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Interview with Ashley Barbeau, elementary school counselor at Marion Elementary School in Allen, Tx.

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The Importance of Having a Personal Leadership Philosophy

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The Importance of Having a Personal Leadership Philosophy

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This article not only explains the importance of having your own personal leadership philosophy, it also helps you refine your philosophy by asking a series of thought provoking questions.

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One foundation for great leaders is having and understanding their own leadership philosophy - a set of beliefs, values and personal rules related to the kind of leader they want to be.

This foundation will drive the workplace environment and climate of the team a leader leads, whether this is a four-person department or a multinational company with hundreds of thousands of employees.

A written personal leadership philosophy is an important differentiator between good leaders and great leaders.

A leadership philosophy is a set of beliefs and principles that strongly influences how you interpret reality and guides how you react to people, events and situations. Research has shown that consistent leadership behavior and actions require a clear personal leadership philosophy.

A written leadership philosophy also lets team members and others know what you expect, what you value and how you will act in any given situation. This helps to make your workplace environment less stressful and more productive, as well as keeping you on track and aligned with your core beliefs and values.

Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic in Japan, is known in that country as the "god of management" for his writings and speeches on leadership and management.He wrote, "If you are a leader, you must have an ideology of leadership. If you lack an ideology, and attempt to decide everything on a case-by-case basis, you will never be capable of strong leadership."

As you can tell, it is important that leaders gain clarity about their own leadership philosophy, style and behavior.

Some of the core values you may want to include in your personal leadership mindset philosophy could be: confidence, adaptability, focus on people development, having a realistic vision. The important thing is that the values must be your own - things you deeply believe in and care about. They cannot just be a list of positive attributes that you find in a book or online.

No matter what attributes and values you choose, however, trust overrides them all. Without trust, none of your other attributes and values matter. Trust is something you earn and maintain through your behaviors. It is not bestowed upon you by rank or title.

Confidence is another key element of a strong leadership mindset. It comes from knowing yourself, and understanding (and appreciating) your strengths and weaknesses.

It also comes from observing and analyzing how you make decisions, both good and bad. Not every decision will work out as you expect. That's okay.

The key is to reflect back on how and why you made a particular decision to learn about your decision-making capabilities, tendencies, habits, and inclinations. This helps you grow as a leader and gives you greater confidence when you have to make judgment calls in areas where you may not be a technical subject matter expert.

This also enables you to de-personalize decisions, i.e. no more "I'll go with Beth on this one." Decisions should be made based on your determination of the facts and reality of the situation, not based on which person is presenting a proposed option.

It also allows you to create your own solutions from differing opinions that build on the strengths and ideas of each. Leveraging positive cognitive conflict (i.e. the opposing of two or more ideas) is one of the best ways of coming up with innovative solutions, and keeps negative personal conflict from getting in the way of good decision making.

By creating your own leadership mindset philosophy, and then identifying the behaviors that will help you implement these guiding principles, you will avoid the trap of deciding everything on a case-by-case basis. This results in consistency of leadership behavior; a benefit for both you and your team members.

No one leadership philosophy can be viable for everyone. Each leader faces different circumstances, brings different backgrounds to his or her leadership position, and leads widely different teams of people. You have to figure out what's right for you; what's true to you.

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The Importance of Having A Personal Leadership Philosophy

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One foundation for great leaders is having and understanding their own leadership philosophy - a set of beliefs, values and personal rules related to the kind of leader they want to be. This foundation will drive the workplace environment and climate of the team a leader leads, whether this is a four-person department or a multinational company with hundreds of thousands of employees.

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This is the Emotional Intelligence Test that I used for this course that really helped me see my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader.

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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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This is a book review of How Remarkable Women Lead by Joanna Barsh.

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Joanna Barsh, author of How Remarkable Women Lead, talks to Amy Yury

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Joanna Barsh, author of How Remarkable Women Lead, talks to Amy Yury

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The author of several books, including How Remarkable Women Lead, talks to Amy Yury about growth mindset and beginning the journey in leadership.

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Joanna Barsh: "Confessionals and Career Advice for Millennials" | Talks at Google

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Great leadership starts with Self-Leaders

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Great leadership starts with Self-Leaders

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Learning that leading yourself is the first step.

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Great leadership starts with self-leadership | Lars Sudmann | TEDxUCLouvain

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This video helps understand how leaders and managers are similar and different. It also explains how a leader can come from anywhere, anyone in any position can be a leader.

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The Fundamental Difference Between Leading and Managing

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The Fundamental Difference Between Leading and Managing

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This article is something that helped me understand the difference between leading and managing.

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Leaders influence. Managers direct. While it may not be that black and white, leaders generally do focus on what matters and why as managers focus on how. Both use different forms of influence and direction at different times. But leaders have a bias to influencing by inspiring and enabling through advice and counsel and co-creation, while managers have a bias to command and control, organizing, coordinating and telling.

