Characteristic: Communicate Clearly and Effectively

According to the book Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices,

administrators can spend approximately 80% of their time in interpersonal communication. With
that much communication taking place in the typical day of an administrator, it is important that
the communication be clear and effective. Communicating clearly and effectively helps leaders
prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. It also makes communication more efficient, allowing
people to focus on achieving the organizations goals, rather than spending more time on
clarifying things that the leader already communicated.
Instances/Examples from my Internship Where I Applied this Characteristic
1. Question from a Board Member About Industrial Development Agencies
In the first month of my internship, the Assistant Superintendent for Business asked me to
draft a response to a question from the board of education Vice President about the legislation
that enabled the creation of Industrial Development Agencies in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. I
researched the issue, located the legislation, and wrote up a clear and concise explanation, which
the Assistant Superintendent for Business thought was great and that he would send on to the
board. Part of communicating clearly and effectively is understanding your audience. In this
case, since my audience was board members whose backgrounds I was unaware of at the time
but who I knew were not lawyers, I had to be sure to avoid using legal-ease and to answer the
question using language that a lay person could understand.
2. Extraclassroom Activity Fund Manual Correspondence
My internship project was to create a manual for the districts Extraclassroom Activity
Fund. That fund encompasses all of the money that is collected and spent for the districts
extracurricular activity clubs and field trips. Having had no experience with that type of fund or

with the way in which the district currently operated its clubs, I knew that I would need input
from the districts Central Treasurers (the staff members responsible for managing the collection
and disbursement of funds at each of the districts 6 buildings) in order for the manual to be of
any value. I drafted an email which I sent to all of the Central Treasurers introducing myself and
including (i) the goal of the project, (ii) the issues that I planned to address in the manual, (iii) an
acknowledgement that I would need their help in order to make the manual the best it could
possibly be, and (iv) a request to meet with them to get their input and guidance on what they
would want to see in the manual.