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The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a journal. Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

Hold yourself accountable. If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being calm. The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.

How can you improve your motivation?

Re-examine why you're doing your job. It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way. And make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing. For more on this, see our article on Goal Setting.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.

If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.

How can you improve your empathy?

Respond to feelings. You ask your assistant to work late - again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social Skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: they set an example with their own behavior.

So, how can you build social skills?

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership - Learning How to Be More Aware

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Relating to others is vital in today's workplace. Learn how to build your emotional intelligence (EI) with this article.

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When most people imagine intelligence, they picture a mathematician solving equations, a novelist writing great works of literature or a philosopher expounding on wise principles.

But brilliance takes many forms, not least of which is the ability to comprehend and manage emotions. Known as emotional intelligence, this trait is often overlooked, yet crucial for success as a business leader.

Here's what having emotional intelligence provides you with:
Acute Awareness
One of the defining features of emotional intelligence is the ability to comprehend the effects of your feelings. This is crucial for making sound, objective decisions when your pride and self-esteem are at stake. All leaders must face situations where their emotions make a decision seem better than it is.

If you previously expressed support for a certain strategy, for example, your pride will be tied up with that strategy, making it harder to recognize if it isn't working. Leaders who have emotional intelligence are more likely to realize when pride and other emotions are influencing their thinking, allowing them to make more rational, impartial choices.
Impact Interpretation
In addition to reigning in your own feelings, emotional intelligence makes it easier to anticipate and respond to others' sentiments. As much as we may want for it to be objective, business is an emotional experience.

Bad news from work can shock or dismay your employees, while good news may make them unreasonably optimistic. Emotional intelligence means you can tell ahead of time how others will react and develop a strategy to keep them grounded.
Mental Health Management
Those with emotional intelligence have an easier time assessing the emotional and psychological state of their employees. This makes it easier to determine if someone is suffering from:

* Anxiety

* Depression

* Grief

* Trauma

* Eating disorders

By recognizing threats to your employees' mental health, you can provide them with the support and professional resources they need to recover. Not only is this good for their health but it promotes a more harmonious, productive workplace.
Cultivated Communication
Leaders with emotional intelligence have an improved ability to gauge others' responses to their words and actions. This makes it easier for you to tell if your employees really understand what you are saying or are confused but unwilling to say so. You can then refine your messages accordingly, developing reliable ways of communicating with everyone who works for you.

Emotional intelligence also makes it easier for you to listen to what other people are saying clearly and without judgment, ensuring that others can always give you the information you need.
Helpful Humor
Never underestimate the value of humor in business. A good joke or clever play on words can cheer up dismayed employees, win over skeptical customers and draw positive attention to your brand. If you have emotional intelligence, it will be easier to tell what people will find funny. You can also determine in which situations humor will be appropriate, finding the proper balance between serious work and lightheartedness.

While intelligence is important, emotional intelligence is a key to success in leadership and in being able to relate to others. When dealing with others, truly try to place yourself in their situation. It will help you choose the best method to solve problems and achieve your goals.

How has emotional intelligence helped you to make sound and informed decisions?

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Council Post: Why Emotional Intelligence Is Indispensable For Leaders

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When most people imagine intelligence, they picture a mathematician solving equations, a novelist writing great works of literature or a philosopher expounding on wise principles. But brilliance takes many forms, not least of which is the ability to comprehend and manage emotions.

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Research by the respected Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in the U.S. found that the primary causes of executive derailment involve deficiencies in emotional competence. Each year, CCL serves more than 20,000 individuals and 2,000 organizations, including more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies. It says the three main reasons for failure are difficulty in handling change, inability to work well in a team, and poor interpersonal relations.

International search firm Egon Zehnder International analyzed 515 senior executives and discovered that those who were strongest in emotional intelligence were more likely to succeed than those strongest in either IQ or relevant previous experience. Research that has been done on the relationship between emotional intelligence (EQ) and IQ has shown only a weak correlation between the two.

The Carnegie Institute of Technology carried out research that showed that 85% of our financial success was due to skills in "human engineering", personality, and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. They found that only 15% was due to technical ability. In other words people skills or skills highly related to emotional intelligence were crucial skills. Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don't, even if that that person is offering a better product at a lower price.

People would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don't, even if that that person is offering a better product at a lower price.

To test out his findings, think of the last time you purchased a major item, a home, automobile, or large appliance where you had to dealings with a salesperson. Was the person someone who you liked and trusted? In my talks, I have found that whenever I asked that question, inevitably the entire audience answered that, yes, the person they bought a large item from was someone they liked and trusted. This theory about why salespeople with the right people skills do better than those who lack them is borne out by a study carried out by the Hay/McBer Research and Innovation Group in 1997. In a study carried out in a large national insurance company in 1997, they found that sales agents weak in emotional areas such as self-confidence, initiative, and empathy sold policies with an average premium of $54,000, while those strong in 5 of 8 emotional competencies sold policies on the average worth $114,000.

Much of the research that has been done on emotional intelligence has been at the executive leadership level. The higher up the organization, the more crucial emotional intelligence abilities are as the impacts are greater and felt throughout the entire organization. There have been some studies, however, that show impacts at all levels.

The higher up the organization the more crucial emotional intelligence abilities are as the impacts are greater and felt throughout the entire organization.

For example, a study by McClelland in 1999 showed that after supervisors in a manufacturing plant received training in emotional competencies such as how to listen better, lost-time accidents decreased by 50% and grievances went down from 15 per year to three. The plant itself exceeded productivity goals by $250,000.

The same principles apply in all areas of life, whether at work or in relationships. Everyone wants to work with people who are easy to get along with, supportive, likeable, and can be trusted. We want to be beside people that do not get upset easily and can keep their composure when things do not work out according to plan.

Self-awareness. The first thing that is essential for any degree of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. People with a high degree of self-awareness have a solid understanding of their own emotions, their strengths, weaknesses, and what drives them. Neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful, these people are honest with themselves and others. These people recognize how their feelings impact them, other people around them, and their performance at work. They have a good understanding of their values and goals and where they are going in life. They are confident as well as aware of their limitations and less likely to set themselves up for failure.

We can recognize self-aware people by their willingness to talk about themselves in a frank, non-defensive manner. A good interview question is to ask about a time that the interviewee got carried away by their emotions and did something they later regretted. The self-aware person will be open and frank with their answers. Self-deprecating humor is a good indicator of someone who has good self-awareness. Red flags are people who stall or try to avoid the question, seem irritated, or frustrated by the question.

Ability To Self-Regulate Emotions. We all have emotions which drive us and there is nothing we can do to avoid them. People who are good at self-regulation, however, are able to manage their emotions so that they do not control their words and actions. While they feel bad moods and impulses as much as anyone else, they do not act upon them. People who act upon their negative feelings create havoc, disruptions, and lasting bad feelings all around them. We feel before we think and people who constantly react from an emotional state never wait long enough to allow their thoughts to override their emotions.

People who self-regulate have the ability to wait until their emotions pass, allowing them to respond from a place of reason, rather than simply reacting to feelings. The signs of someone who is good at self-regulation are reflection, thoughtfulness, comfort with ambiguity, change, and not having all the answers. In an interview, look for people who take a little time to reflect and think before they answer.

Empathy. Empathy is another important aspect to look for when hiring. Someone who has empathy will have an awareness of the feelings of others and consider those feelings in their words and actions. This does not mean that they will tiptoe around or be unwilling to make tough decisions for fear of hurting someone's feelings. It simply means that they are aware of, and take into consideration the impact on others. They are willing to share their own worries and concerns and openly acknowledge other's emotions. A good way to look for empathy in an interview is to ask a candidate about a situation where a co-worker was angry with them and how they dealt with it. Look for a willingness to understand the source of the co-workers anger, even though they may not agree with the reasons for it.

Social skills. Social skill is another area of emotional intelligence that is highly important in the workplace. To have good social skills requires a high level of the other skills aforementioned as well as the ability to relate and find common ground with a wide range of people. It goes beyond just friendliness and the ability to get along with others.

People with social skills are excellent team players as they have the ability to move an agenda along and keep focus while at the same time remaining aware of the emotional climate of the group and possess the ability to respond to it. These people are excellent at making connections, networking, and bringing people together to work on projects. They are able to bring their emotional intelligence skills into play in a larger arena. To look for social skills in an interview, ask questions related to projects and difficulties encountered around varying agendas, temperaments, and getting people to buy in.

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Why Emotionally Intelligent People Are More Successful

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Research by the respected Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) in the U.S. found that the primary causes of executive derailment involve deficiencies in emotional competence. Each year, CCL serves more than 20,000 individuals and 2,000 organizations, including more than 80 of the Fortune 100 companies.

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In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil.

Some of the greatest moments in human history were fueled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his dream, he chose language that would stir the hearts of his audience. "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation" to liberty, King thundered, "America has given the Negro people a bad check." He promised that a land "sweltering with the heat of oppression" could be "transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice," and envisioned a future in which "on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

Delivering this electrifying message required emotional intelligence-the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. Dr. King demonstrated remarkable skill in managing his own emotions and in sparking emotions that moved his audience to action. As his speechwriter Clarence Jones reflected, King delivered "a perfectly balanced outcry of reason and emotion, of anger and hope. His tone of pained indignation matched that note for note."
Emotional intelligence is important, but the unbridled enthusiasm has obscured a dark side.
Recognizing the power of emotions, another one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century spent years studying the emotional effects of his body language. Practicing his hand gestures and analyzing images of his movements allowed him to become "an absolutely spellbinding public speaker," says the historian Roger Moorhouse-"it was something he worked very hard on." His name was Adolf Hitler.

Since the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman's bestseller, emotional intelligence has been touted by leaders, policymakers, and educators as the solution to a wide range of social problems. If we can teach our children to manage emotions, the argument goes, we'll have less bullying and more cooperation. If we can cultivate emotional intelligence among leaders and doctors, we'll have more caring workplaces and more compassionate healthcare. As a result, emotional intelligence is now taught widely in secondary schools, business schools, and medical schools.

Emotional intelligence is important, but the unbridled enthusiasm has obscured a dark side. New evidence shows that when people hone their emotional skills, they become better at manipulating others. When you're good at controlling your own emotions, you can disguise your true feelings. When you know what others are feeling, you can tug at their heartstrings and motivate them to act against their own best interests.

