Skills
School Principal Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in school principals, and how to build and show them.
What skills do school principals need?
School Principals need technical skills such as instructional leadership, teacher evaluation, and school budgeting, plus people skills like leadership and communication. They also use tools such as Student information systems and Teacher evaluation platforms.
Technical (hard) skills
- Instructional leadership
- Teacher evaluation
- School budgeting
- Data analysis
- Education law
- Scheduling
People (soft) skills
- Leadership
- Communication
- Conflict resolution
- Decision-making
Tools, equipment and technology
- Student information systems
- Teacher evaluation platforms
- Budget software
- Assessment data dashboards
- Communication apps
- Emergency notification systems
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how school principals put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Instructional leadership” and “Teacher evaluation.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “leadership,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as State administrator license near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our school principal glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our School Principal training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.