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Article Leading Effective Building Level Change

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Roanna Murray Current Cases in Educational Leadership

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Author: Angie Hickman | 3/1/2021

Twenty years ago, as a first-year high school teacher, Tinisha Parker, Ph.D., encountered one of her first opportunities to reject the status quo. As she read the social studies textbook to prepare for the next day's lesson, she was alarmed to find a single paragraph on slavery. Not only was the text astonishingly brief, it went beyond whitewashing into the realm of complete fiction.

"It talked about how caring and nurturing slave owners were," she recalled. "I was raised with brutal history; my dad didn't hide the atrocities of slavery. I knew at an early age how cruel and horrific that system was. I just knew 'this isn't right; this isn't the truth.' I heard my dad in my head saying, 'you better not let your students,' most of whom were white, 'believe this.'" Although Parker spoke from her heart and told her students the truth, as only the third-ever Black teacher hired in a school of 200 staff, she hesitated to take the issue outside of her classroom.

Today, it's different. As the executive director of student services for Gwinnett County Public Schools in metro Atlanta, Parker is having the conversations and instituting policies that break down systemic racism in schools. "There has to be an expectation that this work will be done," she said. "In my district, we're trying to change hearts and minds. We can mandate behaviors, but that doesn't mean hearts and minds have changed. You have to have policies and expectations about adult professional learning and how adults will treat students in your district, your building and your school."

Across the nation, efforts to change hearts and minds are mixed, at best. ASCA's recently released 2020 State of the Profession survey report asked school counselors how their schools or districts are supporting and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and access this year. More than one-third (36%) said their schools have taken no actions, although another one-third have required DEI training for all faculty.

Further, individual school counselors' efforts to address racism and bias in their school counseling programs fail to go beyond the basics, the data shows. About 42% of school counselors said they are monitoring student behavior to identify racist behavior or speech, 38% are providing individual counseling and 35% are providing classroom lessons, according to the report. However, just 22% each are identifying and advocating to revise or remove policies that disproportionately affect students of color or using data to identify students who should be included in the most rigorous coursework.

Stephen Sharp, school counselor at Landisville Middle School in Pennsylvania, isn't surprised. "Systems are resistant to change," he said. "For school counselors to be confronted with that and not know where to start, that doesn't surprise me. It can feel like overwhelming work. Our school systems have been systems of tremendous opportunity and tremendous oppression, and that's going to be difficult work to change what they are."

Accepting the Calling
Doing that work, however, is an ethical imperative. The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors are clear that school counselors are leaders, advocates, collaborators and consultants who create systemic change by providing equitable educational access and success. Further, the standards challenge school counselors to work to identify, understand and address their own bias and privilege that may hinder them from seeing and understanding students who may not feel safe or feel marginalized or oppressed. They are charged with promoting cultural competence to create a safer and more inclusive school environment and using restorative, rather than punitive, practices.

"I just can't imagine that school counselors, with the training we undergo, the ethical standards we are held to and the very nature of the work we undertake, would not instinctively and intrinsically understand that this is our work, this is our calling, this is our mission," said Jan Desmarais-Morse, sixth-grade school counselor at Goshen Middle School in Indiana.

The ASCA Standards in Practice document Eliminating Racism and Bias in Schools: The School Counselor's Role states that all educators have an obligation to end racism and bias and to be an important part of the solution. This means identifying gaps in achievement and opportunities, addressing disproportionate rates of discipline for students of color, eliminating the barriers to participation in AP classes and other rigorous coursework, and more. "School counselors must challenge race-based comments, lead efforts to change inequitable policies and customs and critically apply their expertise to address institutional bias," said Eric Sparks, Ed.D., ASCA deputy executive director. "Too often, the focus is on 'fixing the student,' rather than changing the system."

It's a reality the school counseling profession and, more broadly, education as a whole has woken up to. "The field of school counseling is practiced predominantly by persons who are white and female, yet the demographics of students we have an impact on is composed of a kaleidoscope of color, gender, ethnicity and more," Desmarais-Morse said. "As school counselors, we are obligated to advocate for the equitable treatment of all students. School counselors benefiting from the advantages of being white simply do not have the luxury to ignore that privilege."