Social scientists have begun to document this dark side of emotional intelligence. In emerging research led by University of Cambridge professor Jochen Menges, when a leader gave an inspiring speech filled with emotion, the audience was less likely to scrutinize the message and remembered less of the content. Ironically, audience members were so moved by the speech that they claimed to recall more of it.

The authors call this the awestruck effect, but it might just as easily be described as the dumbstruck effect. One observer reflected that Hitler's persuasive impact came from his ability to strategically express emotions-he would "tear open his heart"-and these emotions affected his followers to the point that they would "stop thinking critically and just emote."
"Whenever we wanted to persuade our staff to support a particular project we always tried to break their hearts."
Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our capacities to reason. If their values are out of step with our own, the results can be devastating. New evidence suggests that when people have self-serving motives, emotional intelligence becomes a weapon for manipulating others. In a study led by the University of Toronto psychologist Stéphane Côté, university employees filled out a survey about their Machiavellian tendencies, and took a test measuring their knowledge about effective strategies for managing emotions. Then, Cote's team assessed how often the employees deliberately undermined their colleagues. The employees who engaged in the most harmful behaviors were Machiavellians with high emotional intelligence. They used their emotional skills to demean and embarrass their peers for personal gain. In one computer company studied by Tel-Aviv University professor Gideon Kunda, a manager admitted to telling a colleague "how excited we all are with what he is doing," but at the same time, "distancing my organization from the project," so "when it blows up," the company's founder would blame the colleague.

Shining a light on this dark side of emotional intelligence is one mission of a research team led by University College London professor Martin Kilduff. According to these experts, emotional intelligence helps people disguise one set of emotions while expressing another for personal gain. Emotionally intelligent people "intentionally shape their emotions to fabricate favorable impressions of themselves," Professor Kilduff's team writes. "The strategic disguise of one's own emotions and the manipulation of others' emotions for strategic ends are behaviors evident not only on Shakespeare's stage but also in the offices and corridors where power and influence are traded."

Of course, people aren't always using emotional intelligence for nefarious ends. More often than not, emotional skills are simply instrumental tools for goal accomplishment. In a study of emotions at the Body Shop, a research team led by Stanford professor Joanne Martin discovered that founder Anita Roddick leveraged emotions to inspire her employees to fundraise for charity. As Roddick explained, "Whenever we wanted to persuade our staff to support a particular project we always tried to break their hearts." However, Roddick also encouraged employees to be strategic in the timing of their emotion expressions. In one case, after noticing that an employee often "breaks down in tears with frustration," Roddick said it was acceptable to cry, but "I told her it has to be used. I said, 'Here, cry at this point in the ... meeting." When viewing Roddick as an exemplar of an emotionally intelligent leader, it becomes clear that there's a fine line between motivation and manipulation. Walking that tightrope is no easy task.
In jobs that required extensive attention to emotions, higher emotional intelligence translated into better performance. In jobs that involved fewer emotional demands, the results reversed.
In settings where emotions aren't running high, emotional intelligence may have hidden costs. Recently, psychologists Dana Joseph of the University of Central Florida and Daniel Newman of the University of Illinois comprehensively analyzed every study that has ever examined the link between emotional intelligence and job performance. Across hundreds of studies of thousands of employees in 191 different jobs, emotional intelligence wasn't consistently linked with better performance. In jobs that required extensive attention to emotions, higher emotional intelligence translated into better performance. Salespeople, real-estate agents, call-center representatives, and counselors all excelled at their jobs when they knew how to read and regulate emotions-they were able to deal more effectively with stressful situations and provide service with a smile.

However, in jobs that involved fewer emotional demands, the results reversed. The more emotionally intelligent employees were, the lower their job performance. For mechanics, scientists, and accountants, emotional intelligence was a liability rather than an asset. Although more research is needed to unpack these results, one promising explanation is that these employees were paying attention to emotions when they should have been focusing on their tasks. If your job is to analyze data or repair cars, it can be quite distracting to read the facial expressions, vocal tones, and body languages of the people around you. In suggesting that emotional intelligence is critical in the workplace, perhaps we've put the cart before the horse.

Instead of assuming that emotional intelligence is always useful, we need to think more carefully about where and when it matters. In a recent study at a healthcare company, I asked employees to complete a test about managing and regulating emotions, and then asked managers to evaluate how much time employees spent helping their colleagues and customers. There was no relationship whatsoever between emotional intelligence and helping: Helping is driven by our motivations and values, not by our abilities to understand and manage emotions. However, emotional intelligence was consequential when examining a different behavior: challenging the status quo by speaking up with ideas and suggestions for improvement.

Emotionally intelligent employees spoke up more often and more effectively. When colleagues were treated unjustly, they felt the righteous indignation to speak up, but were able to keep their anger in check and reason with their colleagues. When they went out on a limb to advocate for gender equity, emotional intelligence helped them keep their fear at bay. When they brought ideas for innovation to senior leaders, their ability to express enthusiasm helped them avoid threatening leaders. On a much smaller scale, they were able to follow Martin Luther King Jr.'s lead in rocking the boat while keeping it steady.

More than two decades have passed since psychologists Peter Salovey at Yale and John Mayer at the University of New Hampshire introduced the concept of emotional intelligence in 1990. Why has it taken us so long to develop a more nuanced view? After Daniel Goleman popularized the idea in 1995, many researchers-perhaps awestruck themselves by enthusiasm for the concept of emotional intelligence-proceeded to conduct studies that were fatally flawed. As University of Lausanne professor John Antonakis observed, "practice and voodoo science is running way ahead of rigorous research."

One of the most persistent problems was the use of self-report measures, which asked employees to rate their own emotional abilities on items like "I can tell how people are feeling even if they never tell me" and "I am generally very good at calming someone down when he or she is upset." Abilities cannot be accurately measured with self-reports. As emotion experts Sigal Barsade of Wharton and Donald Gibson of Fairfield University lament, "One might compare this approach to assessing mathematical skills by asking respondents, 'How good are you at solving algebraic equations?' rather than asking the person to actually solve an algebraic equation."

Thanks to more rigorous research methods, there is growing recognition that emotional intelligence-like any skill-can be used for good or evil. So if we're going to teach emotional intelligence in schools and develop it at work, we need to consider the values that go along with it and where it's actually useful. As Professor Kilduff and colleagues put it, it is high time that emotional intelligence is "pried away from its association with desirable moral qualities."

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In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil. Some of the greatest moments in human history were fueled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Emotional Inteligence - A Minute With John Maxwell, Free Coaching Video

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Discussion 4

There are many ways for teachers to work collaboratively and many ways for schools to become more collaborative workplaces. In a school where teachers have had little experience of collaboration, a small group of faculty could start by setting up regular, informal conversations about lesson plans. In a school or district with an ambitious agenda to foster collaboration, administrators could reorganize schedules, reallocate staffing and devote other resources to supporting more effective collaboration. Educators could introduce elements of collaboration into their existing approaches to work, or they could embrace collaboration so that it transforms everything that teachers, principals and students do.

This discussion describes a number of collaborative practices. You don't need to choose only one. These practices are often combined and used together.

A) Mentoring

In mentoring relationships, a teacher may work with another teacher whom he or she views as more experienced or knowledgeable in a particular area. Mentors may observe their mentees teaching and provide constructive feedback or invite the mentee to watch them teach to learn by example. Mentors and mentees could also co-plan lessons or units of study by designing with particular student learning needs in mind, such as those of English-language learners. Some schools make explicit roles for mentors among the ranks of their teachers, particularly for helping beginning teachers, guiding teachers who are new to the particular schools-possibly as part of an induction process-or assisting teachers who are adapting to new grade levels, content areas, pedagogies or instructional goals. Some schools make mentoring a routine practice for all teachers to help them develop skills and knowledge. Principals can play important roles in mentoring approaches and in creating an atmosphere where all teachers, new and continuing, are able to work with their colleagues.

Consider:

Mentoring can be helpful for teachers who want to collaborate on a smaller scale.

Mentoring can be challenging if the faculty consists mostly of beginning teachers.

Mentoring requires teacher trust and administrator buy-in to be effective.

Mentoring need not be reserved only for teachers construed to be in need of help. It can be part of a routine, continuous improvement process for all teachers.

Evidence for the effectiveness of mentoring at improving student outcomes is mixed: One large experimental study found a mentoring program improved student outcomes under certain conditions, but another large experimental study found that two comprehensive mentoring programs did not improve student outcomes.¹⁷

Questions to ask:

Who at your school is already acting in a mentor role? What successes and challenges have you observed in mentoring relationships?

Can schedules be arranged so that teachers have common, regular time and space for mentoring during the school day?

Does the mentoring at your school take place as part of an induction process? If so, is it mainly at the beginning of the year or does it extend throughout the school year, or even beyond an initial year?

B) Teacher teams

The term "teams" is often used in K-12 education to refer to entire staffs of teachers, within grade levels or departments, for example. This term does not automatically imply that any collaborative activities take place. But if existing teams are leveraged, they can be obvious places to spur more collaborative work. Collaborative teacher teams can be organized and structured in a variety of ways, for a variety of purposes. Collaborative teams can be organized to bring together teachers within a department or grade level, or they can focus on specific issues such as improving reading across the curriculum.

Consider:

Teamwork can require buy-in and support from other teachers, staff and principals whose work may be affected by the team's work or may need to change in order for the team to reach its goals.

Teams can develop and use a combination of formal and informal assessment techniques to understand student learning and identify areas for growth.

Effective teamwork may require teachers to build their data literacy to understand how and how well students are learning.

Teams are made up of people with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives that affect how and how well they work together.¹⁸ Teams have purposes that can shift and processes that can improve over time.¹⁹

Alongside this task-oriented work, teams also have to manage the social and emotional needs of their members to ensure feelings of belonging and value to the group.

Questions to ask:

Some teams are more effective than others. How can you ensure that teachers use their teamwork time effectively?

Who will facilitate teams' work, and how might that role conflict with the facilitators' other responsibilities?

Can schedules be arranged so that teachers have common, regular time and space to work together during the school day or week?

