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Allen, S. J., Shankman, M. L. (2009). Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for College Students.

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for College Students offers students a guide that combines emotional intelligence and leadership skills development for everyday practice. The authors define emotional intelligent leadership (EIL) as “an intentional focus on three facets: consciousness of self, the consciousness of others, and consciousness of context” (p. 9). The book is divided into three sections of emotional intelligence leadership: consciousness of self, the consciousness of content, and the consciousness of others. Within these three sections, there are 19 different subsections that leaders can use to enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will develop their leadership skills. The section on consciousness to self helps readers understand the correlation between emotional intelligence and leadership. This chapter challenges the reader to better understand their personal influences and how they can affect their leadership abilities. Addressed next in the book is the consciousness of others. The authors remind the reader that in order to be a successful leader one has to be aware of “other people’s abilities, emotions, and perceptions, you can better inspire, connect with, work with, and influence others” (p. 111). The final section that is discussed in the book is the consciousness of context. The consciousness of context focuses on the importance of the situation and the setting the leader is in. The leader has to be flexible and make changes to their leadership process depending on the personality of the followers and environmental factors.

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students! Here are 11 ways school counselors serve as leaders in your building.

1. School counselors recognize and showcase diversity.

In many buildings, school counselors are considered the "heart" of the school. They help create an inclusive environment that is respectful, welcoming, kind, and open to all.

2. School counselors develop community partnerships.

Counseling staff work collaboratively with universities, community colleges, technical schools, local unions, military reps, and apprentice programs to provide a variety of opportunities for students. They are especially vital in ensuring underserved and first-generation students have access to and the tools to reach all possible post-high school options.

3. School counselors help during difficult situations.

Strengths such as listening, reflecting, and high emotional intelligence make school counselors valuable allies when trying to get buy-in from staff or the greater community on difficult issues. Counselors foster a culture of change via strong lines of communication and valuing input from all parties involved.

4. School counselors maintain strong home-school connections.

Counselors tend to be the liaison for parents when it comes to communicating with the school. This leadership role is especially important when assisting families who are not familiar with the school setting or have issues trusting staff.

5. School counselors maximize educational success.

School counselors can help to maximize the educational attainment of all students by providing students with mental health services (school or community-based) and developmental guidance that takes a proactive approach in helping students set and reach academic goals.

6. School counselors lead staff trainings.

Administrators who use their counseling staff (rather than outside contractors) to lead building-wide trainings can save a lot of money and gain quicker buy-in from staff. School counselors are experts on topics such as student engagement, positive discipline, suicide/self-harm, students-as-leaders, peer mentoring programs, and academic/social interventions for low-performing students.

7. School counselors protect and advocate for disadvantaged students.

Counselors identify and amend policies and practices that negatively impact disadvantaged students and advocate for equitable services for all students.

8. School counselors use expertise to bring data to life.

Like administrators, counselors are trained in data collection and analysis. They are skilled at using this information to drive decisions about placement, intervention, and overall student health and wellbeing.

9. School counselors mediate difficult situations between parents/students and staff.

Counselors are consistently looking for ways to support the relationship between school staff and parents. Acting as a mediator when one or both parties are upset about a situation is a critical way in which school counselors serve as leaders.

10. School counselors organize and lead crisis response.

Counselors are on the front lines after a tragedy has happened in a school or community. Staff, students, parents, and community members look to the counselors for guidance and support immediately following an event. Because of their training in emotional/mental, the counseling staff is critical in advocating for and teaching self-care to staff, parents, and students during a crisis.

11. School counselors empower and inspire.

School counselors inherently believe in people and work tirelessly to communicate that. By being visible and accessible at all times, their calming, caring, and encouraging presence helps support and empower staff in the building.

School counselors serve as leaders in many ways and we need to value their perspectives and strengths. They are vital to building positive learning environments in which students thrive.
Join our Facebook group Principal Life for more conversation about and insights into the challenges of school leadership.

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11 Ways Your School Counselors Serve as Leaders - WeAreTeachers

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students!

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Highlights

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Large racial inequities were found in SEL but not school climate.

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SEL nor school climate accounted for racial inequities in grades.

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SEL was significantly more strongly related to grades for White students.

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SEL and climate must be critically evaluated for their contribution to racial (in)equity.