Sharp added that, as you go about changing systems, it's important to "separate yourself from the intention part to the outcome part." In other words, "Are we building things that create that lasting impact and effect? Are standards and policies shifting things sufficiently to create a less-racist world? We need to redefine the system in ways it can be more stable for everyone. And school counselors are well-positioned for upstream supports and interventions."

Although it's difficult to hear, school counseling has been a tool of oppression, Sharp maintained. "'Guidance counselors' always had a history of telling students who was right and who was wrong, and not always countering that with supports and opportunities. Career interest is based off of exposure, and exposure is absolutely a racialized and class-driven process. Lack of exposure isn't the same as lack of interest. Our postsecondary pathways have been pretty segregated and then the careers after that. When school counselors show their students what were historic barriers, they can then consciously navigate those spaces."

To that end, Alicia Oglesby has conversations with students about underrepresentation in certain fields and asks, for example, "Why do you think there aren't a ton of Black people who work at Google?" Ultimately, racial justice work is infused in every aspect of her program - from academic advising to college and career planning to social/emotional learning. She's constantly asking, "Who would be disadvantaged by this change in policy or practice?"

"It has really been a muscle I've had to work," said Oglesby, who is director of school counseling at Bishop McNamara High School in Maryland and co-author of "Interrupting Racism: Equity and Justice in School Counseling." "I certainly make mistakes, but I learn from them more quickly now."

Making it Personal, not Easy
Ensuring school counselors, and K-12 educators in general, "get it" is a difficult challenge. "Make it personal," said Damien Sweeney, Ed.D., program coordinator for comprehensive school counseling for the Kentucky Department of Education. "When you then ask educators to look at the idea of privilege through the lens of a Black or traditionally marginalized student or colleague, the hope is they will begin to understand many others have far fewer privileges. This leads to an openness to learn. At this point, we can teach educators about the importance of courageous conversations about race, race-based stress and trauma, and educating all students with high expectations (regardless of skin color). Our Black, Latinx and traditionally marginalized students have stories that need to be told and heard. Our classrooms should be safe spaces that are accepting of these stories."

It's easy to incorporate resources into our programming in which students see their own reflection, Demarais-Morse said. Use videos that include representation of the student population or children's books with people of color or that address social justice issues. The more difficult work requires personal and emotional risk. "School counselors might first reflect upon where they stand in working toward becoming anti-racist. Are they working from a place of fear, or are they working to learn, understand and grow? Each step in this reflection will demand that we take action toward the next step."

Building a foundation of trust is a good place to start, said Rebecca Atkins, senior administrator of school counseling for the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, and co-author, with Oglesby, of "Interrupting Racism." "School counselors rely deeply on creating trust with all of their stakeholders," she said. That trust with stakeholders is "amplified when you talk about something that is difficult for people and heavily weighted in emotions and history."

Building trust requires visibility. "The school has to be able to see you being out and about making connections." Following through with promises is critical. "School counselors may promise all the things but not deliver all the things," Atkins said. "That may come from a good place, but that breaks trust if you don't do it. Be the person who advocates verbally and vocally, so teachers and parents know you're advocating," she said.

Support from the highest levels certainly helps, too. For example, last summer the Kentucky Board of Education passed a resolution against all acts of racism and violence and committing to "creating a better educational community for students and, importantly, for African American students and students of color," Sweeney said. The resolution also stated that "educational leaders must embrace diversity, ensure equality and shape the future of all of Kentucky's children." The Kentucky Board of Education is supporting "inclusionary teacher preparation programs that put highly qualified teachers of color in front of students and school improvement options for local districts to close achievement gaps," he said.
Our Black, Latinx and traditionally marginalized students have stories that need to be told and heard.

