Principal turnover has the potential to impact seriously school morale and values as teachers attempt to adjust to new administrators and their possible shifts in focus. In an era of mandated school improvement, teachers in schools with new administrators have to deal not only with changes in district, state and/or provincial policies, but also with adapting to the new principal. To understand the process of adaptation, this article presents an exploration of micro-politics between teachers and principals at the time of administrator succession and notions of the changing interplay between power and authority.