I've heard a lot of great examples about role conflict and role ambiguity for nearly everyone in schools: principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, curriculum coordinators, teacher leaders, etc. The nature of our work dictates that there will likely always be some role conflict issues in our jobs, but I do think we ought to work as best we can to mitigate those problems. Especially if you are a principal, you have the capacity to assist other staff in resolving some role conflicts by being as clear with your expectations for others as possible, and clearly communicating various roles and responsibilities to all stakeholders. Making it clear who is in charge of what and supporting people in carrying out their duties is critical. (For more on this topic, see my recent article on the "ritual hazing" of assistant principals in School Administrator magazine).
A complicating point here, though, is that role conflict often emerges because of the various strengths and weaknesses in a team. When the principal doesn't nurture positive personal relationships or doesn't communicate well, for example, then another member of the leadership team -- an AP, guidance counselor, etc. -- will often take that role by default. This creates role conflict for the person who has to run interference for the principal. This doesn't mean that every principal has to be flawless with communication and impeccably skilled in relationship building. That's not realistic. If those are weaknesses, then you certainly do need to surround yourself with people who can help you improve in those areas -- but that's just it -- it's your job to improve in those areas, with their assistance, not just simply let them play those ambiguous roles with no help from you.
Part of the exhausting nature of the principalship is the feeling that you have to be all things to all people. I don't know why it is, but somehow we've developed ridiculous expectations for what principals should be like. Just consider how principals have been portrayed in pop culture. They are either bumbling buffoons with nefarious agendas (think of the administrators in Ferris Buehler's Day Off and The Breakfast Club), or they are knock-heads super heroes like Joe Clark in Lean On Me.
Our assumption seems to be that principals are either fairly worthless or they should be flawless phenoms who can single-handedly transform schools. Secretly, we want our principals to be everything: outstanding instructional leaders who nevertheless leave us alone to teach as we wish; hard-nose disciplinarians who deal with trouble-making kids (and teachers) but who also have tender hearts and are never too hard on us personally; principals who are in our classrooms all the time and know what we are doing but who don't put pressure on us to do things differently and who, nevertheless, stay on top of all the managerial elements of their job and flawlessly communicate events, schedules, timetables, and routines; family-oriented folks who never leave the building to be with their families. I could go on and on.
Everyone denies they want or expect this from a principal, of course, but there's always this secret, underlying wish that we could have one of these principals and disappointment that, invariably, we don't. I think the first major step toward resolving some role conflict for principals is to get real and allow our principals to be human. Just an example -- parents (and some teachers) think the principal should be available to them whenever they walk into the building, and most principals run and jump when a parent walks in the door because we want to be "available" and "visible" with our "open door policies" and such. Understand me -- I'm not belittling these goals. We should work toward just this kind of availability. But what other highly-trained professional is available to clients instantly on a walk-in, no-call-ahead basis? Could you imagine showing up at your doctor's office or an attorney's office with no appointment and expect to see them immediately? This is the sort of thing that exhausts principals and contributes to burnout and prematurely leaving the job for better opportunities and we have to gently but firmly begin to insist on changing people's expectations for the principal's role.
This doesn't get us off the hook, of course, and should never be used as an excuse for not improving our practice. Principals should be dedicated to relentlessly self-reflecting and improving in all aspects of their job. They should resolve to become super humans, but leave the superhumans for the comic books.