Abstract

Many schools and school districts have put significant effort into improving school climate and the social emotional learning (SEL) of students, as they have been shown to be related to improved academic success. Yet, little is known about whether these efforts will contribute to or ameliorate racial differences in academic outcomes. In a series of structural equation models adjusting for school clustering, this study examined mediating and moderating effects of student perceptions of school climate and their own SEL on race differences in self-reported grades. Asian and Latinx students reported slightly more positive perceived school climate while Multiracial students reported significantly less positive perceived school climate compared to White students. Compared to their White peers, all racial groups reported lower levels of SEL. Significant but small indirect standardized effects of race on grades through social emotional competence but not school climate suggest that SEL partially mediates the relationship of race with grades. The association of SEL with grades was significantly stronger for White students compared to other racial groups; the standardized effect size of the association was nearly twice as large for White students as for Black and Native students.

View full text

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Racial equity in academic success: The role of school climate and social emotional learning

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Large racial inequities were found in SEL but not school climate. * SEL nor school climate accounted for racial inequities in grades. * SEL was significantly more strongly related to grades for White students. * SEL and climate must be critically evaluated for their contribution to racial (in)equity.

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Below are excerpts from Julia Bush's acceptance speech for NvSCA school counselor of the year, given at the NvSCA Conference in March 2019. Bush is a school counselor in Clark County School District.

This whole counselor award has been such a surreal experience. One day in early September, after putting in three new students, finishing up from a suicide protocol, numerous schedule changes, answering phone calls about "my kid wanted band not orchestra," I was contemplating how I could make it through the year by myself against 660 of those looney middle schoolers. As I was seriously considering seeking other employment, I see Ken Basinger's name flash across my phone. Ken knows I can't and won't say no to him, so I'm thinking, "Oh no, do I answer it?" "What committee is Ken going to ask me to do and how can I possibly say no?" After patiently listening to me go on and on about how I can't do any more, he asked if I would accept a nomination for school counselor of the Year. Darn it, he got me again. Hooked me again, just on the day I was going to resign and hope that Starbucks was looking to add people with much "life experience."

In Nevada, as many of you already are aware, we have some of the highest counselor-to-student ratios in addition to unequal access for students of color and students from low income families, as seen in February 2019, "School Counselors Matter" from research done by The Education Trust. These statistics really introduce what I hope you can take away from listening to me today: advocacy, leadership, collaboration and systematic change.

Each of us is very good at advocacy for our students. What we aren't as good at is advocating for ourselves and our profession. Most of us go about our day, doing what we do. It is surprising how many people in the general public don't know what we do and how our profession has evolved from when they were young and in school. Some of our most in-need families don't tell others how much we do for them due to the confidential work. Or we think its "tooting our own horn." We need to get in the habit of practicing advocacy. You are demonstrating advocacy right now by being here. Make sure you join NVSCA and ASCA each year. Volunteer to speak to your parent groups. Meet with your stakeholders. Put information on your websites and send out emails with resources to families. Practice tooting your horn.

Leadership goes hand and hand with advocacy. The question we must keep in the forefront is, "How are our students different as a result of what we do?" Leaders don't have to be bossy, although I am. Many of us lead by example of how we treat people and how we conduct ourselves. We lead by joining a committee, advising a club, being on the School Organizational Team or School Improvement Committee. We lead by taking on interns and practicum students and passing on our knowledge, as they teach us about new technology. We lead by always putting our students first. Leading doesn't always mean doing it ourselves, which brings me to collaboration.

Collaborating with other school counselors makes working smarter and not harder - another reason that joining committees and organization in the long run will benefit you and your program. There is a wealth of knowledge in each building, as well. I could not possibly survive without the school nurse, school psychologist, learning strategist, special ed facilitator, the advisors of the Leadership class, admin, office staff and custodians. To be truly part of a collaborative team benefits everyone. I am fortunate to have that at Burkholder and with so many of you I see here today. Over the years I have had the opportunity to forge relationships with community organizations, churches and businesses that love contributing time, expertise, school supplies and basic needs for our students.

When I first began in CCSD in 1996, we were just drabbling in that thing called Interact. For you newbies, that was our first email within CCSD. Many were opposed because they felt it was better to either write a note to everyone or tell the person face to face. After a couple years we couldn't imagine life without Interact. This is an example of a systemic change. Mark Connelly from University of Wisconsin in Madison discusses systemic change as "All systems organize individual pieces into some sort of interrelated whole." Put simply, systemic change occurs when change reaches all or most parts of a system, thus affecting the general behavior of the entire system. However, systemic change is often difficult to envision, let alone encourage, because people generally find it easier to focus on the parts than on the systems that connect those pieces. Difficult to envision and sometimes difficult to achieve because we are unable to control thoughts, feelings and actions of others. But with a data-driven counseling program, built on a solid needs assessment of all stakeholders with a focused mission and vision, and through advocacy, leadership and collaboration, systemic change will occur.