Coca-Cola's Doug Ivester was crystal clear on the difference. Sometimes he'd come to us and say,

This is your decision to make. I'd like to give you my thoughts as input.

Since he was the CEO, we always considered his thoughts. Most of the time we did things the way he suggested. Sometimes we disagreed. We quickly learned that going back to the CEO and telling him that we decided he didn't know what he was talking about did not make for pleasant meetings. But it did work when we went back to him and said,

Wanted to follow up on the decision we made on this subject. After we talked to you, we did some more digging and uncovered five things that you could not have known about. Given those new findings, we decided to go a different direction than what you had suggested.

He was fine with that.

Other times he'd say,

See these stripes. I am the CEO of this company. I'm going to give you some direction which you will follow.

It was extraordinarily helpful to know when he was giving us input for us to consider in our decision and when he was giving us no choice but to follow his direction.
Decision versus input
The more companies I help with their executive onboarding and team onboarding, the more I'm becoming convinced that clarifying decisions versus input solves a whole host of other problems.

The most important thing for any two people to clarify as they are working together is which of them is going to make which decisions at any point in time so they know when they should be deciding and when they should be providing input into the others' decision.
Decision versus input for CEOs and Boards
CEOs and boards are a case in point. It's important for all the players to be clear on when the board is deciding versus advising and when the CEO is deciding and informing versus recommending.

At the risk of being overly simplistic, in general, for issues of:

Governance: the board should decide and the CEO should recommend and implement.

Strategy and long-term and annual plans including P&L, cash flows and balance sheets: the board should decide and the CEO should recommend and implement.

Operations: the CEO should decide and lead and the board should advise and be kept informed.

Organization: the CEO should decide and lead and the board should advise and be kept informed.
Decision versus input for partners
In any organization, there are natural (and unnatural) partners. It's helpful for these partners to be clear on which of them is deciding and which of them is influencing which decisions.

Take the case of a magazine publisher and editor-in-chief. They must work together as partners and communicate all the time. In general, it seems to work best if the editor-in-chief advises on marketing and pricing while the publisher makes those decisions. Conversely, the publisher should advise on content while the editor-in-chief makes those decisions.
RACI
Many have found the RACI framework helpful:

Accountable: Answerable for correct and thorough completion of deliverable or task.

Responsible: Does work defined and delegated by accountable person.

Consulted: Provides input and advice (Two-way communication)

Informed: Kept up-to-date (One-way communication)

Note the accountable person may answer to a higher approving or commissioning authority that delegates the task or project to that accountable person. RACI applies within the task or project.
Implications for you
Think input versus decide. For each important decision, clarify who makes the decision and who is providing input to the person making the decision and be explicit about which you are doing at any point in time.
Click here for a list of my Forbes articles and a summary of my book on executive onboarding: The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan

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The Fundamental Difference Between Leading And Managing: Influence Versus Direction

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Leaders influence. Managers direct. While it may not be that black and white, leaders generally do focus on what matters and why as managers focus on how. Both use different forms of influence and direction at different times.

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This is my leadership philosophy that is a work in progress but I feel does a great job explaining my vision for the way I intend to lead as an elementary school counselor.

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I came across this TED Talk when I was learning more about Servant Leadership. I found it relatable and inspiring as an educator.

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Servant Leadership: How a jar can change the way you lead and serve | Ali Fett | TEDxFondduLac

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This is another tool to use to help understand your own leadership style.

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The classic model of leadership focuses on three major styles used by leaders. Take this quiz to learn more about your leadership style.

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In module 6, Charles Perritt read and reviewed this book in the discussion board. I loved how Perritt was able to come away with a resource of inspirational quotes that stuck with him, and it has inspired me to read the book. I enjoy quick motivational quotes that I can hold onto for future uses so this book would be something that I could utilize.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

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In module 6, Megan Vance read and reviewed this book in our discussion board.  She explained that this book is designed to be more like a checklist, and that the reader is meant to master the first (and easiest) habits before moving on to the next habits.  This book would be a great tool to be reading in free time, with no need to hurry and finish in order to work productively to become a better leader.

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This video is a great tool to learn more about transformational leadership and transactional leadership. By viewing this video, the viewer will have a better understanding of the differences between the two leadership styles.

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What is Transformational Leadership? Beyond Day-to-Day Leadership

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This short article helped me understand the importance of a leadership philosophy during module 7 and that it is so much more than just leading how you would want to be led.  This article is written based on a book called This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters and it would be beneficial in building a final product leadership philosophy.

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A personal leadership philosophy is a set of beliefs and principles you use to evaluate information and respond to people and situations. It allows anyone who hears it to gain an understanding of your values, priorities, approach to decision making, and what you expect from yourself and others.

