes are helpful to you. Please keep us posted on your journey and also, thank you for helping us build our community. Much appreciated!
Stumbling over my words and allowing fear to take over.
Don’t let that deter you…even the most gifted orators fumble over their words. Be sure to exude confidence and a passion for helping students. That will always help. Additionally, comprehensive prep of deconstructing the job description will give that sense of calm because you have prepared to tackle any question they might ask. The questions are always buried in the job description. 😊
A critical skill is analyzing a phenomenon, behavioral, academic , using board prescribed and union handbook guidelines to make a decision.
I agree that what you mentioned are critical skills that you will need to leverage to be effective as a school leader. It is absolutely a best practice to develop a keen understanding of Board Policy but even sometimes more importantly…a deep level of knowledge surrounding the Union/Employee association contract. Remember school leaders are responsible for and empowered to enforce the provisions of the contract. Use it as a leadership tool.
A leadership quality that leaders should have, but is often overlooked is the ability to understand and affirm perspectives. Giving people the. space to share, but also add their own next step. People have to feel heard and add to the solution. Every initiative cannot come from the leader.
I couldn’t agree more. Leaders have to develop a maturity and a level of comfort to be able to let go a “control”. If the only person that can come up with a solution is the leader, then that leader has done a poor job of empowering others and that will cost the lead and the organization in the long run.
Thank you so much for adding to the conversation and helping us to build our community!
Thank you for the valuable guidance! Thank you. I already feel inspired.
I am glad that you find value in the content. Thanks for being a part of our growing community.
This is very valuable information to have. I appreciate you and the wonderful information you have provided. Blessings!
Thank you very much! I am glad you find the information helpful.
Additionally, thanks for being a part of our community.
Excellent information here. Great!! Thank you.
I am so glad to hear that the content/episode was helpful to you. Thanks for contributing to our growing community.
Please do me a favor and let me know other topics or ideas you’d like me to cover or weigh in on. Thanks.
Gordon
Gordon, thank you for these pro tips. Would you please give scenerio-based questions and answers. Thank you
Id be happy to put that together for you. I’ll put together a video episode focused on that very topic. It’s in the work. 😀
Your videos helped me get an offer!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is wonderful news. Please stay plugged into the channel and our resources so we can support your leadership as you move forward. 🎉
Biggest concern is another AP candidate having more experience in a sought out skill but having the professional strength to learn quickly once immersed in that skill/setting.
Thank you for the comment. In my experience, I deeply value the soft skills a candidate brings to the leadership interview. Sure there are some folks who may be highly skilled in a particular technical skill. But I care deeply about the soft skills a leadership candidate possesses because I am confident I can coach and mentor the technical skills but things like empathy, compassion, and resilience are skills that pay dividends for entire careers. Focus on fine tuning your EQ…it is your superpower. 😊
I think a critical skill that is often overlooked is organizaional skills
That’s definitely a critical skills. The ability to manage your calendar and the portfolio of responsibilities for an AP is essential. Thank you for sharing 😊
I need help with interview practice. I was also timed during the interview.
Hi. I totally understand. Interviewing is definitely a skill we get better at with practice. What specific areas of the interview do you need help with? Tell me more about the time aspect do the interview.
In a lot of your videos which are brilliant by the way you discuss what needs to be done but don't give a lot of details on how to actually carry those said things out. Maybe some real life examples would add value. The scenario based Qs is perfect. Give a couple of examples and how to tackle them as that's what most candidates struggle with. All the best with the channel. ✌🏼
Nima…I want to thank you for inspiring me. You gave me a great idea of how to link my current catalog of videos to new videos with deeper dives into specific strategies and ideas I’ve share before. This would include cover one key strategy along with examples and where applicable specific examples and stories of when I used that strategy in my own experience. I think this would address what you shared and allow me to share a lot more about what I’ve seen and experienced. Thank you so much!
My feedback has been to give concrete examples. I have added scenarios and how I problem-solved, but it doesn't seem to cut it. I am not sure if it is my face expression or body language or tone or the choice of words. Could you please help?
Hi Padma, I’d be happy to help. I am certain that you are improving with the strategies you are implementing in your interviews. I would stress to you that your breakthrough is not going to be on the technical level. I base that off of you sharing that you include scenarios, etc. to give your answers more breadth and context.
So I think your next step is to go deeper into your mindset and overall how you are presenting yourself in the interview. Continue to explore my channel content as well as join my community (the link is in the pinned comment above). There are lots of tips and resources as well as opportunities for coaching and engagement with me directly.