My vision is for all students in our state to have access to a school counselor with whom a relationship can be built and that the counselor will have the ability to deliver a comprehensive counseling program to address social/emotional, academic and career mindsets and behaviors for all.

It's my 23rd year in CCSD; it sounds absurd to even say it because it has gone so fast. Nothing is more fulfilling than encountering a former student in the community and seeing what he or she has decided is their passion, and how they are using their gifts. As school counselors we have a truly remarkable job with a lot of responsibility. We can never fully comprehend how one interaction or one kind exchange can be a game- and life-changer for a student. When I see a 30-something around town and they tell me they still use their Kelso's Choices, I can't help but giggle, but it really makes me remember why we do what we do. I am truly humbled and honored to have received this award.

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Below are excerpts from Julia Bush's acceptance speech for NvSCA school counselor of the year, given at the NvSCA Conference in March 2019. Bush is a school counselor in Clark County School District. This whole counselor award has been such a surreal experience.

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Shifting to a virtual environment for school counseling can present its own challenges, from students not being required to meet with a school counselor, to trying not to overwhelm students and families by yet another person wanting to connect with them. Yet, this is a critical time for school counselors and related student support staff to engage with students. Social-emotional learning is extremely important to continue at this time. Students and their families are overwhelmed with this new way of doing school, may also be facing job losses, and going through their own grief with the possible loss of a loved one or caring for a loved one with coronavirus.

School counselors have stepped up to this challenge of staying connected with students synchronously and asynchronous by providing check-ins with students, lessons for social-emotional learning, and helping students and families prepare for college and career after graduation. To help further support school counselors, I've compiled a helpful set of tips and resources to help school counselors shift to a virtual school counseling practice.

Activity

Tool

Counseling Tips

Gathering information from students, families, & staff
Use Google Forms or Survey Monkey
Creating a Google Voice number (With Google Voice, you can call or text parents/guardians and have them call you without sharing your personal phone number.)

Find out from teachers what students have not responded to remote learning or who may need extra support that can be provided from the school counselor.
Create a simple survey for students and/or families to determine needs.

Sharing information with students, families, and staff
Padlet - view this sample Padlet Google Sites

Smore : Free platform to make professional-looking newsletters

Learning Management System (LMS)

Use a tool such as Padlet, Google Sites, or LMS to share information categorized for students, families, staff.

Provide information about the local food pantry.

Provide information and resources to students and families for depression or students with thoughts of suicide.
What are the steps the family should take? Who do they call? Where should they go?

Share free resources for social-emotional learning that families and teachers can access.

Keep students engaged with college and career planning with resources they usually access at school.
Are there colleges holding virtual visits or meetings?

Hold regular office hours and share the information with students, families, and staff.

Ask teachers who are using Google Classroom or Seesaw if you can be added as a co-teacher to share lessons and resources with families and students.

Scheduling Tools
Use a tool such as Calendly , SignUpGenius or Doodle . This will create an invitation for you and send directly to your own calendar.

View the screencast here for Calendly .

Share on Google Classroom , Seesaw , Padlet or LMS so families and students have access so they can schedule a meeting.

Send calendar invite
If you aren't using scheduling software, create a Google Calendar invite.

In the invite, be sure to set it up with a link to the video communications tool such as, Google Hangouts , Zoom or Skype .

View the screencast to create a calendar invite with a video conferencing.

Prep
Prep for counseling session

This is where you can use the feedback from the survey to plan for the counseling session.

Gather resources to meet the needs of the student/family.

Counseling Session/Lessons
Use a video conferencing tool such as Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet , Microsoft Teams or Skype to meet with students and families.

During the counseling session, use a collaborative document such as Google Docs to document the counseling session.

Have a backup plan for technology not working.

Give students a number to call or an email address

Lessons can be used to develop social-emotional learning skills, check-ins with students, college/career planning, academic planning, other counseling sessions.

Record a lesson using Screencastify, Zoom or Loom, and share with students. Engage students through a discussion prompt on your digital platform using a link to a Padlet (students type or record their answers,), Flipgrid (students video record their answers), or Discussion Post through your LMS.

