# Why Being a Principal Has Become Impossible | Lindsay Whorton

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/getting-smart-podcast-3462/why-being-a-principal-has-become-impossible-lindsay-whorton
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/getting-smart-podcast-3462/why-being-a-principal-has-become-impossible-lindsay-whorton.md
Podcast: [Getting Smart Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/getting-smart-podcast-3462)
Published: 2026-09-23T13:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://gettingsmart.libsyn.com/why-being-a-principal-has-become-impossible-lindsay-whorton
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/clean/secure/gettingsmart/GMT20260821-150513_Recording_640x360_1.mp4?dest-id=573092
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/getting-smart-podcast-3462/episodes/why-being-a-principal-has-become-impossible-lindsay-whorton
Duration seconds: 2766

## Resource

The job of "principal" has quietly become impossible, one person expected to coach every teacher, be the expert in every subject, set the vision, and be present in the community, all at once. In this episode, host Nate McClennen talks with Dr. Lindsay Whorton, president of the Holdsworth Center and author of "A New School Leadership Architecture," about why the traditional principal role has become unsustainable, and what school systems can do instead. Lindsay has worked with 89 school districts across Texas, growing the Holdsworth Center from just 7 districts since 2017, and lays out a four-level leadership framework built to redistribute the workload without losing accountability. They get into why 80% of principals still believe they're solely responsible for coaching every teacher in their building, despite an unrealistic span of control, what a real case study of this framework looks like in practice, and how school leaders can start figuring out what only they can actually do. Guest Links Lindsay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-whorton-9685aa26/ The Holdsworth Center: https://holdsworthcenter.org/

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## Transcript

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