Following this resolution, the Kentucky Department of Education hired a deputy commissioner of education and chief equity officer. Sweeney and his colleagues are now working on a new equity toolkit and dashboard to study current policies, practices and curricula. "When people tell us there is a lack of diversity at their schools, we let them know this provides even more of a reason to learn from or connect with others who are different from them and offer students opportunities to have deeper conversations about race."

A barrier to some of those deeper conversations that result in systemic change is simply that the profession is mostly female and white, said Wendy Rock, Ph.D., assistant professor of counseling and school counseling program coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University. "The ASCA National Model is a framework, not a prescription. It provides guidelines for disaggregating data to identify inequities. School counseling programs utilizing the ASCA National Model as their framework can and should address racism. I can't tell you how long I have heard, especially in a school setting, 'why are you making this about race?' Whenever someone of color tried to draw attention to the problem, we gaslighted them. I think as a profession, our own bias and privilege have inhibited us from recognizing the problem."

Refining School Counselor Education
Moving the needle beyond just recognizing the problem can start with practical things, Parker said. In her school counselor preparation program, no one talked about access to AP tests, barriers to standardized tests, college applications or how to request fee waivers. Newly minted school counselors enter the field well-versed in clinical practice, counseling theory and rapport building but not necessarily the real work at the high school level. "We talked about career readiness. We didn't talk about fee waivers for applications. And it's not just the teaching of the college application process; the gatekeeping of advanced, honors and AP courses or fee waivers but the equity issues that surround them. These aren't things in your graduate program. You find out on the job." Parker suggested school counseling faculty can enhance their programs by reviewing state guidelines to ensure their students are prepared for what they'll be required to do once they're in the building. "Have conversations and teach around those things," she said.

Atkins agreed. "When we have mock interviews [with school counseling candidates], I say 'talk to me about how you're going to make a difference for equity and access for students.'" The answer is always "culturally responsive counseling," but typical school counselors spend the majority of their time outside of individual counseling, she said. "Culturally responsive counseling is important, but we have to be careful not to think that's our solution. Students need support, but the problem is the system. Until every school counseling preparation program is emphasizing systemic change and how that works in a school, I don't think we'll see a huge difference. I think that's a big gap in many graduate programs."

Anti-racism is just now being discussed as it relates to school counseling programs, said Dana Griffin, Ph.D., associate professor and Dean's Fellow for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I tell my [school counseling] students that multicultural counseling is not simply understanding a theory or approach to working with diverse youth. It's being aware that their experiences are different because of the '-isms' and other forms of injustice, and it's about understanding how we ourselves have implicit biases and beliefs that contribute to the oppression. A school counseling program must be comprehensive in nature to address all these injustices and other acts of oppression. That may mean that part of your job is conducting teacher trainings and workshops, using data to highlight inequities and pointing these things out when you hear or see them."

It's important for graduate students to understand the "contours of the education system," Sharp said, so they understand how the system creates opportunities for some and not for others.

"All the work we are preparing our students to do, we must be willing to do ourselves in our programs and institutions," Rock said. "All of this takes a great deal of courage, so I think building the capacity of our students to be leaders and advocates is key."

Battling the Barriers
A number of school counselors responding to the ASCA State of the Profession survey indicated they had lobbied their administrator or district for the opportunity to train other faculty in racism and bias, to update curricula and to update racist policies but were shot down. It's frustrating, but there are ways around it.
For example, "Any time you hit resistance, a great strategy is to connect the work you're trying to move forward with the things your administrator cares about," Atkins said. "If your administrator isn't ready for an honest conversation about race and racism, do they want all their students to come to class and do well in school? Tie the work you're doing with the data outcomes in the school."

Additionally, share with administrators and district personnel your ethical mandate. "The ASCA Ethical Standards are very clear, and you can tie it back to that," Atkins said. "Ultimately, many of the things we want to see in anti-racist work is fundamentally good practice. If you're feeling like you're getting a lot of pushback, find your people," she said. "Having a group of people will help you stand up for what's right and will also help you not lose your steam. But if you feel like you're the only person talking about equity and racism in your school, find somebody in your district or in your state association. It's impossible to do by yourself because you're working against such a huge system. It's literally the way the entire system was made."