Counseling Log
How will you log virtual counseling sessions?

Create a Google Form to log each meeting with students and families.

Use data gathered from meetings to plan additional counseling sessions. Where are your highest needs? How can you plan ahead with this information?

Follow-Up
Complete agreed upon activities

Stay connected with students and families!

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Shifting to a Virtual School Counseling Environment

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Shifting to a virtual environment for school counseling can present its own challenges, from students not being required to meet with a school counselor, to trying not to overwhelm students and families by yet another person wanting to connect with them. Yet, this is a critical time for school counselors and related student support staff to engage with students.

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Effective Leadership: What Makes a Good Leader | Gallup

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Discover the key traits of effective leadership, learn to develop leadership skills, differentiate between leadership and management, and build successful teams.

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Have you ever been in a group where someone took control of the situation by conveying a clear vision of the group's goals, a marked passion for the work, and an ability to make the rest of the group feel recharged and energized? This person just might be what is called a transformational leader.

Transformational leadership is a leadership style that can inspire positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.

Quick Background

The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation."﻿﻿

Later, researcher Bernard M. Bass expanded upon Burns's original ideas to develop what is today referred to as Bass's Transformational Leadership Theory. According to Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect, and admiration from their followers.﻿﻿

Mental Health in the Workplace Webinar

Components

Bass also suggested that there were four different components of transformational leadership.

1. Intellectual Stimulation: Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn.

2. Individualized Consideration: Transformational leadership also involves offering support and encouragement to individual followers. In order to foster supportive relationships, transformational leaders keep lines of communication open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer direct recognition of the unique contributions of each follower.

3. Inspirational Motivation: Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they are able to articulate to followers. These leaders are also able to help followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfill these goals.

4. Idealized Influence: The transformational leader serve as a role model for followers. Because followers trust and respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals.

So what are some typical signs of a transformational leader? Groups led by this type of leader tend to be both successful and loyal. They give a lot to the team and care deeply about the group's ability to accomplish its goals. Turnover tends to be quite low as transformational leaders are able to inspire a great deal of commitment in their followers.

In their classic text, Transformational Leadership, authors Bass and Riggio explained:

"Transformational leaders...are those who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by empowering them and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization."

"Research evidence clearly shows that groups led by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders," explained psychologist and leadership expert Ronald E. Riggio in an article for Psychology Today.

The reason, he suggests, is that transformational leaders believe that their followers can do their best, leading members of the group to feel inspired and empowered.

What can you do to become a more transformational leader? Leadership experts suggest that having a strong, positive vision of the future plays a critical role. Not only is it important to believe in this vision yourself; you've also got to inspire others to buy into your vision as well.

Link to Well-Being

According to the results of one study, this style of leadership can also have a positive influence on employee well-being.﻿﻿

The study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine involved surveying workers at several different German information and communication technology companies. Researchers asked participants to answers questions about their employer's leadership style.

A score for transformational leadership was then determined based on qualities such as providing intellectual stimulation, giving positive feedback for good performance, leading by example, and helping employees feel like they were making a contribution toward the goals of the group.

The researchers discovered that employees who identified a higher level of transformational leadership in their employers also had higher reported levels of well-being. The effect stayed significant even after researchers controlled for factors that are linked to well-being such as job strain, education, and age.

"The results of this study suggest that a transformational leadership style, which both conveys a sense of trust and meaningfulness and individually challenges and develops employees, also has a positive effect on employee well-being," the authors summarized.

Real-World Applications

So what impact could such results have for managers and workers?

The study's authors suggest that the results are important and can help companies develop leadership training programs that can be used to teach transformational leadership skills. Acquiring communication skills such as resolving conflicts in the workplace and recognizing the needs of employees are an important part of transformational leadership.

"Such training programs can be seen as another essential component of workplace health promotion and prevention efforts and therefore should receive wide support," explained the study's authors.

A Word From Verywell

The transformational style of leadership can be highly effective when used appropriately, but it might not necessarily be the best choice for every situation. In some cases, groups may require a more managerial or autocratic style that involves closer control and greater direction, particularly in situations where group member are unskilled and need a lot of oversight.

One way to improve your own leadership skills is to assess your own current leadership style and think about ways in which your strengths can benefit the group you are leading. By evaluating your own skills, you will be better able to play to your strengths and work on improving your areas of weakness.

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How Do Transformational Leaders Inspire and Motivate Followers?

