Summary: In 2010, I had the privilege of traveling to China for ten days on an education tour.<br><br> One morning in Beijing, I headed outside the hotel before breakfast for a quick run. Later as I showered and dressed, I began to feel sick. I thought perhaps I was catching a cold or was just suffering from jet-lag. Over the next few days, we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall before heading to another city.<br> As we traveled throughout Beijing, I noticed the skies were never blue. But on our trips outside of the city, the skies cleared. When I mentioned my observation to our tour guide, he told us it had been an especially cloudy season that summer in the city. But when we left Beijing a few days later, the skies cleared again.<br> I’m sure you have heard of China’s problems with smog and pollution in its cities, but I soon realized firsthand why I felt sick when I would go running. When is the last time you thought about the air you are breathing? Not just the physical oxygen your intake, but the emotional, cultural, and relational atmospheres that surround you. Even more importantly, what kind of atmosphere are you creating for those whom you are leading? Are you helping creating an environment of clean, healthy intakes, or are you contributing to an atmosphere of cultural pollution?<br> These are important questions to reflect on as education leaders because every school or organization has a culture. And that culture significantly affects the kinds of outcomes you will have. Spend time in any school or with a team, and you soon get a feel for the positive and negative influences happening there.<br> In 2011, <a href="http://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/LeadershipMatters.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Wallace Foundation</a>, along with NAESP an NASSP, shared research showing how principal leadership ranked second only to the quality of teachers in significantly affecting school outcomes.<br> According to its findings, principal influence schools in five specific ways:<br> 1. Shaping a vision of academic success for all students, one based on high standards.<br><br> 2. Creating a climate hospitable to education in order that safety, a cooperative spirit and other foundations of fruitful interaction prevail.<br><br> 3. Cultivating leadership in others so that teachers and other adults assume their part in realizing the school vision.<br><br> 4. Improving instruction to enable teachers to teach at their best and students to learn at their utmost.<br><br> 5. Managing people, data and processes to foster school improvement (<a href="http://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/LeadershipMatters.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Source: Wallace Report</a>).<br> Your influence matters. In light of the research and practices that inform school leadership, I want to suggest five ways you can examine the kind of influence you are having –the kind of air you’re providing for others to breath in your school.<br> How’s Your Influence? 5 Questions of Reflection for Education Leaders<br> 1. Are you being a mentor?<br> I’ll never forget my first assignment as an assistant principal. The very first day of school, we encountered a student in possession of drugs on campus. My partner assistant principal at the time was Lydia Wilson. Not only did Lydia model how to interact with students and parents, she also used every opportunity to teach me basic skills like how to conduct a lawful search, to correctly document meetings, and to appropriately follow-through with disciplinary action and educational supports. Lydia was my mentor, and her influence gave me the confidence to manage future disciplinary incidents on my own.<br> Over the years, I’ve had other great mentors in supervising principals and superintendents, but I also had mentors in the years before stepping into school leadership. My college professors, internship supervisors,
