The 21 Competencies
Competency
1. Communication: Effectively listens to
others; clearly and effectively presents and
understands information orally and in
writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes,
interprets, maintains information needed to
achieve school or team 21st century
objectives.
2. Change Management: Effectively
engages staff and community in the change
process in a manner that ensures their
support of the change and its successful
implementation.
3. Conflict Management: Anticipates or
seeks to resolve confrontations,
disagreements, or complaints in a
constructive manner.
Description
I am able to write professional emails and written
communications. I have sent numerous letters
home to parents, such as Student Equity
Team/Equity Summit letters, the JPLA visit to
campus letter, and the locker assignment letter. I
also reply to voice messages within 24 to 48 hours.
I am a very organized person, so I like to create
systems to help streamline communication and
compile similar information into one place.
I have built relationships with teachers, so they
reach out to me for assistance or as someone to
listen to them without needing to provide an
answer in return. I am able to actively listen, use a
calm voice, pause, paraphrase, and pose questions
to let them know I am listening and understanding
what they are saying.
With implementing new initiatives within the sixth
grade, I started with asking questions and gathering
data in order to learn and understand my sixth-
grade teachers. I communicated the change with
them through grade level, team lead, and individual
meetings depending on the initiative. I explained
how it will help them in order to create buy-in. I
provided supports where needed and created short-
term wins to help sustain our efforts. Lastly, I
continued to motivate others to not give up and
find ways to apply lessons learned into future
planning, as well as embed the change into the
culture of our grade level.
The hardest moment I had during my principal
residency was when a teacher felt attacked during
an investigation I conducted when a student felt
threatened by this teacher. Although how I
managed the conflict was not ideal, this was the
largest learning opportunity of my career in
education thus far. The teacher and I were able to
come to a resolution and continued to stay on good
terms the rest of the school year. I also learned that
developing relationships and getting to know every
staff member is pivotal to having more successful
crucial conversations.
I have also had many phone calls and conferences
with parents that began with conflict but learning

4. Creative Thinking: Engages in and
fosters an environment for others to engage
in innovative thinking.
5. Customer Focus: Understands the
students as customers of the work of
schooling and the servant nature of
leadership and acts accordingly.
6. Delegation: Effectively assigns work
tasks to others in ways that provide
learning experiences for them and in ways
that ensure the efficient operation of the
school.
that we both wanted their child to be and feel
successful gave us a shared place of understanding,
which allowed for us to realign our focus to student
achievement. I also utilize skills of speaking in a
calm voice, pausing, paraphrasing, and questioning
to help learn the other person’s side and brainstorm
ways to satisfy the conflict.
I always welcome new ideas and suggestions for
how to do something even better. Throughout the
Wake Principal Leadership Program, I have
worked with many groups in coming up with
presentations, projects, and activities, most under a
time constraint. We created infographics,
PowerPoints, and sample professional development
trainings. These activities and this graduate school
program required me to hone my creative thinking
skills in order to complete most, if not all, of our
assignments.
I have always treated students as individuals and as
people. They are not “objects” to me. Students
require specific customer support daily. My job as
a school leader is to create a supporting and safe
atmosphere for students to flourish. I strive to make
this happen by being visible throughout the
building and always offering to help and support,
whether that be directly to them or through their
teachers.
I delegate responsibilities to others by learning
their strengths, by forming relationships, and by
communicating effectively. The most important
part of delegation is learning my stakeholders and
knowing the best way to assign them duties, as
well as how to follow up for support and feedback.
Being able to delegate is not only about assigning a
duty and hoping it will get done but developing
expectations around how to carry out
responsibilities and the why behind them.
I delegated the responsibility to setting up the
google drive folders to the students’ homeroom
teachers. I received better buy in from teachers
who I developed a relationship with first. I have
also delegated responsibilities to a handful of staff
to lead RBMS’s first Student Equity Team. I
created the foundation to build this team, but a
large part was to build a group of staff members
who care deeply about this topic to be a part of it
weekly. I began with a staff interest meeting
providing multiple times during the school day to
demonstrate that I care about their time. I also
made sure to have an agenda of items we need to

7. Dialogue/Inquiry: Is skilled in creating
a risk-free environment for engaging
people in conversations that explore issues,
challenges or bad relationships that are
hindering school performance.
cover during our first working session to help us
stay on task. From there, teachers were able to take
on responsibilities by facilitating student meetings
without me, as well as sharing their ideas on how
we would like to teach topics to our student group.
In order to create a risk-free environment, trust
needs to happen first. I built relationships with staff
to build trust and transparency between us. From
there I was able to have conversations that were
more intense and revolved around more serious
issues.

