"The principal is the instructional leader of the school" has been reiterated and restated repeatedly in the past 30 years. Theoretically this concept is the idea, however, the reality of building administrators' lives seldom leave appropriate time to plan, let alone implement reasonable curricular and building goals. When an administrator is new to a building, they must immediately learn about the culture and climate of the school as well as get acquainted with the faculty, staff and community leaders. This is a tall order for anyone, yet there are many outstanding site administrators who manage to do it all exceptionally well, make it look effortless and their students make impressive academic gains. This paper highlights things that should be considered in setting realistic goals for curricular and building goals. (Contains 6 online resources.)