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A comprehensive list of leadership theories, assumptions on these theories, description, and discussions.

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Over time, a number of different theories of leadership have evolved.

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"Our higher education system is one of the things that makes America exceptional. There's no place else that has the assets we do when it comes to higher education. People from all over the world aspire to come here and study here. And that is a good thing."

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Forbes ranks the world's top women leaders and their successes through their careers.

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The Potential for Empowerment in Disclosure

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The Potential for Empowerment in Disclosure

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An instructor explains her reasoning for disclosing her mental illness to her students in effort to break the stigma of mental illness, teach students the importance of self care in college, and create awareness.

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My sophomore year of college, I joined the university choir. Over spring break that year, I traveled with the group for a weeklong tour in Germany. Relatively new to the group, I found myself in a foreign country with a double-decker tour bus full of people who really didn't know too much about me.

At the end of the week, as was tradition, the student officers of the choir handed out special trip awards at the farewell dinner -- a bit like the senior superlatives doled out at the end of high school. Before my own high school graduation, I had been dubbed "Most Cynical" -- so imagine my surprise when the choir officers announced to the room that I had won the award for being the person who was the happiest and most cheerful throughout the trip: the "Prozac Award."

At the time, I burst out laughing, which my fellow singers perhaps chalked up to my "cheery" disposition. But I was really laughing at a joke that no one else in the room was in on: I was, in fact, on Prozac, and had been dealing with debilitating depression for years. The irony was just too good.

Nearly a decade later, as a graduate student in sociology, the disconnect between how I seem (that is, happy), and my own reality (a decade-long, daily struggle with mental illness) persists. Unless I make a point of disclosing my mental illness to others, they are often none the wiser. But as time has passed, I've become less willing to hide what I view as an integral part of my identity. So now, in my third year of teaching undergrads, I make a point each semester of talking to my students about my struggles with anxiety and depression, as well as the perpetually underrated value of self-care. Initially apprehensive about such disclosure, I've found that the appreciative responses I get from students do no less than sustain me: perhaps predictably, I am extremely moved when even just one student pulls me aside to tell me how much my openness and honesty has meant to them, since they (or their sister or brother or girlfriend or boyfriend or mother or father ...) also struggle with mental illness. Having this effect on students serves as a continuing source of strength for me when the demons of impostor syndrome and graduate school frustration launch their relentless attacks.

But regardless of their appreciation for my honesty, students' reactions are often characterized by surprise: "I would have never guessed you had issues with anxiety!" "But you just seem to have it all together!" And my personal favorite: "You just seem too laid-back to have anxiety."

As I'm sure my choir mates would have been years ago, my students today are confused by the seeming disconnect between my outward appearance and my inner reality. And this confusion points to our continued inability as a society to wrap our heads around the often invisible nature of mental illness.

This year's headline deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain have highlighted this confusion. Spade's father said that she " sounded happy" the night before she ended her own life. Someone in the handbag industry said, " She was always just as happy and delightful as her collection was." Bourdain may have had " a cynical sense of humor at times, [but] he generally seemed happy on the outside " to his public audience. Back when Robin Williams died by suicide in 2014, disbelief ran rampant as people struggled to reconcile his iconic comedic image with what was revealed to be his deep-set depression. Headlines around celebrity suicide deaths like these, as well as the reactions to them that people post on social media, keep hitting the same notes of confusion and surprise: "This person was so miserable! How did we not know!"

The persistent and increasingly recognized stigma around mental illness fuels the privatization of personal struggles. Our front-stage and backstage selves can look like entirely different people as we try to hide things like depression and anxiety, worried they would undercut the perception of our competence. Although mental health awareness and the fight against the stigmatization of mental illness and suicide have certainly made promising strides in the last couple decades, few people would deny that such stigmatization remains remarkably resilient in American culture.

And in academe -- a realm where the quality of your mind is precisely where your value is perceived to lie -- the need to hide mental illness may become even more intense than in other arenas of life. There is often an unspoken -- or spoken -- assumption that mental illness and an academic career don't mix. One of my professors once asked me how I planned to pursue a life of teaching given my " ... issues."