For Oglesby, sometimes pushback means she's doing something right. "Part of how I can continue to move forward with this work really is knowing that pushback is inevitable. There's a very delicate balance between advocating fiercely and making sure I keep my job. I know it's tough, and it's difficult at first. It does get easier. If you have the privilege and benefit of seeing things come together and shift in your school community, it is an awesome thing."

"I believe that 99.9% of school counselors are here because they want to do what's best for kids," Atkins said. "If you haven't made any changes based on 2020, do some deep learning about the history of racism in education. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's very insidious. You can't not notice it's there. But once you learn, don't stop there. We must choose action."

Angie Hickman is ASCA director of research and marketing.

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- American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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Author: Angie Hickman | 3/1/2021 Twenty years ago, as a first-year high school teacher, Tinisha Parker, Ph.D., encountered one of her first opportunities to reject the status quo. As she read the social studies textbook to prepare for the next day's lesson, she was alarmed to find a single paragraph on slavery.

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There's no one-size-fits-all definition of leadership. Leaders can succeed with all types of personalities, education, and theories. One popular leadership style is servant leadership, which will become more familiar when you recognize its characteristics.

Think about the terms "socially responsible companies" or "participative management" styles. Organizations and managers who fit these descriptions are the ones who typically fit the mold of servant leadership.

Examples of servant leaders include Stephen Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," and Richard Murphy, a legendary youth development leader in New York City.

Servant leadership is "a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world," according to the Center for Servant Leadership. If that evokes your ideal of socially responsible organizations, you're probably thinking of places where servant leadership is the norm.

Servant leadership is a classic concept, but the term was coined in 1970, when Robert K. Greenleaf published his essay, "The Servant as Leader." Greenleaf maintained, "The servant leader is servant first."

Greenleaf believed that organizations - not just individuals - could also be servant leaders. His second major essay, "The Institution as Servant," unequivocally reinforced that point.

Unlike authoritarian leaders, the servant leader does not depend on accumulating or exercising power within a company. Instead, the servant leader:

Considers the needs of employees first. Servant leaders focus on satisfying the highest-priority needs of others. Servant leaders feel a strong sense of caring and responsibility for their staff.

Commits to helping employees develop expertise and improve performance. Servant leaders prioritize the personal and professional development of others, ensuring they build their knowledge base and professional skills.

Insists that the organization make a positive contribution to society. While not losing their focus on a healthy bottom line, servant leaders make sure an organization improves its community, region, and nation.

Many theories and curricula tend to focus on three classic leadership styles:

Authoritarian. This leader accumulates power and uses it to manage and lead the organization. Employees typically must follow strict rules and procedures with little deviation.

Participative. This leader empowers employees to be creative, offers suggestions and opinions, and encourages subordinates to provide input on senior management decisions.

Laissez-faire. Loosely translated from the French, laissez-faire means "let them do as they will." According to BusinessDictionary.com, these leaders discard authoritarian conventions, give minimal guidance to employees at all levels and leave subordinates alone to do their jobs as they see fit.

Servant leadership most closely resembles participative leadership. While history often cites few examples of any management theories beyond autocratic, or authoritarian, leadership until the 1950s or 1960s, servant leadership is actually an ancient approach. Lao-Tzu referenced servant leadership in the classic Chinese text "Tao Te Ching" as early as 500 BC.

There is no perfect leadership theory or technique. Leading as a servant comes with certain advantages and some downsides. Understanding the pros and cons of any philosophy is crucial to any leadership style you adopt.

Pros

Servant leadership can improve an organization and/or society over the long term.

Caring treatment of employees often encourages similar treatment of the organization's customers and vendors.

Servant leaders attract employee trust, which can improve the credibility of the organization's brand.

Servant leadership typically develops a positive corporate culture and can correct a prevailing negative culture over time.

