A successful principal has a vision, that mental picture of what they want their schools to be and their students to achieve. Without a vision there's no possibility of a principal being a leader. The vision provides guidance and direction for the school staff, students, and administration.

A change leader is a visionary leader who has a vision that forms the basis of their work.

A visionary leader aims and hits at something no one else can see. A vision is the leaders’ image of the desired future and is communicated (shared) with intention of empowering his followers (staff members) so that they can enact the vision. A Vision gives him the ability to visualize their goals. Their vision of their school provides purpose, meaning, and significance to the work of the school and enables them to motivate and empower the staff to contribute to the realization of the vision. Leadership includes the principal's ability to translate a vision into reality as well as the ability to articulate the vision to others so that they become motivated to work toward the realization of the vision.

A visionary leader is dynamic. To actively change a school, principals must make decisions about the nature of the desired state. He has a personal vision to forge a shared vision with their staff. His communication of the vision is such that it empowers people under him to act. A vision is a force that provides meaning and purpose to the work of a school. Sharing of a leader's vision distinguish true leaders from mere managers.

School leaders have not only a vision but also the skills to communicate that vision to their followers, to develop a shared vision. Leaders invite and encourage others to participate in determining and developing a shared vision. The process of developing a shared vision promotes partnership and collaborative relationships, a leadership style often been described as “bonding". Leaders and followers have a shared set of values and commitment that bond them together in a common cause in order to meet a common goal. If a school staff has a shared vision, there is a commitment to change. The shared vision becomes a "shared covenant that bonds together leader and follower in a moral commitment".

Vision, a critical leadership characteristic, is also a trait of successful principal who knows where their school system ought to be headed. Vision includes deciding the correct thing to do. School leaders are creative visionaries willing to take risks in pursuit of cherished values and able to cling to a vision with a “tenacity that is contagious to nearly everyone.”

Learning institutions may not always be lucky to have a visionary leader but are guided by a plan, that is, a way of reaching the goal. They are highly goal oriented and have a keen sense of goal clarity. These principals are guided by the missions of the school – which are built on goals. A mission is key element of strategic plans; it is through a mission that a principal influences student learning, which provides an instructional focusing for teachers throughout the school. These are long term aspirations held by principals for work in their schools.

While principals’ visions and missions focus on school or college wide instructional issues, teachers' visions address teacher roles and student outcomes. These teachers' visions included changes in the classroom, such as interdisciplinary curricula, varied student grouping patterns, and instruction that included basic literacy as well as critical thinking, creativity, inquisitiveness, and independence of thought. Teachers' vision also included school changes that would result in more participatory and decision- making roles for teachers. Increased teacher leadership means changes in instructional approaches and teacher leadership roles. School administrators that have developed a shared vision with their departments have also created common ground that serves to facilitate or compel action to the realization of this common vision.

The relationship between the teachers' and principals’ vision is important. Teachers' visions tend to focus primarily on the individual or personal actions for school change. However, both teachers and principals look at the same vision but attending to different aspects. School principals who developed a shared vision with their department have also created common ground that serves to facilitate or compel action to the realization of this common vision. Shared visions are teachers' and principal's shared values and beliefs, which believe that schools are for students' learning.

The values and beliefs of individuals affect their behavior and influence the vision they hold of their school. Values are principles an individual considers to be important or desirable, such as honest communication. Beliefs are ideas considered to be true and on which people are willing to act, such as, the belief that all children can learn. The connection between leaders' values or beliefs and their vision for their school is important.

Principals strongly believe in meeting the instructional needs of all their students. Reports concerning teachers' sense of efficacy indicate that they value students' learning and that students' success is rewarding and motivating to teachers. Beliefs about students' ability to learn and teachers' ability to teach affect a principal's leadership behaviors. Principals' values and beliefs influence their vision of the school as well as their behaviors. Principal's moral orientation is important to understand because it colors practically everything this principal does on a daily basis.

Effective principals tend to believe that the purpose of the school or college is to meet the instructional needs of all students. They expect an academic emphasis and task orientations in classrooms but encourage teachers to implement a broad curriculum. Poor performing principals tend to be noisy limit themselves to the implementation of a more narrowly defined curriculum and instruction claimed to be ‘from above’. Changes come from above.

Believing that schools are for students' learning is a common characteristic of teachers who promote school change. Effective principals believe that students come first; they believe in meeting the instructional needs of the students. Teachers value working with students and believe that they have an impact on their achievement. They have the shared belief that students' learning is of primary importance.

The paradigm shift in the management styles recently adapted by east and central African governments promote the increased participation and leadership of teachers in the decision- making processes in school administration. Yet in reality teachers are real leaders. Teachers are the invisible leadership in the school.