But that assumption is discriminatory, and it only functions to limit neurodiversity in academe -- both at the professorial and student levels. If we are suspicious of the capabilities of mentally ill faculty and educators, what does that imply for how we approach students with mental illness or learning disabilities?

For both my students and myself, I am committed to disclosing my struggles with mental health and openly advocating for the importance of self-care with each new semester that comes. I suppose I've reached a point as a sociologist where I cannot bear to teach my students about the social construction of stigmatization while simultaneously allowing myself to be silenced by that very phenomenon.

I am in no way advocating that everyone with mental illness in academe should disclose their struggles to their students and others. Power relations and privilege inevitably play a role in who is "allowed" to disclose without fear of consequence; consequences differ for educators with different social identities and professional positioning in the academic hierarchy. My own privilege as a cisgender heterosexual white person certainly lends me flexibility in being able to disclose my struggles with mental illness to students that educators of other identities may not have.

And certainly each person's mental health, like their physical health, is first and foremost their own business -- and doesn't need to be anyone else's. It is ultimately, and importantly, each educator's personal choice whether they disclose any struggles with mental illness to their students. Thus, my only aim here is to offer my own (admittedly limited) experience as evidence of the possibility for empowerment through such disclosure -- empowerment not only for oneself as an educator but also for one's students. Students today face a punishing combination of, on the one hand, extreme pressure from increasingly competitive academic and postgraduate environments and, on the other, persistent mental health stigma that judges anyone who struggles in those environments.

So, in a culture and academic climate that reward and often require an unsustainable level of productivity and perfection, showing students the humanity of their teachers promises more than just the molding of a more inclusive academe. It has the power to teach students that neurodiversity and success are indeed compatible -- that struggling with mental health does not doom them to failure. And ultimately, disclosure has the potential to demonstrate that mental illness in no way attenuates their value as scholars and as human beings.

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An instructor explains why she tells her students that she struggles with anxiety and depression (opinion)

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My sophomore year of college, I joined the university choir. Over spring break that year, I traveled with the group for a weeklong tour in Germany. Relatively new to the group, I found myself in a foreign country with a double-decker tour bus full of people who really didn't know too much about me.

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What makes a distance program successful?

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What makes a distance program successful?

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This Prezi presentation discusses what a distance program is and characteristics that make it successful.

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This article addresses how teaching students to be focused, control their emotions, and adjust to change can help them grow mentally and educationally.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

To succeed in school, students need to be able to focus, control their emotions, and adjust to change.

©Shutterstock/Tyler Olson

Many students enter our classrooms with psychological and learning issues, ADHD, or even adverse childhood experiences and trauma that affect their executive functioning and ability to self-regulate. They do not have the tools they need to focus and pay attention, keep their emotions in check, adjust to change, or handle the frustration that is sometimes a part of interacting with others or learning something new.

This can make it very challenging to complete required tasks in the classroom. As a middle school special education teacher, I quickly determined that in order to make learning accessible to these students, I had to first work on developing their self-regulation skills.

As a new teacher, you may also struggle with teaching effective self-regulation to students. These are some strategies that worked for me.

A positive environment: The classroom should feel like a safe space where strengths are emphasized. When a problem behavior occurs, try not to take it personally or immediately correct the child in front of others. Instead, act as an observer with the goal of figuring out why the behavior is occurring. Then address the behavior once the child has cooled down.

Clear expectations: Schedules, procedures, and an established routine help students understand what to expect and create an environment that feels structured and safe.

Instruction on study skills: As teachers, we often focus on the curriculum, but in order to access content students need skills like the ability to organize their materials, manage their time, stay on task, read with comprehension, and retain and practice what is learned for later use on graded activities. Teaching study strategies to the whole class will help all students to become more independent learners.

Provide Structure and Tools for Learning

Teachers can set up their classrooms to provide the structure and learning tools necessary to help model and teach self-regulation.

