The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perspectives of novice New York City public school principals to understand if their individualized, in-service novice principal training, either mentoring or coaching, during Year One of their principalships impacted their sense of self-efficacy and influenced their decision to continue or discontinue this type of training beyond their first year. Did this sense of efficacy contribute to their ability to reach their goals related to student achievement? Given that these principals experienced the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, the study sought to capture how they experienced leadership challenges as well as how their perceptions of their leadership and their sense of self-efficacy were affected. By analyzing the lived experiences of 12 novice principals, the researcher identified six key findings that revealed significant perceptions of their individualized in-service training and its impact on their self-efficacy. Recommendations for policy include shifting state policy on mentoring, monitoring of novice principals' self-efficacy, mentor and coach crisis training, and reimaging principal preparation programs. Recommendations for future research on novice principals include conducting research on those who choose to discontinue mentoring or coaching, research on student achievement post-pandemic, studying this research topic with diverse participants and other settings and the impact of the mentor/coach matching process on principal self-efficacy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]