Thanks go to so many who have been both kind and complimentary. I appreciate the collected wisdom of the GREAT(!) Rabble, and If I may interject once more, I'd like to take this thinking a step further.

There was more than one comment earlier that perhaps would make one wonder about the intelligence of school administrators. Believe me, although their intelligence is generally high, their wisdom is far from universally so.

In practice, the only critically important and truly useful role of any administrator in any system is to decide when the rules should be followed, and when there is "wiggle room." I arrived once as the new principal in a very, very unhappy school in a needy and sometimes tough community. The staff were no happier than the parents or kids. Among the legacies I discovered from my predecessor was a "staff handbook" consisting of forty-five pages, single-spaced, ten- or eleven-point font, 3/4" margins which admirably (?) covered every possible contingency and eventuality. It even had (ready for this?) half a page on how often and when staff should empty out the contents of their mailboxes!

It was not much of a challenge to cut it down to about fifteen pages, thirteen-point font, 1 1/4" margins. I attached a hand-written note to each copy before I put them in the blessed mailboxes. The note said "Please replace your staff manual with the attached pages. Thanks, Bill." By the way, you might guess that the actual topic of mailboxes wasn't even mentioned.

There never was a comment from any member of the staff about this, but there were sudden smiles and a high level of cooperation. Oddly enough, even student discipline problems dropped in the week following - you know - happy staff, happy kids; happy kids, happy parents; happy parents... happy principal!

It wasn't really tough to tame this rough and tumble school and community. Actually, I honestly loved the kids and their parents, and they knew it and returned it, and I was and still to this day am intensely proud of that wonderful staff. The skills, cohesion, cooperation, energy, joy... they were all off the deep edge of amazing.

Oddly, (maybe not) the same thing has worked in my new career with the church. The wardens and congregations are running the parish business successfully and skilfully leaving me with nothing much to do other than encourage them in all situations, and lead worship. I won't go a lot further lest I break the good (and wisely sparse) rules of this forum, but I would assure you that my theology aligns well with my leadership philosophies. It's not particularly judgemental or accusatory.

When I was a vice-principal, learning this stuff, one of my very prescient and wise principals told me that leadership (almost the opposite of management) isn't something you can reduce to a formula - it really and truly is magic.

Sadly, I would assume that the granite principal in question probably hasn't had a truly relaxed or happy laugh in a very long time and will soon burn himself out if the poor chap isn't already there. You don't put good managers into needy neighbourhoods; you put cheerful and proficient leaders there.

Oh - and the principal who preceded me? Went to government to assist in writing policies.