Scaffold Instruction

When students seem off task or even shut down and refuse to complete work, sometimes it's because the work is too difficult for them and they're frustrated. I found that students often use this behavior because it has worked for them in the past by allowing them to escape the undesirable task and avoid the embarrassment of looking "dumb." Instead of recognizing that they're frustrated with the work, the student will often express frustration with the teacher for making them complete the assignment.

Scaffolding is breaking learning into chunks and then providing a strategy or a structure to make it easier for students to be able to accomplish each chunk of learning. In order to effectively scaffold instruction, you need to know what a child is capable of doing on their own. This instructional starting point, called the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD), is the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they're able to do with informed assistance.

Starting your instruction at this point allows the student to move more easily to the next logical step developmentally. If a child is struggling, you can usually help them get started by taking a break, determining what they do understand, and then modifying the assignment so that it's within their ZPD.

Discuss and Reflect

Kids need objective, nonjudgmental feedback in order to improve their behavior. When a problem arises, find a calm time to discuss what went wrong, why, and how it can be handled differently next time. This gives usable directions to students who do not already have a structure and the vocabulary needed to regulate their emotions.

If a student is familiar with this process, they may also be able to decompress by reflecting on their own, through a written activity, before talking with the teacher. Reflecting helps students to become more mindful: Instead of just reacting to emotions, they can learn to become the manager of their emotions by recognizing what they are feeling before it becomes an action.

Model and Practice Appropriate Behavior

Students often learn best when you show them how to do something through direct instruction. The same is true with behavior. If students are not displaying productive behavior, the teacher can show them what the effective behavior would look like through modeling activities like "think alouds" or role-playing.

Allow time for children to practice new behaviors they're learning in a low-stakes way that breaks the desirable behavior into achievable steps. As a classroom teacher, I practiced improving transitions with a group by providing a visual and auditory cue (flicking the lights and clapping my hands). Students knew to stop what they were doing and return to their seat. At first, I gave them several minutes to do this and rewarded students who were in their seats, even if they were a bit loud getting there. Gradually, I decreased the time given and only gave rewards to students who were sitting quietly and listening for directions with their materials out, ready to work.

I found that thinking about behavior objectively, as a skill to be taught rather than simply as good or bad, was immensely helpful in my ability to guide children in learning to control their behavior. Some children enter school without the self-regulation skills necessary for school success. We must meet these children where they are and teach them the skills they need to be successful in the classroom.

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To succeed in school, students need to be able to focus, control their emotions, and adjust to change.

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This Prezi presentation discusses two kinds of leadership theories, similarities, differences, and real life examples where they can be applied.

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Roselinde Torres discusses three simple questions that a leader needs to ask themselves to thrive. As well as her personal experiences of observing leaders for over 25 years and how it served her beneficial in her career.

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Roselinde Torres: What it takes to be a great leader

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The world is full of leadership programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.

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Take this 15 minute 56 question test to determine your leadership style.

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Got transformational or transactional leader qualities? Test your leadership skills & leadership style with Leadership Style Test, a great tool for leadership training & leadership skills development.

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4-Step Process for Building Student Resilience

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4-Step Process for Building Student Resilience

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Teachers are implementing strategies in their curriculum that won’t just be effective in the classroom, but, in their everyday life too. With 4-steps: 1. Teach students to identify their stressors, 2.Identify what students normally do when presented with stressors, 3.Brainstorm alternative ways to respond to stressors, 4. Practical application and maintenance of coping skills

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

A special education teacher has developed worksheets to help all students identify and manage their stressors.

In the last few years, I've noticed an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression in high school students. The causes range from intense pressure to perform academically to social media expectations and influence to home and environmental issues. The common thread, no matter the cause, is students' inability to cope with the stressors they experience.

As an educator, my goal is to help students build the resilience and self-awareness they need to be successful in life. After years of working with students with emotional disturbance, I've developed self-awareness and coping skills activities that help all students identify feelings and stressors, while also providing them a way to discover positive, self-regulatory coping skills.