Successful principals recognize that the people in the school are its greatest resource. To lead change the principal must believe without question that people are the most important asset of a school. He values the professional contributions of the staff, and has the ability to relate to people. He fosters collaborative relationship. Valuing people's contributions to an organization differs from relating to people and building collaboration. The first acknowledges individuals' skills and expertise, while the latter two involve interpersonal skills. A principal who crave for change not only include the contributions of staff in determining and realizing the vision but also has the interpersonal skills that help them relate with others and develop collaborative relationships, foster environments and work processes to facilitate the organizations' collective efforts, and address the needs of individuals as well as groups. Leaders of change trust the strength of others and value their efforts and contributions in the realization of the organization's vision.

Ability to relate to others is an important component of valuing the human resources of a school system and a common characteristic of effective principals. The ability to relate to people is an important aspect of leadership. In dealing with change, the principal must have the capacity to relate well to all types of people. The people-oriented principals have the interpersonal skills that enable them to develop a strengthened management team, improve attitudes of students toward school, renew trust between the board and teachers, and enhance staff involvement. Successful principals are personable and friendly individual who believes in the importance of human relations skills and demonstrates them daily". Effective principals have the ability to work effectively with people.

Principals provide an environment that encourages and promotes collaborative relationships. Principals provide an environment that encourages and promotes collaborative relationships. They form teams, support team efforts, develop the skills that groups and individuals need, and provide the necessary human and material resources to realize the school vision. Effective principal value and encourage staff efforts and contributions to school improvement. Leaders of change are people oriented. He must find the best ways to use teaching and non-teaching staff' abilities. Effective principals have as their strongest asset the ability to work with different kinds of people having various needs, interests, and expectations. They value their staff’s efforts and contribution; they allow their staff to do the things they do best with their expertise, and create the conditions under which their subordinates can be successful.

Successful principals support teachers' instructional methods, their modifications of instructional approaches and materials, provide non-evaluative comments on instructional practices, and protect teachers’ time and efforts from non- instructional tasks. The principals' contributions to the implementation of a new project rest not in direct, programmatic advice, but in giving moral support to the staff.

Heads of department (HOD) are appointment by the TSC, handpicked or nominated by the principals for appointment by the BOG or DEO. These HODs rarely benefit from collaborative relationships with fellow teachers. In many cases, they experience additional isolation than that generally experienced by teachers. These HODs were isolated because the department lacked a clear understanding of the role of HOD, and the department had not participated in the selection of the teacher leader. Lack of clear understanding and department participation undermined these HODs efforts. A collaborative relationship involves mentoring, division of labour, and partnering. While HODs valued the human resources of their peers, their role appeared to hinder their ability to work cooperatively with their fellow teachers. Principals must stop limiting teachers’ functions to the traditional role of department heads, textbook committee chairpersons, and union representatives.

Current educational reforms prompt a reconsideration of teacher leadership and assignment of broader roles for teacher participation and leadership to include teacher leadership as mentors, team leaders, curriculum developers, and staff development providers. These roles involve teachers in decision-making processes and facilitate teachers becoming leaders of change. It should be noted that teachers have a vested interest; they care about what they do and how they do it and feel a sense of responsibility for the work assigned to them.

Principals who appreciate teacher leadership have changed their schools. They foster a shared vision, and value human resources. They are proactive and take risks. These principals strongly believe that they need teacher leadership if their schools must achieve its purpose of meeting the academic needs of students, and they must effectively communicate with and listen to their teachers.

Teachers' work is not motivated by bureaucratic mandate or directives from superiors, but by a moral commitment to children rooted in their awareness of the needs of these children and their belief about the significance of their roles as teachers. They get to know students on a more personal basis. Teachers’ perception of students is promoted by concept that they are not facilitators, but that teachers and students are co-learners. They emphasize their role in addressing students' social and academic needs such as the need to improve students' self-esteem, to increase student responsibility, and to teach lifelong learning. They encourage students to challenge themselves, and develop a sense of excitement about their education.

Teachers believe that they have an impact on student achievement. The primary rewards for most teachers come from students' academic achievement and from feeling certain about their own capacity to affect student development. It is a fallacy to claim that there are un-teachable students. A teacher can help even the most difficult or unmotivated students to succeed in their academic pursuit.

The manner in which teachers implement curriculum and instruction is filtered through their perceptions, beliefs and expectations concerning student ability and community background. Teachers valuing working with students and believing they have influence on students' achievement may prove to be significant as teachers assume more leadership roles.

Effective school leaders in particular, are good at communicating and have the aptitude and skills they need to interact well with others; they know how to communicate. The ability to communicate and listen is a characteristic commonly used to describe effective leaders. Ability to communicate with people is said to be prerequisite skill of a school principal. In addition to being able to communicate, principal are good listeners. The ability to communicate is also a characteristic of effective HOD. Principals of outstanding schools listened well to parents, teachers, and pupils. They develop one-to-one communication with teachers in the staffroom.

The communicating and listening skills of principals and teachers are an important characteristic of leaders expected to facilitate school change. It is the basis for their ability to articulate a vision, develop a shared vision, express a belief that schools are for the students' learning, and demonstrate that they value the human resources of their peers and subordinates. Being an effective communicator and listener is also a key ingredient of being proactive and taking risks, of leaders of school change.