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Have you ever been in a group where someone took control of the situation by conveying a clear vision of the group's goals, a marked passion for the work, and an ability to make the rest of the group feel recharged and energized? This person just might be what is called a transformational leader.

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Discover The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®

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Discover The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, a model developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge.

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Technical Details

Name: Leadership Participation Inventory
Author: James Kouze and Barry Posner
Classification: Transformational Theories
Year: 1987

Pro's

The inventory is intuitively obvious.

Specific factors are listed in a checklist form that organizers can use to assess a group's affinity. to a leader. While they are subjective, they are better than nothing and can help in a focus on organizational problems.

The inventory can be used to build programs to develop leaders.

The model can be adapted, where not all factors are necessary to develop a leader.

Con's

There is no quantification of terms and each trait is so subjective that there is not universal agreement on which each means. The context-free aspect of the inventory items creates problems in one's ability to use them as assessment instruments.

Because of the subjectivity of the terms, it is difficult to test the Leadership Participation Inventory model uniformly in diverse situations.

There are different names for the model, thus, this presents a challenge in assessing its uniform perception. At least two names exist: "Leadership Participation Inventory" and "Leadership Practices Inventory"

Does the theory account for the difference between leadership and management? Management focuses more on instrumentalism and leadership is a relationship.

Overview

A survey was developed and published by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book, The Leadership Challenge (Jossey Bass Publishers, 2002), that asked persons what characteristics of a leader they admire and would cause them to follow. From this came the Leadership Participation Inventory. In somewhat of a jocular sense, it follows the Boy Scout's list of traits befitting a model scout and is a list, major components of which many person could present without much thought. Kouzes and Posner discuss five characteristics they deem essential for successful leadership. Role model, inspiration, facing adversity, getting others to act, and generating enthusiasm to act.

Discussion

The five characteristics for successful leadership

A good leader turns observers into doers.

1. Role Model: A leader needs to be an exemplar, initiating action and presenting her or himself as a paradigm case of what a person should be and how actions should be performed.

2. Inspiration: The others need to feel that they should follow; they need to be inspired but with a goal. They need to see that there is a desired endpoint to their actions. Leaders may intellectualize a situation but they have to be able to stand firm in the face of adversity.

3. Facing Adversity: She or he cannot be deterred or wither. Courage is a hallmark of good leadership. That is a main feature that others see in a good leader. Often a leader will have to be creative, and it is this creation that sets a person off from the humdrum of those who follow.

4. Empowerment: Getting others to act! Conveying a sense of empowerment to the others

5. Generates Enthusiasm: A vital component of leadership not only getting others to act, but they need to act with passion.

Critique

As with all theories, the Leadership Participation Inventory is only a model that selects some aspects of leadership. There are certain aspects that are absent for Kousen and Posner's model, in particular: specific behaviors of leaders, group response, and quantification of the characteristics. The latter is essential in crating usable research instruments to test the efficacy of the theory across various environments. The inventory is a rational directive and one must consider non rational factors, such as emotions and environmental contingencies.

Another consideration is the very nature of leadership, itself. In the simplest situation of two individuals, leadership begins when one person is differentiated from the other by his or her prescribing activities or that the other does. In a broader sense, one person defers to another, thus establishing a hierarchy. The more persons involved and defer accordingly, the greater power the leader has. However, what if there is no deference? One has anarchy, and it has been argued that in a perfectly rationale society, there would be no hierarchy, where leadership is dispersed equally. How does a Leadership Participation Inventory model operate then? This question applies to all models, in fact.

One also must look closely at Kouzes and Posner's mode of presentation. While there appears to be a great deal of research behind the theory, it is difficult to find access to original sources; they are all proprietary. There does not appear to be a great deal of peer review of the theory. Furthurmore, the presentations are very commercialized, not unlike those of popular self-help books. Does this commercialization degrade the theory? This is not to say that the theory has not been instrumental in developing fine leaders, but one should be critically thoughtful and be willing to accept that there may be limitations to the popularization, being aware that fad may have their utility but may not sustain critical analysis.

Future of theory

In as much as there is a change of a word vis a vis "Leadership Participation Inventory" and "Leadership Practices Inventory" there needs to be an exploration concerning the rational. "Participation" conveys a different sense than "Practices". The first is oriented more towards assessing the following of people and the latter is more towards what to do about people following. What implications does this have for describing the theory of Kouzes and Posner in the first place and then one should assess how it is interpreted and applied in terms of the rationale for emphasizing participation as opposed to practicing.