C) Professional communities or professional learning communities

Professional communities, or professional learning communities (PLCs), are an approach to school improvement that includes teamwork but extends beyond teams. A professional community is usually understood to comprise a group of people across a school who are engaged in common work; share a set of values, norms and orientations toward teaching, students and schooling; and operate collaboratively with structures that foster interdependence. This approach to school improvement is undergirded by the ideas that teachers sharing knowledge and learning actively with one another will improve their instruction and their students' achievements and that structure and support are required for these exchanges to occur at the frequency and depth that are necessary for them to be beneficial.

Consider:

Professional communities can be implemented in different ways-some are more robust and effective than others.

Creating professional communities requires buy-in and support from teachers, principals and other staff in the school.

In professional communities, teachers take collective responsibility for improving the school as a whole, which means teachers focus not just on their own classrooms, but on their colleagues' classrooms as well. This way of working could seem like a challenge to some teachers' notions of autonomy.

Teacher leadership and teacher agency can help these communities succeed.

PLCs can be polarizing: A survey found substantial dissatisfaction among teachers with PLCs as a form of professional development in their schools but substantial support among educational leaders for devoting more resources to PLCs.²⁰

Questions to ask:

How will professional communities maintain respect for diverse points of view and protect teachers' autonomy while fostering collaboration that supports learning for all students?

Can schedules be arranged so that teachers have common, regular time to work together during the school day or week?

How will teachers work together effectively in a professional community?

Is there sufficient support from the principal or school leadership to help ensure that the professional community functions effectively?

What can research tell us about professional communities?
Based on their research on school organizational features and student achievement outcomes in Chicago public elementary schools, researchers from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research led by Anthony Bryk acknowledged that working a professional community represents a very new arrangement for teachers, one dependent on collaboration. It makes their work public to their colleagues, requires critical questions and relies on a shared commitment to student improvement. ²¹ Yet in their study, schools characterized by a strong professional community were about four times as likely to see a substantial improvement in students' reading and math scores than schools that had a weak professional community. ²²
Do you think your school could build a professional community? Why or why not?
D) Lesson study

In "lesson study," teachers work together to design, teach, observe, analyze and revise lessons. First developed in Japan, lesson study has been called "classroom-based collaborative research "that is designed and undertaken by teachers. The idea is for teachers to focus on a lesson-studying it closely and collaboratively, deliberating and sharing ideas about it. The process typically works as follows: A group of teachers reviews a curriculum and works together to identify goals for student learning and to co-design a lesson. They conduct a live classroom lesson led by one teacher and observed by the rest, who collect data and make observations on teaching and learning during the lesson. Teachers then meet to discuss and reflect on the data to evaluate the lesson on whether and how it achieved the student learning goals. In some cases, the group of teachers will then redesign the lesson and repeat the process. This process can be reiterated multiple times with the same lesson, and then it can be conducted with a new lesson. The practice is designed to lead to slow but steady change.

Consider:

Implementing lesson study requires frequent learning opportunities for teachers to understand and become familiar with this practice and the theory behind it.

Japan saw sustained high levels of student achievement during the 20th century, and the institutionalized use of lesson study in Japanese schools suggests a relationship between lesson study and improvements in student achievement.

Lesson study has not been widely adopted in schools in the United States.²³

Questions to ask:

Are there teacher leaders who can facilitate lesson study, or do you need to seek out outside help?
QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES:

Are there any other practices that you ought to consider in addition to these four?

Which seems most promising as a way to work more collaboratively? Why?

Next: Discussion 5
Endnotes

¹⁷ Steven Glazerman, Eric Isenberg, Sarah Dolfin et al., "Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction: Final Results from a Randomized Controlled Study," NCEE 2010-4027 (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2010); John P. Papay, Eric S. Taylor, John H. Tyler and Mary Laski, "Learning Job Skills from Colleagues at Work: Evidence from a Field Experiment Using Teacher Performance Data," No. w21986 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016), 3.

¹⁸ Steve W. J. Kozlowski and Bradford S. Bell, "Work Groups and Teams in Organizations," in W. C. Borman, D. R. Ilgen, and R. J. Klimoski, eds., Handbook of Psychology, vol. 12: Industrial and Organizational Psychology (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 344-46.

¹⁹ Ibid., 357-80.

²⁰ Boston Consulting Group, "Teachers Know Best: Teachers' Views on Professional Development," (Seattle, Wash.: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014), 5, https://s3.amazonaws.com/edtech-production/reports/Gates-PDMarketResearch-Dec5.pdf.

²¹ Anthony S. Bryk, Penny Bender Sebring, Elaine Allensworth, Stuart Luppescu et al., Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 56.

²³ Rebecca R. Perry and Catherine C. Lewis, "What Is Successful Adaptation of Lesson Study in the US?" Journal of Educational Change 10, no. 4 (2009): 365-91.

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Discussion 4 There are many ways for teachers to work collaboratively and many ways for schools to become more collaborative workplaces. In a school where teachers have had little experience of collaboration, a small group of faculty could start by setting up regular, informal conversations about lesson plans.

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Some years ago, when I was speaking to a group of executives about change leadership, the topic of collaboration came up as a corporate initiative many in the audience were dealing with. On a whim I asked, "How many of you are totally comfortable sharing information with others in your organization?" I was astonished when out of an audience of about 200, only three hands went up. Clearly, if the people responsible for managing, creating, and promoting collaboration were uncomfortable doing it themselves, we were looking at a big problem -- a human problem. And that's the element that always interests me, because understanding people is at the heart of all successful leadership strategies.

With collaboration, for example, there are two basic instincts that are automatically triggered under different circumstances: hoarding and sharing. The instinct to hoard can be traced back to early humans hoarding vital supplies, like food, out of fear of not having enough. The more food they put away, the safer they felt. In an evolutionary sense, those who hoarded food and other basic necessities, were better off, healthier, and produced more offspring.

This emotional attachment to our possessions has been hard-wired into our brains to help us survive. And, still today, whenever we feel threatened, fearful, distrustful or insecure, the "hoarding gene" kicks into high gear, urging us to hold on tightly to whatever we possess - including knowledge.

Some corporate policies unwittingly trigger knowledge hoarding. When an organization's evaluation, promotion and compensation systems are based on relative numbers and individual achievements, it reinforces the perception is that sharing knowledge reduces the chance of personal success.

Some managers undermine collaboration by their own hoarding behavior -- withholding information from their team or doling it out on a "needs to know" basis. And some bosses ask for their staffs' input, when what they really want is a "rubber stamp" for decisions already made.

On the other hand . . . humans are also a learning, teaching, knowledge-sharing species. This too has been hard-wired in us. Experiments at Notre Dame support the notion that cooperation helped our ancient ancestors survive. Computer simulations add to real world evidence that teamwork in early humans was critical.

There are leaders at all levels of an organization who create a collaborative environment within their work group or team by nurturing the conditions under which people naturally want to share and support one another. These successful individuals realize that people are inspired to collaborate when they are part of something that has meaning, when they feel safe, and when they are valued as contributors.

Here are seven leadership actions that inspire collaboration:

1. Take the time and effort necessary to make people feel secure and appreciated. Co-create "rules of engagement" that outline the ways in which your team members agree to treat one another.

2. Let your team know why this project is important (you'd be surprised to know how often this is not done) and then set clear expectations for group outcomes and individual roles.

3.Build trust by displaying trustworthiness - be consistent, candid, open, vulnerable, and supportive.

4. Tell stories to build community, create a shared identity, and help people learn from successes and failures.

5. Respect and encourage diversity - of background, of experience, of opinion, of thinking.

6. Provide opportunities for team members to interact with one another and with other parts of the organization in order to develop relationships that are the bedrock of collaboration.

7. Watch your body language. Collaborative leaders don't just say they want everyone's input, they send nonverbal signals of inclusion -- giving people their full attention, listening carefully, and making positive eye contact.

Collaboration is also intrinsically inspiring because it has an emotional payoff. People like being part of a winning team, and as one collaborative leader told me: "There is a phenomenal sense of accomplishment in achieving as a group what could never have been achieved as individuals."

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Seven Ways To Inspire Your Team To Collaborate

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Some years ago, when I was speaking to a group of executives about change leadership, the topic of collaboration came up as a corporate initiative many in the audience were dealing with. On a whim I asked, "How many of you are totally comfortable sharing information with others in your organization?"

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At our Presidential Leadership Scholars weekend in College Station, Texas, John Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire and George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, recounted President Bush's first meeting with French president Francois Mitterrand upon assuming office in 1989. U.S. relations with France were strained, and while there was no immediate need for joint U.S. and French action at the time, President Bush knew that sometime he would need America's old ally and wanted to repair relations with its leader.

As recorded in Sununu's The Quiet Man, President Bush invited Mitterrand to his home in Kennebunkport, and over two days he began to win over the veteran statesman, developing a lasting friendship and professional partnership. This relationship, authentically cultivated, paid extraordinary dividends when President Bush was able to use his partnership with Mitterrand to negotiate financial assistance to Poland and Hungary in 1989 and the eventual reunification of East and West Germany.

This "relational" approach to leadership was core to President Bush's values and personality. And in the broader world, relational leadership-the longstanding and almost instinctive cultivation of close personal and professional relationships as an entre to building alliances and partnerships-is common. It's prevalent in politics, where relationships among legislators and community members often lead to compromise, and in business, where trust is such an essential component of partnership.

So, how is relational leadership cultivated?

It starts with a genuine interest in others. President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff and Transportation Secretary Andy Card said of the President, "President George H.W. Bush created personal relationships with everyone he could. That personal connection could become a strategic partnership when it needed to be. It was universal but sincere." I've seen the same in my career. When I was a new business analyst at McKinsey, for example, a senior director in the office took an interest in me and counseled me, even though I would never be useful to him. And most of us have benefited from peers or mentors who have befriended us and then aided us in the cultivation of our careers. These friendships aren't purely instrumental but authentic, sincere and driven by a genuine interest in others.