For example, one teacher requested for me to come

see her during her planning period. She had a lot on
her mind and needed to talk to someone. I listened,
I provided uplifting words, but I did not sugar coat
the situation. I acknowledged her feelings that the
circumstances were unfair. We were able to
brainstorm ideas of how to make the situation
better so it would not hinder her teaching
performance.
During the first summer semester of WPLP, I went
8. Emotional Intelligence: Is able to through three types of personality assessments as
manage oneself through self-awareness and part of an Emotional Intelligence course (True
self-management and is able to manage Colors, the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI),
relationships through empathy, social and Myers-Briggs). I learned more about the type
awareness and relationship management. of person I am, as well as confirmed already what I
This competency is critical to building knew about myself. I have been working on my EI
strong, transparent, trusting relationships since I was a teenager due to losing my mother at a
throughout the school community. young age. I have always been an empathic and
compassionate person. Building relationships was
the easiest part for me when I became a teacher,
and I have been fostering that skill as I continue to
grow as a leader. I have also received training in
the Community Resilience Model, which mainly
pertains to self-awareness and self-management
with helping oneself stay in their resiliency zone.
I am fortunate to work with an administration team
9. Environmental Awareness: Becomes that shares information with each other regarding
aware and remains informed of external current policies and board meeting decisions that
and internal trends, interests and issues may affect our school, community, and/or students.
with potential impacts on school policies, I stay up to date on local and state decisions by
practices, procedures and positions. being alerted through email by different newsletters
and magazines; for example, the ASCD SmartBrief
and Educational Leadership.
I stay up to date on local, state, national, and global
10. Global Perspective: Understands the news and decisions that can impact our school,
competitive nature of the new global community, and students. I am alerted on my
economy and is clear about the knowledge phone of current headlines daily from CNN and
WRAL News. I also am alerted through email by
 and skills students will need to be
successful in this economy.
11. Judgement: Effectively reaching logical
conclusions and making high quality
decisions based on available information.
Giving priority and caution to significant
issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex
information.
12. Organizational Ability: Effectively
plans and schedules one’s own and the
work of others so that resources are used
appropriately, such as scheduling the flow
of activities and establishing procedures to
monitor projects.
13. Personal Ethics and Values:
Consistently exhibits high standards in the
areas of honesty, integrity, fairness,
stewardship, trust, respect, and
confidentiality.
different newsletters and magazines; for example,
the ASCD SmartBrief and Educational Leadership.
I have led and assisted in various student
investigations, which I had to assign consequences
to students, gather statements from all involved,
call parents, and at times, enlist support from
WCPSS security office as well as the SRO; for
example, such as a missing cell phone and Airpods,
marijuana vaping in the bathroom, unauthorized
usage of an asthma inhaler, inappropriate pictures
of a student being spread on social media, and
physical altercations.
I am a very organized and detail-oriented person. I
keep filing folders labeled to systematize notes and
handouts from different trainings and department
meetings. I keep an organized planner that is color-
coded to differentiate between work
responsibilities (black), graduate school
responsibilities (blue), and meetings (purple). I also
keep my Google Drives for work and school
organized with different folders, so I can easily
find notes, documents, presentations, and
assignments. Additionally, I create organizational
documents for the sixth grade. Currently during the
COVID-19 pandemic, I created spreadsheets to
organize our virtual meeting links and student
device/internet needs for teachers.
Over the past two years, I have grown greatly in
the area of ethics, specifically in confidentiality.
With maturity and experience, I have learned what
information is best to keep to myself and what
information is okay to be shared. I highly value
trust, respect, and loyalty, so I have learned that all
news is not made to be shared with others.
Working within an administration team, I have
learned which information is okay to be transparent
with staff and which information is best to not be
shared at the moment. As a teacher, I always
wanted to be in the know, and now I understand
why leaders do not always share everything with
their staff. I have learned to trust the process.
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, there
has been a lot of information coming from higher
levels, but we as administrators needed time to
digest and organize all the information before we
choose to disseminate it to teachers. I also exhibit
high standards of integrity and fairness. Although
each student discipline situation is a case by case
basis, I still follow WCPSS board policies when
assigning consequences.

