This study aims to identify the school principal's training policy, after the publication of Decreto-Lei 137/2012 and Lei n.º 13.005, in 2014, in Portugal and Brazil respectively. The study is guided by the following research question: what are the initial training needs to exercise the position of school principal and what are the leadership characteristics enacted by the legislation currently both in Brazil and in Portugal. Methodologically, it was decided to carry out an integrative literature review based on the exploration of Scielo, Web Science and Google Scholar's databases. Expressions/keywords used: leader, leadership, principal, training policy and digital skills. The most determining factors considered in the studies are the initial training of the school principal and leadership characteristics. As a subfactor, the role of the principal. It was concluded that the leadership is mainly managerial, in Brazil, and transformational, in Portugal, and there are school principals working without prior and essential training for this position in both countries.