Relational leadership is further predicated on empathy-understanding others and meeting them where they are. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, President Bush was criticized for his subdued response. Some wanted the president to celebrate more visibly. But President Bush knew how tense a political moment the event was for Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and sensitive to his relationship with Gorbachev and the fragility of the moment, the American president avoided the kind of gloating that may have made the situation more challenging for the general secretary to manage. This was an important gesture and one for which President Bush was misunderstood and criticized. But, as Sununu notes in The Quiet Man, it displayed empathy for Gorbachev and strengthened their partnership. Similarly, we're experiencing a heightened cultural appreciation now for former television host Fred Rogers based at least partially on his remarkable empathy. Mr. Rogers is the subject of a new documentary and a forthcoming feature film -and much of what makes him so unique and so compelling is the deep empathy he so regularly displayed for everyone he met, particularly children and the vulnerable. This empathy and kindness left even casual acquaintances transformed by their interactions with him and was a critical foundation of his leadership. It's similarly essential for each of us.

Further, this authentic and empathetic relational leadership is nurtured by small and large gestures of friendship. As I've written elsewhere, I once worked with a woman at a DC-area organization who was exceptional about spending time with even the most junior members of her organization and making them feel special. She took me to lunch and subsequently mailed me a book about which we'd spoken and a handwritten note-a kindness I appreciate to this day. Similarly, President Bush frequently wrote handwritten notes to friends and partners around the world. And while his subdued reaction to the fall of the Berlin wall was a grand gesture, he also made small gestures to reinforce relationships. Genuine interest in and excitement for others manifests in gestures and signals that you value and understand them.

Finally, while relational leadership is personal by nature, it can be powerfully embedded in the culture of an organization or team. Speaking of the Bush White House, Governor Sununu said, "President George H.W. Bush's commitment to collegiality was contagious. We all worked hard to maintain that." A culture that prioritizes authentic relationships starts at the top and cascades through an organization. In my time as a management consultant, I worked for several partners who prioritized collegiality among their teams-hosting kick-off dinners for us to get to know each other, planning team events to encourage bonding and insisting on respectful treatment of all colleagues-and that top-down leadership transformed the groups with which they worked.

Relational leadership can be incredibly successful, particularly when it is authentic, empathetic, reinforced through gestures of friendship and embedded in the culture of a team. It's not the only style of leadership, but can be powerful and personally fulfilling.
This article is part of a six-part series on leadership lessons from presidents that includes "Searching For The Right Leadership Style," "The Power Of Relational Leadership," "The Simple Power Of Connected Communication," "How A President Makes A Decision That Matters," "The Johnson Treatment: Pushing and Persuading Like LBJ" and "Life Is Worth Living In Three Dimensions."

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At our Presidential Leadership Scholars weekend in College Station, Texas, John Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire and George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, recounted President Bush's first meeting with French president Francois Mitterrand upon assuming office in 1989. U.S. relations with France were strained, and while there was no immediate need for joint U.S.

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Knowing which leadership style is most effective for your team can make a big difference in employee morale and development. Relational leadership emphasizes building relationships in the workplace and using those relationships to work toward a common goal. Understanding more about relational leadership can help you decide if it may help you in your management or team leadership. In this article, we explore what relational leadership is, its five principles, the benefits of implementing relational leadership and five helpful tips for implementing it.

Related: The Concept of Leadership Explained: Cultivating Effective Leadership

What is relational leadership?

Relational leadership is a model of leadership that suggests the effectiveness of a leader and relates their ability to develop positive relationships within an organization. It also relates to the process of people working together to achieve the greater good or accomplish a positive change in the workplace. Relational leaders use empathy skills to empower their teams to build strength in their current skills and develop new skills. The goal for a relational leader is to instill professional growth in their employees through positive social development and growth to achieve a common goal.

Related: 10 Common Leadership Styles (Plus How To Find Your Own)

Principles of relational leadership

There are five components of relational leadership:

Ethics are the moral values that drive a leader to make a decision or to generate an outcome. Relational leaders typically have deep moral values and ethical approaches to decision-making procedures. Relational leadership styles use ethics to shape leadership behaviors to ensure the leader exemplifies behaviors that can motivate their team members, allow team members to feel included and assist them with feeling trust amongst each other. A relational leader often leads by example and sets the baseline for how their coworkers behave in order to effectively reach their goal.

Being purposeful means having a commitment to each individual goal while also discovering commonalities with other team members. A relational leader may identify the common goals, organize the objectives and help anticipate the outcome of these goals. An effective relational leader involves all team members in the process of visualizing an outcome, helping them feel a sense of importance, purpose and inclusivity.

Inclusivity

A relational leader promotes inclusivity, especially where team member's ideas and opinions are concerned. A relational leadership style uses all employee perspectives to identify what changes to make and considers all questions and concerns employees may have before implementing a change or decision. An inclusive leader creates an environment where all team members can affect a business positively. The relational leader is the liaison that helps those team members make a difference.

Process orientation

Process orientation refers to how a group communicates and functions as a team. An effective relational leader expresses that the process of achieving a goal is just as valuable as the outcome of achieving a goal. A relational leadership style ensures all team members understand their roles, have a clear sense of purpose and know what tasks to complete in order to meet their goals.

Empowerment

In order to be a successful relational leader, empower your employees to make their own decisions and openly communicate ideas and opinions. Involve your employees in group decisions and allow them to feel empowered in the decision-making process. Giving employees this level of empowerment helps give them a sense that they're contributing to the greater good, which may increase their motivation and productivity in the workplace.

Related: 9 Benefits of Empowering Employees

Benefits of relational leadership

Here are some benefits of using relational leadership in your workplace:

Strengthens team morale: Choosing to empower your employees helps them feel valued and essential to projects and company goals. Team members become loyal leaders with a vested company interest to whom you can effectively delegate tasks.

Develops teamwork: In a relational leadership model, your employees play cooperative roles to attain a successful workplace goal. You can establish open feedback and communication to understand if employees are in roles suitable for their skills.

Increases change: Using relational leadership can accelerate change because it establishes a foundation for your employees to work toward a common goal. By achieving smaller common goals through teamwork, the group can visualize larger common goals.

Tips for implementing relational leadership

Here are five helpful tips to keep in mind while using a relational leadership style:

Get to know your employees

Establish individual time frames to meet with each of your employees and understand their personal goals and career goals. Ask them about themselves and how they're currently feeling in the workplace and outside of the workplace. Showing that you care about your employees, not just their work, can establish a personal relationship which may help motivate an employee to complete work efficiently and effectively.

Think of yourself as a person with influence

Building confidence is key while becoming an effective relational leader. Leaders with confidence may also have influence over their peers. Influential leaders easily guide their coworkers through steps to success, and coworkers may feel more trusting of their leader because of this confidence.

Find meaning in your relationships

Identifying meaning in your relationships may help you become empathetic to your peers. If you understand the value of the relationship you're cultivating, you can also use that knowledge to develop the skills of your peers. Using empathy can build a deep connection between coworkers, which may motivate them to deliver exceptional results while working toward a goal.

Be authentic and truthful

One of the best ways to promote trust in the workplace is by having an authentic and truthful approach to working with employees. Share company goals and values with the entire team, be open with your motives to reach those goals and allow your team to share their insights. Being authentic can help you follow through with your commitments to the team by allowing the team to trust that you have the company's and their best interest in mind.

Related: How To Improve Employee Relations

Show appreciation for your team

As a relational leader, it's important to recognize how your employees have contributed to the team. This may boost employee morale, which may lead to higher productivity levels, profits and common goal achievements. Some ways you can express appreciation include:

Hosting a catered luncheon

Designing employee of the month awards

Creating incentives for completing tasks, such as a pay raise or bonus

Offering an extra day of paid time off

Praising workplace performance

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What Is Relational Leadership? (Definition and Tips)

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Knowing which leadership style is most effective for your team can make a big difference in employee morale and development. Relational leadership emphasizes building relationships in the workplace and using those relationships to work toward a common goal. Understanding more about relational leadership can help you decide if it may help you in your management or team leadership.

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What is the Relational Leadership Model?

In schools, it all comes down to relationships, which is why the relational leadership model is so prevalent in education. The relational leadership model emphasizes the relationships among people when leading an organization. Relational leadership values inclusion, empowerment, purposefulness, ethical behaviors, and process orientation.

Inclusive leaders consider everyone's viewpoint and experiences when making decisions. While the leader ultimately makes the final decision, all perspectives are weighed carefully.

Relational leaders empower others. They see the strengths and weaknesses of each member of their team, and work to build on strengths and improve weaknesses. The professional growth of others is important to a relational leader.

Relational leaders have a clear purpose, which they are able to communicate to others. Purposeful leaders begin with the end in mind; everything they do leads to a common goal.

Ethical leadership is an important component of the relational leadership model. This means setting a good example and always putting the values of the organization at the forefront.

Finally, a relational leader values the process, encouraging reflection and collaboration. A relational leader values calculated risk-taking, knowing it is for the growth and benefit of the group.

What are the Benefits of Relational Leadership?

A leader who considers everyone's viewpoint may feel overwhelmed at first, but in the end they will be armed with all the information to make a sound decision. Listening to everyone's viewpoint does not mean heeding every viewpoint. By listening, however, a leader is prepared for potential pitfalls in any plan, allowing them to address those pitfalls as they arise.

Empowering others makes them feel valued. Feeling worthwhile makes employees much less likely to seek work elsewhere and overall boosts morale. When employees stay loyal to a company, it allows for continuity of vision and knowledge necessary for an organization to thrive. By empowering others to be leaders in their own right, a relational leader is able to delegate certain tasks, making the organization run more efficiently.

Having a clear purpose allows everyone to work simultaneously for the same goal. This allows stakeholders to act as partners, rather than adversaries. When settling a dispute, a relational leader will seek to find the best solution for all parties, rather than simply trying to defeat an opponent. This approach avoids the distraction of constant conflict, allowing the team to focus on their purpose.

Ethical leaders engender trust in the people who depend on them. By establishing trust, leaders are able to convince others to follow them, even if the road ahead is difficult.

By being process-oriented, stakeholders are able to learn new things, through trial and error, that they may not otherwise have learned. This allows the organization to become better at their stated purpose, whether it's raising money or student test scores.

Last but not least, relational leaders tend to be likable. Who wants to disappoint someone they like?

