Management and instructional leadership go hand in hand for me. I need our school to be a place where teachers and students want to be, this is when learning will happen. The management aspect keeps the school running, those day to day reports and bills that we get to do. The instructional leadership helps provide the support teachers and students need to be successful. 

As a supervisor, I have the privilege of engaging in instructional leadership without having to dive head first into the logistical operations of buildings and grounds, pick ups and dismissals, student attendance and safety, etc. From my vantage point, there is a lot that supervisors can do to lessen the load on principals so that we can work together toward student excellence. 

They go hand in hand with each other.

As an instructional leader, I need to be in the classrooms, watching what is going on, and seeing the teachers and students in action. I need to think back to when I was a teacher and what I wished was different. As a manager, I have to see what I just saw, reflect on my past, and determine how I can improve the situation for my staff and students. There may need to be a change in budget allocation. There may need to be a change in the master schedule for the following school year. There will be paperwork and meetings with stakeholders. 

In my walkthroughs, I have seen the need to upgrade some of our calculators and other aspects of classroom resources in order to make some of the instructional changes that I would like to see happen. So in order to accomplish the instructional changes, I've needed to be a manager and support the teachers in getting the resources they need to make it happen. 

In my experience I have noticed that the 2 really are inter-related. You simply can not be one or the other, you must be a great manager and a great leader, or at the very least be striving to be great at both. 

Every day I make decisions as a school Principal. I am an instructional leader, and operational manager. As an instructional leader, I’m doing walk-throughs I’m looking at programs, I am doing observations of teachers and of student learning. I am ensuring that teachers have time to meet in their PLC. I review data for our school plan to review and revised for the academic needs of the school.As an operations manager, I’m doing the day-to-day work, ensuring that classrooms have teacher substitutes. That classrooms have supplies. I am ensuring that the school environment is safe. I am looking for what needs to be done to keep the school running smoothly.

This comes into play a lot for me. I am in buildings for walkthroughs and observations. I see not only what is happening in classrooms but in the halls and other locations as well. I then need to help problem slove issues. In conversation, teachers will always tell me what is going well or not going well, issues they are having and materials they need. I work to assist them in their needs. 

Through listening to the staff and bringing their concerns to the forefront to address them. 

In my opinion. I think it goes hand in hand. You know, we have to make sure that we're there to provide the support the teachers need and students. So it's important that when we're developing our focus and our goals, that we keep all of that in mind.

When I think of this question, it is interesting from the lens of an instructional coach. Because I have influence (and not positional authority), I need support from my leaders to execute most things that are both operational and management-related in order to make significant improvement work. For example: to change the frequency and time frames in which our Professional Learning Communities met (and to make that more meaningful and improve the work our PLCs were doing), I needed the positional support from my building leader to make that happen. 

Often times, when talking with teachers, I will hear that something is not working right or that they wish they had different tools to use, etc. I feel management always goes with the instructional leader role. In order to help problem solve, you need to be able to make managerial decisions for teachers. 

There are so many times throughout my week that my instructional leadership and management side overlap but the key is to listen to your staff and teachers. For example, I was in a classroom doing an evaluation and the bells rang 3 different times and she also had to contend with announcements. After talking to my VP I redid our bell schedule, sent out an email and made the change. I had gone 5 years with the bells working that way and never realized the impact they had on our instructional time.