Obviously the two things that you need to know: who are your customers and what they need, and then who are your workers and what are their strengths.
And that’s true whether you are the leader of a school. As the principal, you have to know what the students need, what children of that age need, and what the neighborhood where the children grow up needs and what the parents want, to know of that. And then you have to know your teachers; who is a good science teacher.
That would be the same whether you are a president of a school, or whether you are the CEO of a manufacturing company, or a state employee where you have to know the laws, regulations, and the heads of your business. And you have to know what the people need from the government and you try to do that.