Ways to Implement Relational Leadership in Your School

A relational school leader seeks to gain the insight of all stakeholders. This might be a principal visiting teams of teachers on a professional development day to gain insight into how to improve school arrival and dismissal. It could also mean listening to the ideas of the parent group that would like to throw a tailgate for students, even if it's never been done before.

A good school leader will empower teachers in the building to grow professionally and in their teaching practice. A leader may give teachers key roles in areas in which they excel. For example, a teacher who is passionate about character education may be empowered to deliver professional development around the topic.

A leader with relational leadership skills will connect everything back to the district's central purpose, which is educating students. When implementing a new grading policy, for example, the principal connects the grading policy to the best way to communicate student learning. Knowing why they are implementing certain policies helps teachers stay on task and remain faithful to the philosophy of the district.

Ethical school leaders model the sort of behavior they expect from others. If they expect honesty from teachers and students, then a leader will admit if their new dress code was too restrictive or a mistake was the result of an oversight. This gives teachers trust in their leaders.

Process-oriented leaders encourage teachers to try new methods of teaching, knowing that even if the method fails, the teacher will have gained valuable insights into how their students learn best and how they can improve going forward. In a process-oriented building, teachers make progress because they aren't afraid of failing in the process.

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What is the Relational Leadership Model? - Graduate Programs for Educators

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In schools, it all comes down to relationships, which is why the relational leadership model is so prevalent in education. The relational leadership model emphasizes the relationships among people when leading an organization. Relational leadership values inclusion, empowerment, purposefulness, ethical behaviors, and process orientation. Inclusive leaders consider everyone's viewpoint and experiences when making decisions.

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Leadership® is an adaptive leadership style. This strategy encourages leaders to take stock of their team members, weigh the many variables in their workplace and choose the leadership style that best fits their goals and circumstances. In the words of leadership theorist Ken Blanchard, "In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders can no longer lead solely based on positional power."

Situational Leadership® is the model of choice for organizations around the world that want to do the following:

Develop people and workgroups

Establish rapport and to bring out the best in their people

Use a common leadership style across all units in an organization, be it local, national, or international

Read more about Situational Leadership®:

Situational Leadership® is flexible. It adapts to the existing work environment and the needs of the organization. Situational Leadership® is not based on a specific skill of the leader; instead, he or she modifies the style of management to suit the requirements of the organization.

One of the keys to Situational Leadership® is adaptability. Leaders must be able to move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing needs of an organization and its employees. These leaders must have the insight to understand when to change their management style and what leadership strategy fits each new paradigm.

There are two mainstream models of Situational Leadership®, one described by Daniel Goleman and another by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hershey.

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, defines six styles within Situational Leadership®.

1. Coaching leaders, who work on an individual's personal development as well as job-related skills. This style works best with people who know their limitations and are open to change.

2. Pacesetting leaders, who set very high expectations for their followers. This style works best with self-starters who are highly motivated. The leader leads by example. This style is used sparingly since it can lead to follower burnout.

3. Democratic leaders, who give followers a vote in almost all decisions. When used in optimal conditions, it can build flexibility and responsibility within the group. This style is, however, time consuming and is not the best style if deadlines are looming.

4. Affiliative leaders, who put employees first. This style is used when morale is very low. The leader uses praise and helpfulness to build up the team's confidence. This style may risk poor performance when team building is happening.

5. Authoritative leaders, who are very good at analyzing problems and identifying challenges. This style is good in an organization that is drifting aimlessly. This leader will allow his or her followers to help figure out how to solve a problem.

6. Coercive leaders, who tell their subordinates what to do. They have a very clear vision of the endgame and how to reach it. This style is good in disasters or if an organization requires a total overhaul.

The second model is based on the work done by Blanchard and Hersey. Their theory is based on two concepts: leadership itself, and the developmental level of the follower. Blanchard and Hersey developed a matrix consisting of four styles:

1. Telling leaders = S1 (specific guidance and close supervision): These leaders make decisions and communicate them to others. They create the roles and objectives and expect others to accept them. Communication is usually one way. This style is most effective in a disaster or when repetitive results are required.

2. Selling = S2 (explaining and persuading): These leaders may create the roles and objectives for others, but they are also open to suggestions and opinions. They "sell" their ideas to others in order to gain cooperation.

3. Participating = S3 (sharing and facilitating): These leaders leave decisions to their followers. Although they may participate in the decision-making process, the ultimate choice is left to employees.

4. Delegating = S4 (letting others do it): These leaders are responsible for their teams, but provide minimum guidance to workers or help to solve problems. They may be asked from time to time to help with decision-making.

Stages of employee development in Situational Leadership®

Along with leadership qualities, Blanchard and Hersey defined four types of development for followers or employees:

1. Low Competence: High Commitment

2. Some Competence: Low Commitment

3. High Competence: Variable Commitment

4. High Competence: High Commitment

Blanchard and Hersey also suggest that each of the four approaches should be paired with different "readiness levels" among team members. For example, the lowest readiness level (R1) should work best with the "telling" style (S1), while the highest readiness level (R4) should be most responsive to the "delegating" approach (S4).

Differences between Situational Leadership® and other leadership styles

The difference between Situational Leadership® and other leadership styles is that Situational Leadership® incorporates many different techniques. The style of choice depends upon the organization's environment and the competence and commitment of its followers.

In 1969, Blanchard and Hersey developed Situational Leadership® Theory in their classic book Management of Organizational Behavior. This theory was first called the "Life Cycle Theory of Leadership." During the mid-1970s, it was renamed the Situational Leadership® Theory.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the two developed their own styles. Blanchard's first book, The One-Minute Manager, came out in 1982. Hersey further developed the Situational Leadership® Model in his 1985 book, The Situational Leader. Both men have continued to refine and update their Situational Leadership® theories.

Blanchard said situational leaders tend to choose between "directive behavior" (what and how) and "supportive behavior" (developing commitment, initiative, and positive attitudes). The readiness level concept for Situational Leadership® II was revised to incorporate individual development levels.

Blanchard and his Situational Leadership® collaborators have provided detailed case studies involving companies and public institutions. Prominent examples include Adobe, WD-40, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, British Telecom, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan, Genentech, the San Diego Padres, and the Royal New Zealand Navy.

Any team environment that has frequent turnover provides an opportunity to apply Situational Leadership® principles. Sports teams, for instance, represent clear examples of Situational Leadership® because team rosters are constantly changing.

One president and two of the most successful coaches in college basketball history have attributed much of their success to how they adapted to changing players and circumstances.

Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president of the United States after World War II. He was also the Allied Commander during the war. He was known for his diplomacy and his ability to get the allied leaders to work together to defeat the Nazi war machine. His background in the military taught him how to order and direct military exercises, and he needed to be a statesman not only to manage the strong personalities of the allied leaders, but to run for president and then win two terms of office.

Pat Summitt

Patricia Sue Summitt was the head coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers for over 38 years. Every few years, she was faced with building a whole new basketball team. Despite that, she ended her career with a 1,098-208 overall record as a basketball coach. She was named head coach for the U.S. women's basketball team in the 1984 Olympics, where the team won a gold medal.

John Wooden

John Wooden was named the head coach of UCLA's men's basketball team. In his first eight years, he won three Pacific Coast championships. During that time he had team members graduate and new members start on the team. Beginning with the 1963-64 season, the team won seven straight championships.

UCLA's record 88-game winning streak and string of championships ended in 1974. One of his quotes reflects his adaptive and Situational Leadership® philosophy: "When you're through learning, you're through."

How do professionals become better situational leaders? It might be helpful to consider these quotes from experienced leaders and apply them to your circumstances:

Margaret Wheatley: "Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes."

Colin Powell: "Leadership is solving problems."

Mahatma Gandhi: "I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people."

John D. Rockefeller: "Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people."

Margaret Thatcher: "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

John Wooden: "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

Here are some of the characteristics of the Situational Leadership® style:

Insight: The situational leader must be able to understand the needs of the followers, then adjust his or her management style to meet those needs

Flexibility: Situational leaders must be able to move seamlessly from one type of leadership style to another

Trust: The leader must be able gain his or her followers' trust and confidence

Problem solving: The situational leader must be able to solve problems, such as how to get a job done using the best leadership style available

Coach: The situational leader must be able to evaluate the maturity and competence of the followers and then apply the right strategy to enhance the follower and their personal character

Situational Leadership® does not work well in all circumstances. Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of the leadership style:

Situational Leadership® pros:

Easy to use: When a leader has the right style, he or she knows it

Simple: All the leader needs to do is evaluate the situation and apply the correct leadership style

Intuitive appeal: With the right type of leader, this style is comfortable

Leaders have permission to change management styles as they see fit

Situational Leadership® cons:

This North American style of leadership does not take into consideration priorities and communication styles of other cultures

It ignores the differences between female and male managers

Situational leaders can divert attention away from long-term strategies and politics

"What is the best leadership style?" Hersey and Blanchard found it fruitless to provide one answer to this question. Everything depends on the specific situation, which is why they collaborated to develop the Situational Leadership® Model.

Situational Leadership® means "choosing the right leadership style for the right people," according to Blanchard and Hersey. It also depends on the competence and maturity of the followers. This is a time in history when leaders look less like bosses and more like partners.

Sources:

Rhea Blanken, 8 Common Leadership Styles, The Center for Association Leadership

Ken Blanchard, Situational Leadership® II: Prepare to Lead Differently, The Ken Blanchard Companies

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What is Situational Leadership? Flexibility Leads to Success

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Leadership® is an adaptive leadership style. This strategy encourages leaders to take stock of their team members, weigh the many variables in their workplace and choose the leadership style that best fits their goals and circumstances. In the words of leadership theorist Ken Blanchard, "In the past a leader was a boss.

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Learning Outcomes

Summarize the situational theories of leadership.

Introduction

Situational theories of leadership work on the assumption that the most effective style of leadership changes from situation to situation. To be most effective and successful, a leader must be able to adapt his style and approach to diverse circumstances.

For example, some employees function better under a leader who is more autocratic and directive. For others, success will be more likely if the leader can step back and trust his team to make decisions and carry out plans without the leader's direct involvement. On a similar note, not all types of industries and business settings require the same skills and leadership traits in equal measure. Some fields demand a large measure of innovation, whereas in others, personal charisma and relational connection with clients are far more important.