There should be a comparison of the inventory of Kouzes and Posner with other leadership assessment and group participation studies, such as those discussed in Factors Which Influence Leadership Participation in Agricultural Organizations by Dr. Hannah S. Carter and Dr. Rick D. Rudd. An issue is the survey instruments themselves. One must do a cross-comparison not only regarding the instruments themselves but the content of the inventory of factors bonding persons to a leader.

The "Leadership Participation Inventory" is only a model and should be compared to other leadership models to assess what has been omitted or duplicated. Additionally, one should compare the rationale and philosophy underpinning that rationale across this and all other models.

Want to expand on the discussion?

We encourage you to expand on the discussion, add to the critique or even share your vision with regards to the future applications of the theory.

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Leadership Participation Inventory - James Kouze and Barry Posner

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A survey was developed and published by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book,The Leadership Challenge (Jossey Bass Publishers, 2002), that asked persons what characteristics of a leader they admire and would cause them to follow. From this came the Leadership Participation Inventory.

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The Global Emotional Intelligence Test uses 40 questions which are derived from, the Global instrument, which contains 158 items. These are based on Goleman's four quadrant Emotional Intelligence Competency Model (2002). Click EI Capability Assessment here for more details. Short EI quizzes such as this are meant to be fun, and to give you a guide to which EI areas you are doing well in and those which perhaps you need to focus on for development.

This Test, is a forced-choice psychological test which requires you to choose Instructions for the FREE EI Test one statement in each pair of statements that describes you best. For each pair of statements, select the statement that best applies to you. Do not over-analyse the questions, or try to think of "exceptions to the rule." Be spontaneous and choose the statement that comes closest to the way you are.

Occasionally there will be questions that ask you to make a close call between two choices. This is because the Test is trying to distinguish between specific areas. If a question is very close and you can't decide which statement applies to you best, you can come back to it after you have completed the other questions.

The Test usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the test, click on the Score Test button, and wait for the computer to generate an EI profile of your scores. If you have answered honestly and accurately, your scores will reflect your capability level within each of the EI quadrants.

We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the results of this Test - only that it can help you begin your journey of self-development!

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Emotional Intelligence Test - Global Leadership Foundation

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Free emotional intelligence test developed by Global Leadership Foundation

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Emotional Intelligence - Global Leadership Foundation

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The capability of people to perform the work or job that they do falls into three areas: Technical skills - which includes technical expertise e.g. accountancy skills. Intellectual capability - which is commonly known as IQ, or cognitive abilities. Emotional capability - often referred to as emotional intelligence or EI.

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

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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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Far from simply setting up student schedules and administering placement and academic evaluation tests, school counselors are leaders who can have a huge impact on the acceleration and the enhancement of learning. They must possess the ability to negotiate, persuade others their ideas are worthwhile, and collaborate with principals and other school officials.

School counselors have many responsibilities, including counseling students, working with teachers and parents, referring students to outside agencies, participating in student welfare and learning support communities, and evaluating and improving their own school counseling program.

Listening

First and foremost, a school counselor needs to be a good listener. Often, they have several students they work with and may get very few chances to converse with them in a one on one setting. "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood," said Ralph G. Nichols. "The best way to understand people is to listen to them."

To listen effectively, counselors must be fully in the moment, not thinking of their "to do" list but rather giving their full attention to the issue at hand. Reflecting back to the person, your perception of what they said helps show understanding, and lets them make corrections. The counselor must also keep an open mind, being careful not to make any judgments until they have heard the entire story. ¹

Being Empathetic

Often a part of listening, putting themselves in the shoes of the person speaking, whether that is a student or another school official, helps counselors truly understand the underlying issues.

"Without the ability to understand what the student is experiencing, a counselor cannot truly do an effective job," says Helen A. Hatridge, past president of the Missouri School Counselor Association. "Empathy leads to good listening and a better ability to help the client come up with solutions. It also helps the student feel more comfortable and willing to open up to a counselor." ²

To be more empathetic, it is essential for a counselor to put aside their viewpoint. At the same time, they need to validate the student's viewpoint, which does not always mean agreement. Instead it means acknowledging their right to have an opinion, and that they have valid reasons for it. Asking how that person thinks a situation should be handled or what they would do opens up an even deeper understanding. ³

Building Relationship

It takes time for a counselor to build a relationship with any student or even their peers. However, through listening and being empathetic, that process can be accelerated.

