5 Things Principals Need to Leave in 2025

It’s Time to Lead Differently in 2026

As we close out another challenging year in education, I’ve been reflecting on what’s weighing school leaders down and what needs to stay in 2025.

Not because you’re failing. But because you deserve to lead from a place of intention, not exhaustion.

If you’re a principal who’s tired of constant crisis mode, who knows there has to be a better way but can’t quite see it through the fog of daily urgency, this is for you.

Here are 5 things principals need to leave behind in 2025:

1. Leading Only Through Urgency

Stop spending your day playing whack-a-mole.

When you spend your entire day reacting from the moment you walk in at 7 AM until you finally drag yourself out of the building at 6 PM nothing strategic gets built. You collapse into your car, exhausted, wondering what you actually accomplished.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the truth: Sustainable schools are created through intentional leadership, not constant crisis management.

That doesn’t mean crises won’t happen. They will. But when your entire leadership practice is built around reacting to whatever fire is burning brightest, you never get to the work that actually prevents the fires in the first place.

Urgent will always feel more important than important. But the schools that thrive? They’re led by principals who’ve learned to protect time for what matters most, even when everything feels urgent.

2. Fixing Symptoms Instead of Systems

Suspensions. Referrals. Teacher burnout.

They aren’t just discipline issues or HR problems. They’re signals.

Your behavior data is telling you a story. The question is: are you listening?

When the same students keep ending up in your office, when the same teachers keep submitting the same referrals, when your staff survey shows morale tanking—these aren’t isolated incidents. They’re symptoms of a system that isn’t working.

And here’s what most principals miss: This is the main reason teachers are burning out.

They’re working within broken systems, trying to patch problems that need structural fixes. And when the systems don’t change, the same problems keep resurfacing no matter how hard your teachers work.

Until you address the system, you’ll keep treating symptoms. And your teachers will keep walking out the door.

3. Professional Development That Doesn’t Change Practice

Let me ask you something: When was the last time your teachers left a PD session genuinely excited to try something new and then actually sustained it past the first week?

If you’re struggling to answer that question, you’re not alone.

Here’s the problem: If teachers leave PD inspired but unsupported, the impact disappears by Monday.

PD should change classrooms, not just fill calendars. But most professional development is designed to deliver information, not transform practice. We bring in an expert, they share brilliant strategies, teachers nod along, everyone leaves feeling good and then nothing changes.

Why? Because adults need the same things students need: modeling, coaching, and follow-through.

They need to see what the strategy looks like in action. They need support when it doesn’t go perfectly the first time. They need space to practice, reflect, and refine.

Information alone doesn’t change practice. Support does.

4. Expecting Teachers to Implement What They’ve Never Experienced

You can’t delegate transformation.

Joyful, culturally responsive classrooms don’t happen because leaders say the right words at a staff meeting. They don’t happen because you put it in the school improvement plan or added it to the professional development calendar.

They happen because leaders create the conditions and model the work.

If you want teachers to build relationships with students, they need to experience what it feels like to be in relationship with you as their leader.

If you want teachers to use restorative practices, they need to experience restoration when they make mistakes not just consequences.

If you want joyful classrooms, your building needs to feel joyful first.

You can’t ask teachers to create something they’ve never experienced themselves. Transformation starts with you—and the culture you’re building with your staff.

5. Carrying the Weight Alone

Leadership is not meant to be lonely.

But I know it often feels that way.

You’re the one everyone comes to with problems. You’re the one expected to have all the answers. You’re the one holding the vision when everyone else is just trying to make it to Friday.

And somewhere along the way, you started believing that asking for help was a sign of weakness. That if you were a “good” principal, you’d be able to figure it out on your own.

But here’s the truth: Strong schools are led by supported leaders.

Principals need thinking partners. You need strategy support. You need protected space to actually lead not just survive.

You can’t pour from an empty cup. And you shouldn’t have to figure this out by yourself.

The principals who thrive aren’t the ones who have it all together. They’re the ones who’ve learned to ask for help, build their support systems, and stop carrying the weight alone.

So Here’s My Question:

Which one of these hit hardest for you?

As you head into 2026, what are you leaving behind?

Is it the constant urgency? The symptom-fixing treadmill? The lonely weight of leadership?

I want to hear from you. Drop a comment below or send me a message. I read every single one, and I genuinely want to know what you’re ready to let go of.

Because here’s what I know: You’ve carried enough.

2026 doesn’t need more exhausted principals stuck in survival mode. It needs leaders who are supported, strategic, and able to build the schools our students and teachers deserve.

Let’s build something sustainable together.

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Ready to start 2026 differently?

If you’re a principal who’s ready to leave crisis management behind and build a clear plan for the second half of the year, I have a few 90-minute Strategy Call spots available in January.

We’ll dig into what’s working and what’s not in your building, identify your biggest priorities, and create a 30-day roadmap you can actually implement.

Learn more: januarystrategycalls.lovable.app

You don’t have to figure this out alone. Let me help you lead differently.

Dr. Deonna Smith