Different theories have been developed that recognize the situational aspects of leadership. Each theory attempts to provide its own analysis of how leadership can be most successful in various situations. Let's consider a few of the key theories.

Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory

The term "situational leadership" is most commonly derived from and connected with Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory. This approach to leadership suggests the need to match two key elements appropriately: the leader's leadership style and the followers' maturity or preparedness levels.

The theory identifies four main leadership approaches:

Telling: Directive and authoritative approach. The leader makes decisions and tells employees what to do.

Selling: The leader is still the decision maker, but he communicates and works to persuade the employees rather than simply directing them.

Participating: The leader works with the team members to make decisions together. He supports and encourages them and is more democratic.

Delegating: The leader assigns decision-making responsibility to team members but oversees their work.

In addition to these four approaches to leadership, there are also four levels of follower maturity:

Level M1: Followers have low competence and low commitment.

Level M2: Followers have low competence, but high commitment.

Level M3: Followers have high competence, but low commitment and confidence.

Level M4: Followers have high competence and high commitment and confidence.

In Hersey and Blanchard's approach, the key to successful leadership is matching the proper leadership style to the corresponding maturity level of the employees. As a general rule, each of the four leadership styles is appropriate for the corresponding employee maturity level:

Telling style works best for leading employees at the M1 level (low competence, low commitment).

Selling style works best for leading employees at the M2 level (low competence, high commitment).

Participating style works best for leading employees at the M3 level (high competence, low commitment/confidence).

Delegating style works best for leading employees at the M4 level (high competence, high commitment/confidence).

Identifying the employee maturity level becomes a very important part of the process, and the leader must have the willingness and ability to use any of the four leadership styles as needed.

Goleman's Model of Situational Leadership

Another situational theory of leadership has been developed by Daniel Goleman. His theory incorporates his development of the concept of emotional intelligence. He develops that idea into six categories of situational leadership, describing the leadership style and suggesting when each style is most appropriate and likely to be successful:

Pacesetting Leader

The leader sets aggressive goals and standards and drives employees to reach them. This works with highly motivated and competent employees, but can lead to burnout due to the high energy demands and stress levels.

Authoritative Leader

The leader authoritatively provides a direction and goals for the team, expecting the team to follow his lead. The details are often left up to the team members. This works well when clear direction is needed, but can be problematic if the team members are highly experienced and knowledgeable and might resent being dictated to.

Affiliative Leader

A positive reinforcement and morale-boosting style. The leader praises and encourages the employees, refraining from criticism or reprimand. The goal is to foster team bonding and connectedness, along with a sense of belonging. This approach works best in times of stress and trauma or when trust needs to be rebuilt. It is not likely to be sufficient as a long-term or exclusive strategy.

Coaching Leader

The leader focuses on helping individual employees build their skills and develop their talents. This approach works best when employees are receptive to guidance and willing to hear about their weaknesses and where they need to improve.

Democratic Leader

The leader intentionally involves followers in the decision-making process by seeking their opinion and allowing them a voice in the final decision. This works well when the leader is in need of guidance and/or the employees are highly qualified to contribute and there are not strenuous time constraints that require quick decisions.

Coercive Leader

The leader acts as the ultimate authority and demands immediate compliance with directions, even applying pressure as needed. This can be appropriate in times of crisis or disaster, but is not advisable in healthy situations.

Normative Decision Theory

One final theory we will look at is Vroom and Yetton's Normative Decision Theory. This approach is intended as a guide in determining the optimum amount of time and group input that should be committed to a decision. A leader has a number of options available to him in this regard:

He can make a decision entirely by himself.

He can use information from team members to make decisions.

He can consult team members individually and ask their advice before making the decision.

He can consult team members as a group before making the decision.

He can consult the team as a group and allow the team as a whole to make the decision.

Victor Vroom and Phillip Yetton provide a model that helps leaders decide when to use each approach. The model walks leaders through a series of questions about the decision to be made, and the answers will lead the decision maker to the suggested approach. The questions focus on a few key factors:

Is decision quality highly important?

Does the leader have sufficient information to make the decision?

Is it highly important for team members to accept the decision?

Are the team members likely to accept the leader's decision if he makes it individually? What if he makes it with their consultation?

Do the team members' goals match those of the leader and organization?

Is the problem structured and easily analyzed?

Do team members have high levels of expertise in the matter to be decided?

Do team members have high levels of competence in working together as a group?

Leaders are challenged not only to make good decisions, but to decide who decides. At times, the best choice is to involve others in the decision.

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Summarize the situational theories of leadership. Situational theories of leadership work on the assumption that the most effective style of leadership changes from situation to situation. To be most effective and successful, a leader must be able to adapt his style and approach to diverse circumstances.

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Are you wondering what the term "situational leadership" means, why it's important, and how it applies in the workplace? This article provides a situational leadership definition, an overview of the four situational leadership styles, and situational leadership examples so you can recognize them when you see them.

Think back to early in your career. Did you have a manager who explained things to you, guided you, and helped you stay on track in your role? Perhaps they gave you step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task or checked in with you daily to answer questions. When you didn't have much experience or expertise, this type of management style could have been instrumental to your success and career growth.

Fast forward to later in your career, once you'd gained the knowledge, skills, and expertise to fulfill your role and meet your goals with ease. A manager that explained why and how things were done a certain way, constantly checked on your status, and frequently offered unsolicited advice might be considered a micromanager.

Different levels of expertise require different management styles. So, too, can different situations or tasks. While a manager might normally let a high performer take charge of their own projects, a high-profile project within the company or a crisis situation might dictate that a manager get more involved.

And there's no need for it to be all or nothing. Leadership and management dimensions tend to exist on a spectrum.

Today's fast-changing business environment requires managers to take a nimble and responsive approach to whatever is arising in their team, work environment, competitive market, and organization.

As any great leader knows, there are a lot of variables to consider when working with a team of people, each with their own background, personality, learning style, experience, ego, and motivators. Thinking about dialing up or down across multiple leadership dimensions in response to these variables is the crux of how we define situational leadership.

Situational leadership can help managers better adapt to their work environments, and to the people they lead.

What is situational leadership?

Situational leadership is a way of adjusting one's management style to adapt to each situation or task, and the needs of the team or team member.

The Situational Leadership Theory was developed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey in 1969, under the notion that there is no "one size fits all" leadership style. Instead, the model provides a framework for leaders to diagnose the development level of an employee or team for a task and adapt their leadership approach accordingly.

"54 percent of leaders use only one leadership style, regardless of the situation, which means that 50 percent of the time, leaders are using the wrong leadership style to meet the needs of their people."

Ken Blanchard, Author of The One-Minute Manager

The situational leadership model considers employee competence and commitment levels, which may vary across different challenges and performance areas. It also considers the complexity of the task and the level of direction and support required from the leader.

This flexibility allows leaders to meet each situation that arises with the leadership style that will bring out the best in employees and give them the highest chance of success.

What are the four leadership styles of situational leadership?

Blanchard and Hersey's situational leadership matrix describes four leadership behavioral styles that may be used, depending upon the situation.

1. Telling (S1) - Telling, or directing, is useful when a team or team member requires close supervision and regular guidance. The leader makes decisions and directs the team or team members on their roles. This can include providing instructions to novice team members or taking charge in an emergency.

2. Selling (S2) - Selling, or persuading, is useful when a team or team member has some competence, but perhaps not enough to be successful, or when they are unmotivated. The leader is open to feedback and collaboration in order to boost the team or team member's participation. Leaders utilizing this style may be helping team members to develop or improve their skills or encouraging buy-in to a larger vision.

3. Participating (S3) - Participating, or sharing is useful when a team or team member has the competence required to actively participate in planning and decision making. Leaders using this style are typically collaborative in their approach to problem-solving and decision-making, letting their teams and team members make decisions within their areas of expertise.

4. Delegating (S4) - Delegating is useful when a team or team member has a high level of competence and is self-motivated. Leaders leveraging this style will set a vision, outline desired outcomes, grant clear authority, and then get out of the way.

What are some examples of when a situational leadership style might best be used?

These situational leadership styles are most effective when appropriately paired with one of the four developmental levels of team members:

Low competence, high commitment (D1) - These are developing team members who may not yet have the specific skill set required for a task, but they have a high level of commitment to the task itself. This might call for a more directive style (S1) in which the leader tells the employee what to do, and how and when to do it. What can help? Connecting them to more experienced peers and side-by-side coaching in the flow of work to accelerate skills development.

Some competence, low commitment (D2) - These are team members who may have some skills, but not at the level required to be successful in performing a task, and who aren't fully engaged in the mission. This often calls for a leadership style where the leader coaches team members in how to solve problems and engages them in the process (S2). What can help? Demonstrate commitment to the individual by recognizing their specific contributions, supporting their development needs, and talking openly about your own search for meaning and purpose in the work.

High competence, variable commitment (D3) - These developed team members are highly skilled, sometimes more expert than the leader in their field, but they may be experiencing a lack of drive or confidence around performing a particular task. The most appropriate leadership style to use here is one that supports team members and encourages participation (S3) so the skills and knowledge of the team can be applied to the challenge at hand. What can help? Tapping into a team member's desire for impact and sense of meaning or purpose.

High competence, high commitment (D4) - These developed team members are highly skilled, sometimes more so than the leader, and they have a high level of motivation and commitment. The leadership style that best supports this situation is delegation (S4), where the leader empowers team members to make decisions and take independent action (within clearly defined boundaries) toward achieving agreed-upon goals. What can help? Share more context about the organizational goals and constraints so the team member can make more informed decisions and better develop approaches that achieve the organization's goals.

What does a situational leader do?

Situational leadership requires leaders to have multiple leadership styles and to move flexibly among them. This might require practice to develop. Leaders may have a "comfort zone" or a natural tendency toward a particular management style - and so might the organization. This can make it challenging to develop the full scope needed to be an effective situational leader.

It's important for leaders to stretch this way, though, because different situations and people require different approaches and leadership styles to bring out the best results. Just like we need multiple tools to build a house, we need multiple leadership styles to meet the challenges that arise in today's rapidly changing and increasingly diverse work environment. It often takes conscious effort to develop these skills.