A 4-Step Process for Building Resilience

Step 1: Teach students to identify their stressors. It's important that students learn to identify how they feel and why they feel that way. I have each student identify the things that make them stressed, upset, and sad using a worksheet I've developed.

Afterward, students verbally share stressors with each other to start building a community of trust where they feel safe and heard. I often share my own stressors with students to set the tone of the activity as one that is inclusive and judgment free.

Step 2: Identify what students normally do when presented with stressors. During this step, I tell students to write down their instinctive and initial reaction to each stressor without stopping to think about whether it's good or bad, or breaks some sort of school or societal rule. Once again, I have a worksheet for them to use.

Total honesty is needed during this step in order for each student to start developing self-awareness. Again, I share my instinctive reaction to a stressor as an example.

Students then use a third worksheet to rate their reactions on a Likert scale, where 1 = Worst Reaction and 5 = Best Reaction. I define and discuss each Likert point with my students so they have a clear picture of how to rate their reactions.

Each student shares one of their Likert ratings with peers, along with an explanation for their rating. Using the Likert scale teaches students to objectively look at and evaluate their actions.

Step 3: Brainstorm alternative ways to respond to stressors. During this step, I introduce the idea of coping skills-conscious efforts to minimize stress or conflict in a positive and constructive way. Once students identify their feelings and stressors, it's important that they learn how to channel their emotions.

I once worked with a student with emotional disturbance who had a tendency to run out of the class and hide on school grounds whenever she was mad or frustrated. We developed a coping skill protocol where she had to tell me how she felt ("I'm really mad because..."), and then she had to ask me if she could step outside the classroom for five minutes to collect herself. By the end of year, she didn't need to step outside because the habitual practice of identifying her feelings and utilizing a constructive coping strategy allowed her to better regulate her emotional reactions.

Not all coping skills have to be so structured or prescriptive. I had another student who used running as an outlet for negative feelings. Whenever he felt mad or upset at home, he would go for a run and return-in the words of his mother-"as a new man."

It's important to make sure every student understands what coping skills are, as well as the idea that strategies are unique and individualized. Students then compile a list of five coping strategies that could work for them, and I have the class make a coping skills poster that I put on the wall. Having a huge list of various coping strategies is a great visual reminder of positive reactions to stressors and gives students ideas they might not have thought of on their own.

Students next revisit their original reaction to a stressor and use the final worksheet to replace it with a more positive coping skill. This step is very powerful because it shows students how to take charge of their reactions instead of being controlled by situations and their emotions. They're empowered to take responsibility for their actions and practice self-regulation skills instead of blaming outside factors. Students discuss why this new way of coping is more beneficial than their old response and how it could change the outcome of a situation.

Step 4: Practical application and maintenance of coping skills. I build time into each class period for an exercise I call the 5 Minute Fix. For five minutes, students can share how they've used their coping skills in real-life situations. They can ask for feedback and advice from peers or provide suggestions to those who are struggling. Most importantly, the community is strengthened by these daily check-ins. Allocating five minutes doesn't interfere with my academic lessons, and the benefit to students is significant and impactful.

I'll also check in with students informally and keep an eye on those I think need more support. The most important idea I convey during this maintenance period is that coping skills are fluid and flexible. If one skill doesn't work or a student wants to try something new, I always encourage them to do so. It's important they don't get caught up in thinking they can only use certain skills since that can become a new source of stress.

Coping skills are a powerful way for all students to build resilience, self-awareness, and self-regulatory skills as they face the stressors of life. Learning how to positively cope empowers them to be self-reflective and take responsibility for their actions. Most importantly, these skills are ones that will benefit them long after they leave my classroom.

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A 4-Step Process for Building Student Resilience

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) A special education teacher has developed worksheets to help all students identify and manage their stressors. In the last few years, I've noticed an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression in high school students. The causes range from intense pressure to perform academically to social media expectations and influence to home and environmental issues.

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A brief summary of transitional and transactions leadership, their traits, common views, and how to distinguish between the two.

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Leadership Styles: Which Type of Leader Are You?