To feel free to talk to a counselor, a student must often "break the ice," and needs to feel trust, comfort, and acceptance. Students need to accept that the counselor is a professional caregiver, and someone they can turn to without fear of judgement.

A counselor who develops this trusting relationship with students can get a lot more done, An understanding of the kid culture and what they care about can go a long way toward providing that environment of trust and understanding.

Performing Assessments

Assessment skills are essential for any school counselor in a number of areas. From academic and skills assessment to personality testing and career advisement, the ability to discern the intersection of talent and desire is essential to offering good counsel.

Assessment also includes determining if a student has special needs and interpreting test and non-test data to decide where the student should be placed, and what programs will most benefit them.

Regardless of the reason for assessment, the steps often include, but are not limited to the following:

Choosing what tests should be administered and when.

Scheduling, preparing, and administering tests.

Scoring tests or sending them out to be scored.

Advising students, teachers, parents, and other staff on test score interpretation.

Evaluating the testing process, results, and subsequent recommendations.⁴

Assessments involve some testing but must also be combined with listening, empathy, and the relationship that has been built to determine how testing outcomes relate to personality, desires, and the goals of the student.

Coordinating Efforts and Activities

Efforts and activities can fall into a couple of different categories. A counselor will have to coordinate Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) for students, and other student specific plans as well. Along with coordinating individual student plans and interacting with teachers and other school officials, the school counselor often coordinates other activities and projects as well.

In many cases, the school counselor is in charge of parent newsletters, school announcements, managing social media accounts, and other community outreach and event planning efforts.

The ability to coordinate and manage these efforts and activities requires strong leadership and organizational skills. Teaching these skills to students by allowing them to take responsibility for their own educational goals and other efforts enables a counselor to show leadership by example.

Exercising Authority

In order to be able to implement programs, direct student activities and coordinate tasks, a counselor must exercise a certain amount of authority.

This means first of all that the counselor must be granted the authority to handle certain tasks by other school officials such as principals and administrators. The more their authority is validated by their actions, the more the counselor will be perceived as a leader by parents and students alike.

Secondly, the school counselor must be willing to wield the authority they have been granted, taking charge of tasks and situations, setting expectations, and holding those responsible to deadlines.

The counselor must also know in any given situation when to cross the line from friend to professional. If a student is being abusive or abused, a more professional response is ethically and legally mandated. It is the counselor's obligation to take charge and follow through, ensuring that student safety comes first.

Being Flexible

If one thing is certain in the field of education, it is that things will change. Interruptions, schedule changes, new programs, and new responsibilities all interrupt a counselor's daily routine.

Student needs and the needs of the school overall often take priority over scheduled meetings. Parent phone calls, staff concerns, talks in classrooms, and unexpected counseling needs can all be disruptive.

A successful counselor should:

Leave gaps in their day for unscheduled needs.

Use good time management techniques.

Set reasonable boundaries. Know what is worthy of an interruption, and what can wait.

Communicate clearly. Inform students, parents, and faculty of schedules and boundaries.

By remaining flexible, a counselor can better manage the stress inherent in the job and be more responsive when needs arise unexpectedly.

Having a Sense of Humor

Being able to see things from the side of humor has a number of advantages. It lets students see that the counselor is human and can not only laugh at situations but laugh at themselves as well.

This is frequently one of the biggest assets in building student trust and developing a relationship with them. It is often how those students relate to adults, whether through jokes or humorous anecdotes that illustrate a point the counselor is trying to get across.

Humor is also a stress reliever. Being able to see the humorous side of interruptions and other daily situations allows a counselor to relax and keep anxiety from taking over many scenarios.

It takes a combination of many leadership traits to make a school counselor effective. They must use listening skills and offer empathy in order to build relationships. A counselor must also perform assessments and coordinate activities and educational efforts. These duties mean they must remain flexible and exercise authority when appropriate.

Not one of these traits alone is enough, and no one is equally adept in all of them. They are taught and can be learned in a Master of Arts in Counseling with an emphasis in school counseling like the one offered by Wake Forest University. This graduate degree will prepare you for a career as a school counselor in almost any setting.
Sources: 1 2 3 ⁴ American Counseling Association, Assessment Skills for School Counselors Mind Tools, Empathy at Work Education World, School Counselors Reflective On What Makes Them Effective Fast Company, 5 Ways To Improve Your Listening Skills

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Leadership Traits Every Counselor Should Have

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Far from simply setting up student schedules and administering placement and academic evaluation tests, school counselors are leaders who can have a huge impact on the acceleration and the enhancement of learning. They must possess the ability to negotiate, persuade others their ideas are worthwhile, and collaborate with principals and other school officials.