A strong leader should develop the following characteristics of situational leadership include:

Flexibility - A situational leader is paying close attention to the changing needs of the team, task, and organization and adjusts their leadership style as needed to bring out the best in team members and ensure successful outcomes.

Active listening - In order to identify what is going on and accurately diagnose and provide what team members need, a situational leader must constantly leverage their active listening skills and seek to understand.

Clear direction - Situational leaders must be effective at providing the level of support and direction team members require.

Encourage participation - Situational leaders engage in behaviors that create psychological safety and opportunities for team members to share their thoughts, experience, and input. They also have the skills required to effectively delegate authority to team members as appropriate.

Coaching skills - To be most effective, situational leaders need to develop their ability to coach a wide range of developmental levels so they can meet team members where they are and support them in getting where they need to be.

What are some situational leadership examples?

Leaders such as U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Colin Powell, Head Coach John Wooden, and Head Coach Patricia Sue Summit can all attribute at least a portion of their success to the use of a situational leadership style.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme allied commander during World War II and, later, president of the United States. His success in each of these roles is often attributed to his ability to leverage different leadership styles in each situation.

During the war, he became known for his ability to balance "the interests and egos of a galaxy of generals and political leaders." He was also known to walk among the troops, shaking hands and boosting spirits.

His ability to adapt to various situations and people helped him become a great diplomat and leader, eventually winning two terms as President of the United States.

Colin Powell

Colin Powell is a former general in the U.S. Army, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His roles have dictated that he be a decisive leader, and his military rank assumes that his subordinates follow orders.

Still, he believed in taking a situational leadership approach with his commanders in the Army. He recognized that they all had different personalities, experience levels, skills, strengths, and weaknesses.

He shares, "I am a situational leader and I adjust my style, within limits, to the strengths and weaknesses of my subordinates, so I understand what they can and what they can't do, and I understand where I have to compensate for their weaknesses and where I can take advantage of their strengths - each one is different. As long as they get the job done efficiently and in a more than satisfactory manner, I am prepared to live with the differences that exist between human beings. They are human beings, they're not clones, they're all different and I think the best leaders are the ones that can analyze a subordinate or a human being and how to figure out how to get the best out of that individual."

John Wooden

John Wooden is the former UCLA men's basketball coach and considered by many to be one of the best in American history. Under his leadership, the Bruins won 10 championships, seven of them consecutive. They even racked up an 88-game winning streak spanning three seasons, even with a team that was constantly changing.

Wooden's ability and willingness to adjust his leadership style to adapt to the changing team dynamics and needs of his players can be summed up in his quote: "When you're through learning, you're through."

Pat Summitt

Patricia Sue Summitt was head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball team for 38 years and named the 11th greatest coach - of any sport - of all time.

Her ever-changing college basketball team won eight national titles and 1,098 out of 1,306 games over her 38-year career as head coach. She was also named head coach for the U.S. women's basketball team that brought home the gold from the 1984 Olympics.

She accomplished this by setting unrelenting standards for her team members and getting to know each one individually, pushing them to their personal limits.

Why is situational leadership effective?

Situational leadership is a highly flexible and responsive leadership style that adapts to the needs of individual employees and situations. It comes very intuitively to many leaders and is straightforward to apply. Leaders simply evaluate the situation and decide which leadership style is most supportive.

Situational leaders tend to stay in close communication with team members, constantly assessing and adjusting their approach to provide what is needed to support success. This helps them to build strong relationships with the team, which in turn creates a better work environment in which employees feel valued as individuals.

What are the disadvantages of situational leadership?

Like all leadership styles, there can be some disadvantages to situational leadership:

Can create confusion: Depending on how clearly a situational leader communicates, this leadership style can cause confusion within teams and organizations if employees perceive the leader to be arbitrary and inconsistent in their leadership approach.

Typically focused on short-term goals: The tendency for situational leaders to focus on responding to what is arising in the present moment can cause a disconnect from the larger vision. A strong situational leader will take this into account and develop their ability to keep long-term goals in sight, even when handling short-term issues.

Risks putting too much responsibility on the leader: Situational leadership requires the ability to discern and assess what is needed in any given situation so the leader can respond appropriately. When evaluating the competence and commitment of each team member, leaders may not have all the skills or knowledge needed to make an accurate assessment - or they may be misled, especially if an employee is trying to appear knowledgeable. Sometimes leaders confuse emotional maturity and confidence with experience-based maturity and competence.

Final thoughts on situational leadership examples

The ability to adapt to different people and situations can make for a more versatile, effective leader who does well in a diverse team and dynamic work environment.

But that's not to say that other leadership styles can't work. Every leader is different-just as every team member is different-and may have their own style, strengths, and weaknesses. Sometimes, simply being aware of the different styles can make a leader more aware of their own style, borrowing bits and pieces to improve their leadership skills.

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Situational leadership examples and how to develop this management style

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Are you wondering what the term "situational leadership" means, why it's important, and how it applies in the workplace? This article provides a situational leadership definition, an overview of the four situational leadership styles, and situational leadership examples so you can recognize them when you see them.

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View of Integrating a Servant Leadership Framework: Preparing Teaching and School Counseling Students for Collaboration

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Return to Article Details Integrating a Servant Leadership Framework: Preparing Teaching and School Counseling Students for Collaboration

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By Brian Mathieson , EdD, NBCT

It's taken me years to truly understand the themes of the Washington State Comprehensive School Counseling and Guidance Program Model. I could name them (leadership, advocacy, collaboration and systemic change), but it wasn't until recently that I recognized their application. This is especially true of the theme of collaboration. Collaboration is to work with all stakeholders, both inside and outside the school system, to develop and implement educational programs that support students. It's a challenging task that first requires us to understand and appreciate the contributions others make to educating all children. Next, we need to build effective teams and working relationships.

My first lesson in collaboration was very early in my career when I thought I could improve students' grades or attendance through individual or group counseling alone. I was convinced, for instance, that if our advisement session was particularly good and I applied all I had learned about counseling theory, students' grades would improve. Looking at the data, however, proved that individual counseling alone was not sufficient. I learned to partner with the teachers and the parents/guardians. I also learned that what was most effective was not the plan we developed (although that certainly helped), it was the establishment of a working relationship between student, teacher, and parents/guardians. In other words, my working relationship with a student didn't make the difference. My consulting to facilitate a relationship between the student/teacher/parents or guardians did. Similar skills but a different application.

My second lesson related to the school counseling core curriculum. I've always been protective of school counselors and it always made me uncomfortable when other staff taught lessons that addressed our ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success. I was sure that if someone else taught social/emotional or career-based lessons, school counselors would go way of the dinosaurs in a matter of time. I've learned, however, that there are too many students and too many important attitudes, bits of knowledge, and skills that they will need. We have to partner with teachers, career specialists, prevention specialists, and others to make sure all students have what they need to grow and develop. I'm a big fan of co-teaching. I've enjoyed delivering High School and Beyond Plan lessons with our career specialist, lessons on self-management with a prevention specialist, and lessons in creating positive relationships with a social studies teacher. Co-teaching, or otherwise sharing the work, ensures that school counselors are working in tandem with others to support all students.

My third lesson had to do with establishing an advisory council. Very few school counseling programs have an advisory council; it's often considered a high-wire act only performed by schools seeking Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) designation from the American School Counselor Association. I've found, however, that an advisory council reflecting the diversity of the community (students, parents, teachers, school counselors, administrators, school board members, and business and community members) can be an invaluable asset. Forming an advisory council from the start can make implementing the Washington State Comprehensive School Counseling and Guidance Program Model easier. And this is really the key: collaboration, overall, makes our work more effective and efficient.

Contact Brian Mathieson, EdD, NBCT, WSCA president, at brianmathiesonwsca@gmail.com.

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Lessons in Collaboration in School Counseling | American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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By Brian Mathieson , EdD, NBCT It's taken me years to truly understand the themes of the Washington State Comprehensive School Counseling and Guidance Program Model. I could name them (leadership, advocacy, collaboration and systemic change), but it wasn't until recently that I recognized their application.

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Two years of pandemic teaching have left teachers exhausted. What do they need in order to stay in the classroom?
Teaching has always been a demanding profession, and over the past two years, the demands have only increased. When school buildings closed for the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, teachers were asked to work under conditions for which they were not prepared (Carpenter & Dunn, 2020; Elgart, 2021; Marshall, Shannon, & Love, 2020). And when the 2020-21 school year began, some schools reopened entirely in person, with guidelines in place for masking and physical distancing; some schools opted for remote learning for the entire year; and others switched between in-person, hybrid, and remote learning throughout the school year (Marshall & Bradley-Dorsey, 2020, 2022). Teaching under these circumstances was not easy. It was especially difficult for those who were learning new technologies (Juan-Ignacio et al., 2021; Marshall, Shannon, & Love, 2022); recreating their lessons for a virtual format (Love & Marshall, 2022); teaching students in the classroom as well as those on Zoom simultaneously (Bartlett, 2022); or doing all of the above in the same school year.

During the 2021-22 school year, teachers continued to work through the many challenges of the pandemic while at the same time returning to more normal classroom practices and expectations. A majority of the classrooms across the United States returned to in-person instruction, mask mandates were dropped, and state standardized testing returned. Yet amid this so-called return to normalcy, teachers began reaching their breaking point, with many choosing to leave the profession (Noonoo, 2022; Steiner & Woo, 2021).

The challenge of teacher retention has always existed, especially in schools in urban, rural, and/or high-poverty settings (Ingersoll, 2003; Papay et al., 2017) and in subjects like math and science (Fuller & Pendola, 2019), as well as in special education (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019; Powell et al., 2022). But the problem of retaining teachers has gotten worse during the pandemic. A January 2021 RAND report found that nearly one-quarter of all teachers indicated that they were likely to leave their jobs before the end of the 2020-21 school year (Steiner & Woo, 2021). The latest PDK Poll found that only 37% of respondents would want their child to become a teacher, an all-time low since the poll began asking the question in 1969 (PDK International, 2022). Unfortunately, research we recently conducted suggests that these trends could continue.