Wishing you the best and success in your next interview. We need good leaders with our scholars so let me know how I can continue to help you along in your journey.
Thank you for those gems! 💕😊
My pleasure! I am glad the content is valuable. 😊
Biggest fear is dealing with massive paper work and how to best support curriculum
Massive paperwork will definitely be a part of your work. Do your best to systematize how you deal with paper…build intentional calendar time to only deal with paperwork. Set a timer. If you give yourself 60 mins on the calendar. Do 4 15 minute periods (1st 15 - reading emails and responding, 2nd 15 - responding to teacher and staff written requests, 3rd 15 - reviewing classroom walkthrough and supervision notes, 4th 15 - completing district/county compliance paperwork) this structure will give you focused and intentional time to make progress on critical paperwork. But it won’t get you sucked into hours of paperwork and then you lose out on the opportunity to be in classrooms seeing instruction. Hope this gives you some insight and perspective.
Biggest fear in a interview isn’t any duty of the job but the panel asking a question I do not know how to answer.
Glad to hear that you are confident in the duties of the job! That’s a huge asset. I wouldn’t get too worried about not knowing the answer to every question. Focus on always getting the big ideas at the forefront of your mind. 1. How to provide quality instruction? 2. How to build an engaged and inviting classroom environment? 3. How you will be collaborative and contribute to the team environment? 4. How you will be an excellent communicator with all stakeholders both inside and outside of your classroom.
From these big ideas hundreds of questions can emerge but if you have a clear picture of these ideas you should be able to answer numerous potential questions that are asked. Hope this helps. 😊
Thanks, Dr. Amerson! Are these still good questions to know even for the assistant principal interview?
@@cartig9051 Absolutely! They are still relevant. But definitely check out some other videos on the channel for more samples. Additionally, I have some more episodes in the pipeline that will give more information about relevant questions for interviews right now.
Thank you!
My pleasure! I’m glad the content was helpful to you.
My fear is that I am inexperienced. I have never been an admin. How do I talk about creating a master schedule or other scenarios I have never done?
Tawnya. That is a common fear…so I totally understand. There are 2 strategies I’ll offer. 1. Focus your attention whenever you can on relevant experiences that you do have and can highlight. Additionally, if you have tangential experience for example, serving as a department chair or grade level lead who may have given input or feedback to the master schedule lead is another way to address the question.
2. For areas that you know are important to the organization, ask for opportunity to help with the design or completion of that task. This will build your experience in areas you want to grow in. This strategy may not help immediately but is another way to build your knowledge and experience.
You are right. I need to join more committees and volunteer my service more.
Be able to serve others
My biggest fear is that no matter what your experience is and no matter what you have achieved, if they have internal candidates or if your face (or foreign accent) does not fit, you stand no chance and you have invested a tremendous amount of time preparing for the job for nothing.
David. Thanks for sharing and I would totally agree that the scenario you described would be extremely frustrating. I would also use the frustration as drive to cast a wide net to seek out as many opportunities as possible. Where one door close another one opens. This is the perspective I took when the scenario you described above actually happened to me personally.
be inspiring
Absolutely!
How does one answer strengths and weaknesses about self?
I think the best strategy is always to be honest about what you do well and what you don’t. It never helps to be disingenuous with someone considering hiring you.
Additionally, as a Gallup Strengths coach I always advocate for people to learn their strengths and then invest time and energy learning about your strengths. Then you can provide much clearer and authentic responses about your strengths and weaknesses.
My biggest fear is that the interviewer would only see me as an instructional coach because that is my current position on paper.
I can understand you feeling that way. Just remember to fill in your leadership picture for the interviewer whenever possible. We only know two things what you wrote on paper (resume, application, and, cover letter) and what you tell us (in the interview). If your thin on paper experience, fill the gaps with stories of successful work you’ve done LEADING while serving as an instructional coach. Demonstrate times of facilitation, share times of collaboration, share examples of excellence on completing initiatives or project. As interviewers we will never know what you don’t explicitly tell us. Don’t assume we know…make sure we know because you told us.😊
My fear is to be strict and rigid with teachers
Don’t be fearful of that…be mindful of that but build up your skills, knowledge, and expertise to aid you in effectively leading your staff. There will be times you have to hold people accountable. That’s a baseline expectation of leadership but how you do it and your mindset for how you support your staff will be the most important. Balance the two issues, strictness and kindness and you will find a sweet spot.
Listening skills
Absolutely essential skills! Thank you for the comment and feedback.