Here's how you can overcome misconceptions when changing careers in Educational Leadership.

Let go of the fear. The fear of stepping out of your comfort zone, the fear of people judging you, the fear of not having the right skills, and so on. Take one step at a time and embrace the change you are making.

Recognize that your previous career has equipped you with valuable skills and insights that can be translated into effective leadership practices. Embrace a growth mindset by viewing challenges as opportunities for development.

I know I only got my first educational leadership position because I was not set in my ways. I believe in evolution of everything, at all points of life. Sarcopenia sets in as soon as our brains are fully formed. We must evolve, or perish, more and more quickly. The same is obviously true of educational programs and their leaders.

Language skills, the ability to raise funds from stake holders, cultural information, support for professionals, presentation, and just plain marketing and sales are all vital to be an educational leader and people often don't understand that these parts of the jobs are vital. In a school setting you need to be able to hire and retain staff too. The old charter school/bilingual school route of burning through staff is not sustainable for education or those programs.

Networking is extremely important not only to your own career growth but will give your educational community new opportunities. During my time as principal I have been able to network with not only other schools but companies such as Tesla and Mattel. These companies were able to offer our students real world learning experiences. As leaders it is vital that we reach out to the surrounding community to make things happen.

A big part of the job is whether you can connect to other people outside your program to bring benefit to your program. There are networks of people across the world who want you to be successful because if you are successful it supports their own success. Education should always demonstrate to the world what you can do and it does this through connection. This includes alumni and parents as well.

Although I come from a teaching background. Being in a leadership role many of my responsibilities pertain to marketing, salary and finance, and management. A leader coming from a business and management background would also have valuable contributions to a school community. It is still essential that a school leader have a strong background in curriculum and other academic areas.

There's so many myths about educational leadership. People don't want to believe that educational leaders run sales teams and most support capital projects. They don't want to believe that it is vital for educational leaders to insure that both administrative and maintence staff are of the highest caliber. People think that all educational leaders do is evaluate teaching staff when educational leaders must encourage teacher evolution right along with program evolution. Teachers, in turn, often think that we will never push back against parents these days but another of our roles that people don't understand is to be informed by teachers so that we can protect them from the demands of parents and stakeholders too.

The educational landscape is constantly evolving and we must prepare our students for the future. As leaders we must maintain a growth mindset and hold a love for life long learning. This will allow us to tackle challenges that may arise and ensure that our students and teachers are at the forefront of new innovations and best practices for educating our students.

If I don't gain knowledge I lose capacity. Educational leaders are expensive so it is on us to work to extend our background information and skills so that we provide value for everyone involved in our programs. Programs should obviously support professional development for leaders, whenever possible, just like for every member of staff. We move up when everyone else does.

It's important to understand what aspect of the work gives you energy. Is it working directly with students and families? Solving complex problems? Facilitating workshops? There are many meaningful paths to take in the field of education and it's important to identify where you want to make an impact. It's natural to explore different roles and experience the work at different levels. Whether you're mentoring youth, coaching teachers, allocating grants to districts or working with district leaders and legislators on policy - you will thrive where you feel you are making the greatest impact.