Teachers' mental health and well-being

Teachers have always taken on many different roles, which can lead to hectic workdays and limited time to complete tasks. The pressure goes up when school districts implement new curriculums and initiatives (Ferguson, Frost, & Hall, 2012). The increased workloads that come with new initiatives often lead teachers to experience higher levels of exhaustion and lower self-efficacy and self-esteem (Bottiani et al., 2019; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2015). But previous research has found that administrators who support teachers with managing student behaviors (Bottiani et al., 2019); limit the pressure put on teachers for academic achievement (Ryan et al., 2017); and develop positive relationships with teachers (Margolis & Nagel, 2006) have a positive influence on teachers staying in the profession.

More than three-fourths (76.4%) of teachers surveyed considered leaving their position during the 2021-22 school year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted teachers' mental health and well-being, leading many to leave the profession altogether (Madigan & Kim, 2021). One study (Kim, Oxley, & Asbury, 2022) attributes these mental health declines to a variety of factors, such as additional job demands (e.g., increased workload, multiple roles, and uncertainty) and a lack of job resources (e.g., social support, work autonomy, and coping strategies). Several studies have noted the relationship between teacher burnout and increased workloads during COVID-19 (Pressley, 2021a; Răducu & Stănculescu, 2022; Sokal et al., 2020). And, just like before the pandemic, administrative support and workday expectations continued to influence teachers' perspectives on staying in the profession (Pressley, 2021b; Pressley & Ha, 2021; Sokal, Trudel, & Babb, 2021). Specifically, teachers who planned to leave shared negative comments about their building administrators and blamed them for issues that led to burnout. In addition, teachers who considered leaving shared feelings of being "devalued and disregarded" (Sokal, Trudel, & Babb, 2020, 2021).

Additional contributors to teachers' declining mental health and well-being that are specific to the pandemic are the lack of connection to students and the challenges associated with online teaching (Baker et al., 2021; Cormier et al., 2022). Remote learning has made it more difficult for teachers to build meaningful relationships with their students, posing a significant barrier to both students' and teachers' personal development (Rodriguez et al., 2022). Teachers also have reported high levels of burnout and stress, as well as low levels of job satisfaction, due to the challenges of teaching during the pandemic (Minihan et al., 2022; Walter & Fox, 2021).

Teachers weigh in

To better understand the experiences of teachers at the conclusion of a second full year of teaching during a pandemic, we surveyed teachers nationwide in early May 2022. We asked about the support they received, the challenges they faced, their morale and mental health, and how they perceived the changes made during the pandemic. A total of 830 teachers participated in the study; they predominantly identified as white (86.8%) and female (87.8%) and had an average age of 40.4 years. The average participant had been teaching for 13.3 years. More than half of our sample (61.4%) indicated that they teach in a Title I school. Just under half (48.1%) teach in a school located in a suburban setting, about a quarter teach in an urban setting (25.3%), and the rest teach in a rural setting or small town.

More than three-fourths (76.4%) of teachers surveyed considered leaving their position during the 2021-22 school year. Some were looking for jobs at another school and not leaving the profession entirely; however, more than half (57.6%) looked at non-teaching job postings, and more than one in five (22.4%) applied for a job outside education during the past school year.

There are several reasons for this. First, teacher morale is suffering, and the departure of their colleagues has increased the pressure on the teachers who remain. When we conducted similar survey research in May 2021, 29.5% of teachers surveyed reported experiencing low levels of morale. When we asked teachers the same question in May 2022, that figure jumped to 53.6%. As one teacher shared, "Morale is very low due to teachers quitting en masse and administrators not working as hard or as many hours as teachers and other staff." Another teacher listed many of the difficulties teachers have faced throughout the year that led to low teacher morale: "Teachers quitting, too many meetings, too many times having to cover other classes, disruptive students, [being] cussed out by parents and students, violence, weapons brought to school, huge classes, and a new principal."

Teacher mental health is also a factor, and the ongoing pressure over two years of pandemic teaching has caused mental health concerns to mount. As one teacher shared, "Everyone is mentally, physically, and emotionally spent." Similarly, a second teacher shared the impact of teaching during the pandemic on teachers' mental health in her school:

Everyone in the school system [is] exhausted. The amount of internal coverage that teachers and administrators have done for one another is astronomical. The effects of COVID-19 within our on-campus families are far-reaching. Teachers have lost immediate family members and continue to show up in the classroom. Teachers continue to work because they have used all of their sick time and still need to pay bills. Teachers work and do not take mental health days because there are NO subs available.

Almost one-third of teachers surveyed sought counseling to support their mental health issues during the pandemic, compared to 20.3% of all adults, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Terlizzi & Norris, 2021).

The teachers who felt respected and trusted to make decisions about their teaching and who felt supported by parents and their school leadership were more satisfied with their jobs.

The teachers who felt respected and trusted to make decisions about their teaching and who felt supported by parents and their school leadership were more satisfied with their jobs and less likely to pursue employment outside education. One teacher who felt supported by both parents and school administrators shared, "Administration and parents were very supportive. They all understand what we were going through during COVID. The understanding provided relief during stressful times." Another teacher mentioned the importance of support from everyone in her school community:

My teaching team is incredibly supportive and amazing to work with. My parents this year have also been understanding and encouraging, and I have made sure to tell them how much their support means to me. My principal trusts me to do my job well.

However, not all teachers had such a positive experience. One teacher shared that "Parents are super-critical, and kids are blatantly disrespectful. It feels like everything is getting worse." Some complained that their administrators continually assigned more work and did not have their backs with parents: "Administrators cater to the parents, and teachers are often left out of the loop. Teachers are given more expectations and responsibilities with no additional time or compensation." The lack of support extended to district administrators, as one teacher explained:

Central office and the state have made decisions that just get put onto teachers. They make the decisions of what we do in the classroom; then we get blamed when their decisions don't work. Parents have been unsupportive. Issues will be my fault instead of the student who has had plenty of opportunities to complete work.

These findings were consistent regardless of teacher race or gender or whether they taught in a rural, urban, suburban, or Title I school.

How to support teachers

Our findings are not surprising but are very concerning. They also offer a path to improving conditions for teachers that is consistent with past research into teacher retention. It appears that teachers who have supportive administrators and the space and flexibility to do their professional work are less likely to consider leaving the classroom. Those with a stake in stemming the flow of teachers out of the profession can provide support in multiple ways.

First, school leaders and policy makers should limit the extra work they ask from teachers. Many states require teachers to attend extra professional development or complete additional certifications to stay in the classroom. For example, to be eligible to teach reading, Texas now requires teachers to attend reading academies, above and beyond usual certification requirements (Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, 2022). School leaders and policy makers need to be realistic about their expectations for teachers and recognize that teachers need a break to refresh after more than two years of teaching through a pandemic. Additionally, school leaders need to find ways to support teachers' mental health by, for example, offering mental health days or access to counseling services in person or via telehealth. Teacher support groups have also been found to improve teacher mental health by helping educators realize what is within their control and what is beyond their control (Stark, Daulat, & King, 2022).

Additionally, parents need to remember that teachers often are just the messengers implementing requirements from school leaders and policy makers. Taking their frustrations about school policies or testing requirements to school leaders will likely be more effective than blaming teachers for issues beyond their control, and it won't add to teachers' stress. In most cases, the best way for parents to support their children is to work with teachers rather than against them. Research has found a positive relationship between good parent-teacher communication and student achievement (Sirvani, 2007; Wang & Sheikh-Khalil, 2014). Teachers who perceive parents as supportive also report greater levels of job satisfaction and professional accomplishment (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2009) - both of which are likely to keep teachers in the classroom.

School leaders and policy makers need to be realistic about their expectations for teachers and recognize that teachers need a break to refresh.

Finally, school leaders and policy makers need to recognize the crisis that a teacher shortage may bring. It may lead to larger class sizes or less-qualified classroom teachers. For example, this year, teacher and substitute shortages were significant enough in some states that members of the National Guard had to step in to act as teachers (Fordham, 2022). Therefore, policy makers and school leaders must take concrete steps now to keep teachers in the classroom. For example, Alabama lawmakers just passed a record education budget that included raises for all teachers, of up to 21% for the most experienced teachers, as well as additional money for teachers to purchase classroom supplies; the state also raised substitute pay by one-third in the hope of increasing the number of substitutes within the state (Crain, 2022). Such steps not only make teachers feel valued but can have a real impact on keeping talented teachers in the profession.

Every student deserves an excellent education and outstanding teachers. Our research suggests that there is a crisis emerging in public education. If policy makers and school leaders across the United States do not find ways to support the talented teachers already in the classroom, they might watch those teachers leave for greener pastures outside of the classroom.
References
Baker, C.N., Peele, H., Daniels, M., Saybe, M., Whalen, K., Overstreet, S., & The New Orleans Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative. (2021). The experience of COVID-19 and its impact on teachers' mental health, coping, and teaching. School Psychology Review, 50 (4), 491-504.

Bartlett, L. (2022). Specifying hybrid models of teachers' work during COVID-19. Educational Researcher, 51 (2), 152-155.

Billingsley, B. & Bettini, E. (2019). Special education teacher attrition and retention: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 89 (5), 697-744.

Bottiani, J.H., Duran, C.A., Pas, E.T., & Bradshaw, C.P. (2019). Teacher stress and burnout in urban middle schools: Associations with job demands, resources, and effective classroom practices. Journal of School Psychology, 77, 36-51.

Carpenter, D. & Dunn, J. (2020). We're all teachers now: Remote learning during COVID-19. Journal of School Choice, 14 (4), 567-594.

Cormier, C.J., McGrew, J., Ruble, L., & Fischer, M. (2022). Socially distanced teaching: The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on special education teachers. Journal of Community Psychology, 50 (3), 1768-1772.

Crain, T.P. (2022, April 13). Alabama lawmakers passed teacher, substitute pay raises, certification updates: What's next? AL.com.

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This article appears in the September 2022 issue of Kappan, Vol. 104, No. 1, pp. 6-11.

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Why teachers are leaving and what we can do about it - kappanonline.org

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Two years of pandemic teaching have left teachers exhausted. What do they need in order to stay in the classroom? Teaching has always been a demanding profession, and over the past two years, the demands have only increased.

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Collaborative Leadership Six Influences That Matter Most

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Collaborative Leadership Six Influences That Matter Most