Whether you’re stepping into your first principalship, taking on a superintendent role, leading a new department, or assuming responsibility for an entire organization, you’ve probably been told the same thing: You need a solid 90 day plan. I couldn’t agree more.

A clear plan gives you direction, helps you identify priorities, establish Relationships, and begin building momentum. Every new leader should spend time thinking intentionally about those first three months.

After serving as a principal and superintendent—and now Coaching leaders across the country—I’ve learned something that nobody told me when I accepted my first principalship.

Your greatest challenge won’t be creating your 90-day plan. It will be protecting it.

The reason is simple. The organization already has a plan for your first 90 days; it just doesn’t look anything like yours. Before you’ve finished unpacking your office, someone needs a decision. A staff member wants to vent. A parent requests a meeting. A budget issue lands on your desk. Student discipline demands immediate attention. Emails begin piling up, and your calendar fills itself before you’ve had a chance to decide what actually deserves your time. If you’re not intentional, you’ll spend your first 90 days working incredibly hard while making very little progress on the work that matters most.

When I became a principal, two things caught me completely off guard.

First, I underestimated how much of my job would involve leading adults. I expected to spend my days focused on students, instruction, and school improvement. Instead, I quickly discovered that personalities, conflict, communication, and poor adult decisions consumed far more of my attention than I ever imagined.

Second, I wasn’t prepared for the relentless demand on my time. The moment you’re the one making decisions, everyone wants your ear. Every request feels important. Every interruption seems urgent. Every conversation feels like one that only you can have.

Looking back, I made the same mistake I now see so many early-career leaders make. I tried to do everything for everyone. At the time, it felt like leadership. In reality, it was the beginning of unintentional micromanagement. Every problem became my problem to solve. Every decision came through me. Every question landed in my office because I believed helping everyone was simply part of the job.

The irony is that while I was trying to help everyone else succeed, I was neglecting the responsibilities that only I could fulfill. There are many things within an organization that capable people around you can and should own. When leaders refuse to let others take responsibility, they don’t create stronger organizations—they create bottlenecks. Meanwhile, the work that only the leader can do begins to suffer.

As a principal, there were three responsibilities that only I could truly own.

I had to own the vision for the school. I had to remain the primary instructional leader. And I had to be the school’s biggest champion. Those responsibilities couldn’t be delegated, yet they were often the first things pushed aside because I was so busy solving problems that others were fully capable of handling.

By my second year, the consequences had become impossible to ignore. I was missing deadlines, spending almost no time in classrooms, carrying two cell phones because I felt like I had to be available every minute of the day, skipping meals, rarely exercising, and almost never getting home on time. Eventually I reached the point where I had to admit that this wasn’t sustainable. The issue wasn’t that I wasn’t working hard enough. The issue was that I wasn’t leading intentionally enough.

That experience fundamentally changed the way I think about leadership, and it’s why the first conversation I have with almost every new leader is about priorities. Before we talk about strategic plans, difficult conversations, or instructional leadership, we talk about time.

You have to get crystal clear on your priorities, and then you have to protect them.

Taking ownership of your time isn’t selfish, nor is it neglecting your people. It’s one of the most important leadership responsibilities you have because your organization doesn’t need a leader who is available for everything. It needs a leader who remains focused on the work that only they can do.

There will always be another email, another meeting, another interruption, and another crisis competing for your attention. If you allow everyone else’s priorities to dictate your calendar, you’ll wake up months later wondering why you’ve been so busy yet accomplished so little of what truly matters. Leadership isn’t about responding to every demand. It’s about intentionally creating the conditions where other people can do their best work. Sometimes that means saying no. Sometimes it means delegating. Sometimes it means allowing someone else to solve a problem they are fully capable of solving. And sometimes it simply means protecting two hours on your calendar to be in classrooms because no one else can fulfill that responsibility for you.

Your first 90 days will never go exactly as planned.

Don’t measure your success by how perfectly you followed the plan. Measure it by whether you stayed focused on your priorities. That’s how you become the leader your organization needs you to be.

Darrin Peppard Dr. Darrin Peppard

Dr. Darrin Peppard is an author, leadership coach, consultant, and speaker focused on organizational culture and climate, and growing emerging leaders. Darrin is the best-selling author of the book Road to Awesome, and is the host of the Leaning into Leadership podcast. As a ‘recovering high school principal’, Darrin shares strategies and lessons learned from 26 years in public education to help leaders gain clarity, find joy in their work, and walk in their purpose.