14. Personal Responsibility for
Performance: Proactively and
continuously improves performance by
focusing on needed areas of improvement
and enhancement of strengths; actively
seeks and effectively applies feedback
from others; takes full responsibility for
one’s own achievements.
15. Responsiveness: Does not leave issues,
inquiries or requirements for information
go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated
structure for responding to
requests/situations in an expedient manner.
16. Results Orientation: Effectively
assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a
decision is required. Takes prompt action
as issues emerge. Resolves short-term
issues while balancing them against long-
term goals.
17. Sensitivity: Effectively perceives the
needs and concerns of others; deals
tactfully with others in emotionally
stressful situations or in conflict. Knows
what information to communicate and to
whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic,
cultural, and religious backgrounds.
I am always seeking ways I can improve, and I
respond well to feedback. I am a reflective person,
and I tend to go over how I could have handled
certain situations differently. For instance, the
personnel situation I worked through earlier in the
school year with the intervention teacher
miscommunicating with a student who felt
threatened. I reflected on how I could have better
supported the teacher, and her and I had a
conversation the next day to mend our relationship.
Whenever I receive feedback in class, I always take
notes and listen. I find ways to implement the
feedback and express my gratitude for it.
I create a daily and weekly list of to-dos, I keep up
with a planner and calendar of events, and I reply
to emails within 24 to 48 hours.
I have demonstrated to teachers that they can rely
on me to assist them. Teachers text me during the
school day to come by their classrooms if I am
available. I assisted the ESL department in
providing them what they need to restructure their
schedule for spring semester, as well as for
ACCESS testing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and when I
realized a lot of changes were being made to
transition to remote learning, I was eager and
began problem solving with the sixth grade AP on
how we can make this dire situation into a smooth
change for our teachers. I took prompt action in
creating spreadsheets and responding to emails and
texts. We continued to keep the long-term goal of
student achievement in mind while handling the
day to day directives and changes.
I have grown in this competency by working with
the sixth-grade teachers, and more specifically, one
teacher in particular. This teacher suffers from
anxiety and can become overwhelmed very easily.
I have learned how to disseminate information to
her and provide her support to limit her concerns. I
sometimes just listen to how she expresses her
emotions and give her a hug, and other times we
problem solve and advise each other. During the
beginning of large changes (implementing student
progress folders and the transition to remote
learning), I made sure to reach out to her
individually to ensure that she is okay. I also may
provide her with some information, so when she
hears the whole initiative, she is able to adjust and
accept more easily.

18. Systems Thinking: Understands the
interrelationships and impacts of school
and district influences, systems and
external stakeholders, and applies that
understanding to advancing the
achievement of the school or team.
19. Technology: Effectively utilizes the latest sixth-grade progress folders through Google Drive.
technologies to continuously improve the
management of the school and enhance
student instruction.
For my entire career in education, I have worked
with students and families from many different
backgrounds that are different from my own. I also
majored in Anthropology during undergraduate
school, so I have always been intrigued and eager
to learn more about different cultures, languages,
and religions. I chose to complete my “Experience
of the Other” assignment with the Islamic
Association of Raleigh to learn more about Islamic
culture to better relate to my students. I also created
the foundation for RBMS’s first Student Equity
Team, so students of all different races, cultures,
identities, and religions could come together in a
safe space to learn about each other.
Throughout my coursework and residency, I have
been exposed to education law, human resources,
budget management, school improvement, equity
affairs, and data analysis. All of these topics
encompassed how they intertwine with each other
and impact a school from local, state, and federal
levels. During the American Enterprise Institute
experience in Washington D.C., I was fortunate to
listen to many panelists from journalism, politics,
board members, researchers, etc. that helped
demonstrate how many systems affect education
and the achievement of schools and students.
I have also learned how many moving pieces need
to happen to change a school system and how one
change can create a domino effect to change
something else. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I
have experienced how the local, state, and federal
levels work together, as well as within the district
how many departments need to work together to
implement the large transition into remote learning.
I created the templates and the initiative for the
Over 400 students are using these digital folders. I
have assisted teachers to input data to create graphs
for their classroom data walls. For my Problem of
Practice, I have gained more experience in utilizing
Excel to help me disaggregate data. I have learned
how to use conditional formatting to help visualize
the differences and similarities in the data I
analyze. I feel comfortable learning new programs
to assist instruction, such as iReady. I am able to
pull reports and find resources to provide to
teachers. Also, I have become more familiar with
Zoom, Google Classroom, and Google Meet during
the COVID-19 pandemic. I have helped teachers

20. Time Management: Effectively uses
available time to complete work tasks and
activities that lead to the achievement of
desired work or school results. Runs
effective meetings.
21. Visionary: Encourages imagineering by
creating an environment and structure to
capture stakeholder dreams of what the
school could become for all the students.
with transitioning to remote learning and setting up
their online classrooms.
Throughout my principal residency, I have learned
how to better utilize small amounts of time. I keep
a daily to-do list on my desk to help me organize
my priorities when I come into the building each
day. I also, structure my to-do lists and planner by
urgency and importance. Although, I can work
better under time constraints and may wait until the
due date to turn something in, I never miss a
deadline. For any meeting that has multiple items, I
create agendas for the meeting to make sure no
topics are missed, as well as to help everyone stay
on schedule. When I was a special education
teacher, I ran many IEP meetings. I did not like to
rush meetings, but I learned how to steer the
discussion back to the IEP if the team digressed.
This year's vision for RBMS is alignment. I am
working side by side with administrators, teachers,
and students in ensuring students are growing and
teachers are providing quality instruction.
Mrs. Smalls and I have created an environment in
sixth grade around data and student improvement.
By demonstrating expectations for teachers through
our own expectations, we have received buy-in
from the staff. We have created a sixth-grade data
wall for teachers to visualize their students making
growth.