Hopefully all of you had a great weekend!  Week one of the new semester is behind us and it’s time to take on another week.  I know that many of you used last week to reestablish relationships and expectations with current students and the beginning of new...

The final week of the semester is here.  Wow! That was fast! It’s like we just got started.  Whatever the case I’m excited about the upcoming Christmas Holiday.  It is important that we all finish strong this week.  We’ll be busy with finals and I know many of you...

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend.  Sometimes it seems like the weekends go by so fast.  Oh well!  We now have yet another fresh 5 days to positively impact the students of Naaman Forest.  Are you ready for the challenge? As you all know we will be testing all...

Let’s be honest, April is a tough time in the life of a school.  There are so many things going on and it seems like the finish line can’t come fast enough.  I still remember the days when I served as a principal just trying to cross the finish line with everything...

Merry Christmas from the staff at Herbertoneil.com.  Lol, well it's just me.  It is my hope that each of you have a very Merry Christmas with family and friends.  It is so easy to get caught up in the hype of the Christmas season, but we must never forget the true...

I had a friend who serves as a principal recently ask me how you improve customer service on your campus.  I think this is something that is often in the hearts of leaders, especially campus principals.  The tough thing is that most people believe that the way they...

The Primer Entry Plan for New Principals is a detailed guide for any principal beginning their tenure at a new campus. Joining a new campus, even in a familiar district, requires an entrance strategy for the new principal. A strategy to avoid the mistakes that can...

I read a great book some time ago entitled “First Break All the Rules.”  It was recommended by a friend and turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read in recent history.  This isn’t some type of book review but more of my thoughts on Talent.  I had always shared...

It’s been a while since I’ve written in this space.  I have spent more time with video blogs lately on Facebook and Periscope where Troy Mooney and I share leadership tips.  I wrote on Twitter earlier that leadership is a blessing and a burden, and it cannot be taken...

I wrote an article sometime ago about a few steps for transforming schools entitled "School Transformation a Lesson From Popeyes!" http://www.herbertoneil.com/school-transformation-a-lesson-from-popeyes-2/It was one of my favorite blog posts, maybe because I like...

In my last blog post I spent a little time being reflective about how I didn’t do a great job of helping teachers be better teachers when I was a campus principal.  I thought it was important to talk about it so that as campus leaders we keep focused on what’s...

It’s always pretty interesting to me when I notice the clear deficits I had when I was a campus principal.  I always thought I did a great job of laying out a vision for the campus, having attainable goals, setting clear expectations, taking calculated learning risks,...