Principals, as school leaders, generally follow either instructional, democratic, transformational, laissez-faire leadership styles, or a combination of them. The suitability of the style depends on staff behavior. An effective leader (either a principal or any other organizational leader) must use the right style to achieve organizational goals. Thus, leadership is a social influencing process in which a leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinates to reach organizational goals. Instructional leaders develop, direct, and supervise the curriculum and instructions.

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This leadership style establishes high expectations among teachers and students. It indicates that instructional leaders are aware of teachers’ pro-social (high expectations towards students) and psychometric (cognitive abilities such as curriculum and instructions) behavior such as cognitive abilities (curriculum and instructions). An instructional leadership style, which focuses on content, instruction, and evaluation, has a good effect on teachers’ emotional and psychological requirements. According to research, teachers who are supported by instructional leadership are more likely to express higher levels of job satisfaction, motivation, and dedication, as well as lower levels of stress and burnout. Instructional leaders frequently concentrate on developing a solid curriculum and giving instructors the tools and assistance, they require to give high-quality education. Teachers may feel that their efforts are having an impact on their students’ lives, which can give them a feeling of purpose and fulfillment.
PRINCIPALS’ LEADERSHIP STYLE
Leadership has been defined as the ability to steer a group towards a shared goal that would otherwise not be met in the leader’s absence. This ability may be explained as the style in which the leader behaves with the people they lead to attain the group objectives. For example, in the educational setting, studies exploring the perception of principals and teachers suggest that school leaders adopt various leadership styles, including autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, instructional, transformational, transactional, moral, democratic, or laissez-faire leadership to achieve educational or organizational objectives. The appropriate leadership style would depend on the school’s context and the maturity of the staff and, in practical terms, will require the school leader to adopt several leadership styles or change their style when the situation demands. This view has been corroborated in several empirical studies. For instance, principals demonstrating instructional and integrated leadership had higher student achievements, while principals demonstrating transformational leadership had higher student achievements. Nonetheless, school leadership that takes a people-first approach may be crucial in driving a positive school culture conducive to better learners’ educational outcomes.
PRINCIPALS’ LEADERSHIP STYLE AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
The term ‘academic performance’ has been described as the scholastic standing of a student at a given moment. It refers to how an individual is able to demonstrate his or her intellectual abilities. This scholastic standing could be explained as the grades obtained in a course or groups of courses taken. Performance is a measure of output and that the main outputs in education are expressed in terms of learning, that is, changes in knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals as a result of their experiences within the school's system. Principals play a significant role in determining the academic performance in secondary schools due to their varied tasks and roles together with their constant supervision of their teachers determined to a great extent the level of teacher input and students’ academic achievement. Many of them have failed in school leadership because of many management problems relating to institutional planning, human relations, discipline, instructional supervision and community relations experienced which ultimately impact on students’ academic performance. Studies carried out by many scholars indicate that students’ academic achievement is mainly dependent on environmental factors and personal factors of the students. Students’ personal factors include intelligence, discipline and personal goals. Environmental factors include the principals’ leadership style, quality and quantity of teachers and learning materials
PRINCIPALS’ ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
The principal is the chief executive of the school and occupies the apex position in the organization structure of the school. The principal is the administrator of the school. He manages both the human and material resources of the school system in other to achieve the overall objectives of the concern as stipulated by the proprietor (local, state or federal Government). The principal is the reprehensive of the Government at the operational level of the educational enterprise. This therefore implies that the school administrator has much to chew as he has to manage the socio-economic vicissitudes as well as the situational variables. The public expectations of the principal are broad and high. They expect the principal to have a clear knowledge of the goals and objectives of the school as well as the means for their attainment. The principal should possess good overall health, the capability to work with others, a good sense of humour, and above average intelligence. The principal should exude confidence and competence reflective of intensive professional training and a sound general education. The principal in an organization provides the directional framework, standard of work of subordinates, tune and tone of the school. For reasons of its key role in the success or failure of organizations, the issue of leadership has become the focus of attention of psychologists, social scientists and administrators all over the world, as it has impact on issues such as productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, staff motivation and organizational development.
THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL IN FOSTERING STAFF RELATIONSHIP IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
The success or failure of a school is determined by the principal to a large extends. Schools have various characteristics; some are attractive and agreeable places while some are squalid disagreeable places. The position of the school in terms of attractiveness depends therefore on the principal. It is the duty of the principal to keep his students happy and encourage them to come to him individually and collectively for course and guidance.
A principal who is congenial, friendly and helpful will be able to retain students longer than the principal who is opposite. In some cases, students become fed up with their job and itch to be transferred not necessarily because of where they are teaching is intolerable but their principal is unfriendly and uncooperative, and cares little about what happens to his staff. The principal needs to show some concern for the students’ problems, needs, desires and their suggestions.