This leadership style encourages and motivates high performance from employees.

Cons

Servant leadership requires time to achieve positive results.

Critics such as Deborah Eicher-Catt believe this leadership style is vastly overrated and gender discriminatory.

While servant leadership may not be a perfect fit in every situation, the style remains popular and is attracting more fans among organizational leaders. This leadership style is building a track record of success among managers who focus on improving their people and their community.

Sources:

Paul Schmitz, " Richard Murphy: A Powerful Example of Servant Leadership "

" What is Servant Leadership?," Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

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What is Servant Leadership? - St. Thomas Online

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There's no one-size-fits-all definition of leadership. Leaders can succeed with all types of personalities, education, and theories. One popular leadership style is servant leadership, which will become more familiar when you recognize its characteristics. Think about the terms "socially responsible companies" or "participative management" styles.

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Theories of leadership are helpful, but experience suggests that when others model leadership principles for us, we are more likely to uphold and honor the example of our mentors.

I was exposed to the idea of the inverted pyramid while at Home Depot. Founders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, had expressed this concept as they built the culture and company that dramatically transformed the home improvement and retail industry. The inverted pyramid is a way of approaching a company's organizational chart - a way of thinking about one's place in the hierarchy - in which the traditional leader, the CEO for example, is on the bottom, not the top.

The Inverted Pyramid

Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines was once asked if he prioritizes shareholders or employees. His response showed both a contrarian viewpoint, but also embodies the inverted pyramid perspective. "Employees come first. If employees are treated right, they treat the outside world right. The outside world uses the company's product again and the shareholder is happy."

The Hierarchy of Ego - Pyramid Structure

While Home Depot started out with a strong entrepreneurial culture, it went through an incredibly difficult cultural shift when the founders retired and former GE executive Robert Nardelli became Chairman and CEO in 2000. By the time I joined the company in 2004, the inverted pyramid was spoken of in hushed whispers, wistful of a bygone era and employees had become resentful of the CEO having asserted himself at the pinnacle. Rather than have the CEO and executive team carry the burden of responsibility for their decisions, Nardelli placed it on the associates. The company had lost its way, resulting in lost market share and declining customer satisfaction, which had once been an untouchable strength of the Home Depot. Though Nardelli tried to course-correct and regain customer trust, it became clear that he did not have the moral authority to repair the damage and was forced to resign in 2007.

When Frank Blake stepped into the CEO role, he promptly reverted the burden of responsibility back to his shoulders and that of his executive team through the inverted pyramid. Though he had to divest Nardelli's merger and acquisition consolidation adventure of HD Supply due to the financial pressures of the Great Recession, he bucked the trend of cutting employee wages and made sure they received merit increases and 401(k) contributions. By investing in people during the downturn, Home Depot came out of the recession stronger than ever thanks to Blake's servant leadership approach.

I happened to meet Bob Nardelli during my time at Home Depot. We were in an elevator together and I was bold enough to stick out my hand and introduce myself. Though I was sure to thank him for the Olympic Job Opportunities Program and the incredible vision that I benefited from, he seemed repulsed by my forwardness and was quick to shut down the conversation. By contrast, Frank Blake was known to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the associates, picking a table at random and spending time asking questions and getting to know people.

It is encouraging that the culture that Bernie and Arthur founded was able to survive a misfit CEO. While the company as a whole was chaotic and experiencing massive upheaval, I personally had the amazing experience of working for incredible servant leaders who operated on their own core values. These managers acted as coaches, not bosses, in which they put the interests and development of the people who worked for them ahead of their own interests.

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Servant Leadership and the Inverted Pyramid

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The inverted pyramid is a way of approaching a company's organizational chart - a way of thinking about one's place in the hierarchy - in which the traditional leader, the CEO for example, is on the bottom, not the top.

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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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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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Daniel Goleman: Why arent we all Good Samaritans?

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www.ted.com Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin.

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Article Organizational Variables Contributing to School Counselor Burnout

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This is your brain on communication | Uri Hasson