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Consider the following laments that I have heard recently from school leaders: "We can't change the grading policy-it's part of our culture." "Public displays of data won't work here-the culture won't allow it." "The parents just don't understand-you can't change the culture by passing a law." Each of these statements includes the word culture, but the meaning of the term ranges from policies and procedures to personal preferences to deeply embedded belief systems.

Cultural change, although challenging and time-consuming, is not only possible but necessary-especially in organizations in which stakeholders use the word "culture" as a rhetorical talisman to block leadership initiatives, stifle innovation, and maintain the status quo. In the last decade, the education standards movement has taught us that policy change without cultural change is an exercise in futility and frustration.

How do you change the culture of schools? When it comes to lasting cultural change, four essentials are consistent across many leadership contexts.

First, define what you will not change. Identify specific values, traditions, and relationships that you will preserve. Rather than make every change a battle that exhausts political capital and diminishes trust, effective leaders place change in the context of stability. They take care not to convey the message, "Everything you have been doing in the past was ineffective, and your experience and professional judgment are irrelevant." A more thoughtful message is, "I am only going to ask you to engage in changes that will have meaning and value for you and every stakeholder we serve." For example, many schools have cherished traditions of excellence in athletics, music, or art-traditions that can be threatened when the leader says that academic achievement must be the top priority. Effective change leaders identify and build on traditions rather than compete with them. The trophy case bursting with evidence of athletic championships can share space with exceptional student artwork, outstanding science projects, and superb essays.

Second, recognize the importance of actions. Speeches and announcements are not enough. To lead challenging reform efforts, you must be willing to make personal changes in decision-making policies (Who has the authority to decide what?); personal time allocation (Which meeting invitations do you accept and which do you decline?); and collegial relationships (Do you make time to listen to the personal stories of your colleagues?).

The greatest impediment to meaningful cultural change is the gap between what leaders say they value and what they actually do. Staff members are not seduced by a leader's claim of "collaborative culture" when every meeting is a series of lectures, announcements, and warnings. Claims about a "culture of high expectations" are undermined when school policies encourage good grades for poor student work. The "culture of respect" is undermined by every imperious, demanding, or angry e-mail and voice mail coming from the principal. Leaders speak most clearly with their actions. When staff members hear the call for transformation from a leader whose personal actions remain unchanged, their hope turns to cynicism.

Third, use the right change tools for your school or district. Christensen, Marx, and Stevenson (2006) differentiate culture tools, such as rituals and traditions; power tools, such as threats and coercion; management tools, such as training, procedures, and measurement systems; and leadership tools, such as role modeling and vision. Leaders must choose the appropriate change tools on the basis of a combination of factors, including the extent to which staff members agree on what they want and how to get there. Leaders who approach reform determined to apply a particular change method are making the mistake of the person holding a hammer who therefore sees only nails.

Fourth, be willing to do the "scut work." In Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder (2004) describes a renowned infectious disease specialist and leader in international health care. Farmer has revolutionized the beliefs and practices of stakeholders ranging from the poorest rural villagers in Haiti to the faculty of Harvard Medical School to policymakers at the United Nations. Combining his extensive field experience with sophisticated research and medical analyses, Farmer has upended traditional notions of health care. What does Farmer cite as one of his secrets? The willingness to do "unglamorous scut work."

Although education leaders must make speeches and attend board meetings, leaders aspiring to change school cultures will take the risk, as Superintendent Stan Scheer of Murrieta Valley Unified School District in California has done, of taking a turn as a substitute teacher or spending time with bus drivers at 5:00 on a frosty morning. When the school leader puts down the briefcase and picks up a stack of trays in the cafeteria or a pile of writing portfolios for personal review, then everyone knows that the leader takes every job in the school seriously. If you believe that every job has value and there is no such thing as unimportant work in schools, then demonstrate that belief through your actions.

Meaningful school improvement begins with cultural change-and cultural change begins with the school leader.

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Leading to Change / How Do You Change School Culture? - ASCD

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Consider the following laments that I have heard recently from school leaders: "We can't change the grading policy-it's part of our culture." "Public displays of data won't work here-the culture won't allow it." "The parents just don't understand-you can't change the culture by passing a law." Each