A leader continuously scans the environment noticing where change is needed. Leaders of educational change are proactive in their efforts to change and improve their schools and districts. They are always testing the limits in an effort to change things that no one else believes can be changed. They are proactive because they challenge the status quo of their organization to respond to changes that affect the organization's business. Often these proactive leaders are described as individuals who do not accept the rules, regulations, or traditions of their schools and districts to limit their change efforts.

Leaders of educational recognize shifts in the environment and guide their organization to be responsive to those changes. They are aware of the realities of their environment and thus guide the organization to rethink the vision. This ability as organizational learning is described as understanding the changes occurring in the external environment and then adapting beliefs and behavior to be compatible with those changes. Leaders of change recognize paradigm shifts in areas such as curriculum issues, student needs, and state level policies. They also constantly scan their school noticing where change is needed. They anticipate the changing needs of their students and take the initiative to take the appropriate course of action.

Leaders of change focus the organization away from maintaining the status quo to exploring various options of the organization's vision. This leadership included the skill to access the reality of the present and determine the gaps that exist. It guides the discussion of how continuing the organization's current ways of operating shortchange the organization; thus they become advocates for a different vision. Educational leaders of change challenge the status quo of their school systems by questioning established procedures when they do not serve the needs of the students or their staff. The ethical aspect of school administrators’ decision-making includes the finding that they would use the school's structures and procedures against itself so that the ultimate client, the student, is best served. When decisions contradict the school's norms, students and their parents ought to be the primary beneficiaries of such decisions; with the school staff forming the secondary group of beneficiaries.

Effective principals are proactive and confront rather than avoid, anticipate instead of reacting to situations and circumstances; they prefer to deal with problems head-on by acting on the situation.

A successful leader is a visionary and aims at something no else can see and hits it(Blumberg and Greenfield, 1986). They are continually alert for opportunities to make things happen and if the opportunity does not present itself he creates. They do not merely accept all the rules and customs of the schools or the district in which the school is situated. He is always tests the limit in an effort to change things that no one else believes can be changed. Principals who fear to take a stand, who hesitate to initiate structure lest they be accused of being authoritarian, are disadvantaged in leading their teachers; they are likely to lose respect.

Teacher leaders were in positions created to provide assistance in instructional methods intended to improve teachers' effectiveness. One teacher leader proactively conceptualized and organized the position of teacher leader in the district. Roles are tailored to better match her knowledge and skills to perform the functions of the teacher leader position. Some of the proactive strategies they used were: write articles, present ideas at conferences, allocate money, and establish a collaborative relationship with a nearby college. Teacher leaders' proactive activities will begin to appear during the ongoing Public Service reform Programmes (PSRP)and more can be anticipated as teachers assume a more participatory role in site based management and restructuring efforts. Effective principal and teacher leadership is proactive. They initiate action, anticipate and recognize changes in their environment that will affect their schools and, by extension, their districts, and challenge the status quo, the established ways of operating, that interfere with realization of their school' vision.

Leaders of school change are a risk taker. Change is initiated by leaders who are willing to risk their reputations for the future benefit of their schools (Joiner, 1987). Risks are not taken haphazardly but tend to be considered as opportunities that will improve the organization. The risks principals take when they disobeyed or bent the rules when making ethically laden decisions as "creative insubordination" (Crowson, 1989). When a decision does not serve the needs of their students, staff or the school, a change leader chooses to disobey or at least bend it. A principal risks being 'insubordinate' in the face of norms or rules for sake of serving student, staff and school needs. The ethical choices principals had to make were such that the principal feels he owes it to his children and to his school to be insubordinate if necessary in the children's interest.

Leaders of change provide the needed stimulus for change. Calling attention to the possibilities, they take risks and encourage others to initiate change. School leaders encourage their staff to experiment with various instructional methods to meet the academic needs of the students. They guide and provoke the staff to explore options that more adequately address the needs of their students and provide the environment that makes risk-taking safer. They provide their staff with opportunities to consider and implement curriculum changes as well as encourage experimentation with different arrangements of organizational structures, such as schedules and class size. Principals that lead and guide others in school change take risks but not carelessly or without forethought. Furthermore they encourage others to be innovative by providing an environment that makes this safer.

Even though effective leaders stretch the rules, they are not rebels; they do play the game (Mazzarella and Grundy, 1989). Successful principals find it difficult to live within the constraints of the bureaucracy; they frequently violate the chain of command, seeking relief for their problems from whatever sources that were potentially useful (Becker, et al., 1971). School leaders encourage their staff to experiment with various instructional methods to meet the academic needs of the students.

Teachers' participation in the implementation of a change depended on variables including the extent that fears and uncertainties associated with the change is alleviated (Waugh and Punch, 1987). The reason for limited teacher leadership in change, which involves risk taking, was their fear of reprisal, not only from administrators but also from some of their colleagues, bureaucratic frustrations, and fear of retaliation (Nickse (1977. Generally teachers have been forced to limit themselves totally set goals, textbook data, stick to their topics.

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