For many years, I relied on this philosophy: When you don't know what to do in a situation, ask yourself: "What would the person who I want to be do in this situation?" Then do that.

Simple? Yes. Easy to follow? Hell no.

If you can't tell me your personal leadership philosophy in under thirty seconds; if you can but it's the first time you've articulated it out loud in the past three days; or if someone who works with you closely cannot tell me your personal leadership philosophy-you don't actually have one. At least not one that is truly impacting the way you behave.

Very few people have given a significant amount of thought to who it is they really want to be. Most want to be fundamentally "good" as opposed to "bad," but I've found that relatively few have taken the time to get much more specific than that.

Perhaps that's because when we're young we're judged and graded on what others expect us to know. We get used to the big questions in our lives coming from other people and we learn to pay closest attention to the things on which we will be tested. Those tests rarely feature questions about who we want to be, how we understand our core values, and which criteria we should use to make difficult decisions. As a result, many of us become our own worst subject. We grow up being asked what we want to do when we grow up, not who we want to be. The former means meeting the expectations of others, the latter asking tough questions of ourselves. We're not forced to ask those tough questions and answering them can be uncomfortable, so many of us choose not to.

Developing an answer is crucial. If you don't have a personal leadership philosophy, you don't have a plan for leading every day. You're hoping to lead, you're not planning to lead.

This article has been adapted from the book This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters.

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Without a personal leadership philosophy, you don't have a plan

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A personal leadership philosophy is a set of beliefs and principles you use to evaluate information and respond to people and situations. It allows anyone who hears it to gain an understanding of your values, priorities, approach to decision making, and what you expect from yourself and others.

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Following blogs is one way to stay current in educational leadership. Blogs are a great way to read recommended material that other leaders have found inspirational or helpful.

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Some people who are working at becoming school counselors, and even some current school counselors, ask the question "How can school counselors be leaders if they don't see themselves as leaders?"  The answer is "Not all leaders shout from the soapbox. In fact, some of the best
leaders are those who are thoughtful, observant, and listen more than
they talk." This helped me understand that my own leadership style is unique and valuable even though I am a quiet leader.

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This is chapter 1 from the book 101 Solutions for School Counselors and Leaders in Challenging TImes.  It explains how school counselors are leaders and ways that every school counselor can improve in order to help students.  Research shows that a well-prepared school counselor who implements a comprehensive school counseling program is essential to the success of students.

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This is a counseling blog that included some articles that I would like to read in preparation for becoming a school counselor.

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The Counseling Geek | 21st Century School Counselor Blog

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I am all for open source and when possible - I make my resources free. I had the opportunity to present with Franciene Sabens at the 2018 American School Counselor Association conference in July 2018 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We presented on using marketing tools and techniques in the school counseling profession.

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Taking Responsibility in a New Leadership Role

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Taking Responsibility in a New Leadership Role

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This article will be helpful as I transition from teacher to counselor in the next few years.

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Sarah has just been appointed CEO of her organization, and she's feeling excited but anxious.

The realities of her new job have hit home. She is no longer simply in charge of making plans and reaching targets. She is now responsible for making sure that her organization is doing what it's meant to do, and for ensuring that the people within it are doing the right things, in the right way.

That's a lot to be accountable for. So, how can she make sure that everything is OK?

In this article, we'll look how you can be truly responsible for your organization's work, right from the start.

Note:

We focus on new organizational leaders in this article. However, you can also follow some of these steps if you're new to a departmental or team leader role.

What Is Responsibility?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines being responsible as being "liable to be called to account."

As a leader, you're responsible for everything that happens in your organization, and you'll quite rightly be held accountable for everything that happens, good or bad.

You need to question the decisions and processes that hold your organization together, and the consequences of not doing this can be severe. It's no excuse to say that you didn't know what was going on, or that you weren't personally involved - the buck stops with you.

New leaders are especially vulnerable to being caught out by difficult situations. They may inherit dysfunctional structures and procedures, or simply be too overwhelmed by the pressures of a new role to know what to question. This is particularly true of new leaders who are promoted from within: they may make assumptions about their organization based on their previous roles, they may feel loyal to previous leaders' decisions, and they may fail to see the "bigger picture" that a leader needs.

Full responsibility is an enormous challenge to take on, and it can feel overwhelming. However, leaders who plan for this responsibility right from the start (that is, when they accept the job) have a far greater chance of success than those who take a more " laissez-faire" approach.

Note:

Within this article, we'll focus on moving into a new role. However, taking responsibility is an ongoing process, and you should think about these steps as often as you feel necessary.

How to Take Responsibility

To fulfill your obligations as a leader and to be fully responsible for your organization's actions, you need to build an accurate understanding of the organization, and of what's going on within it.

Follow the steps below to build and maintain this.

1. Understand and Confirm Your Organization's Mission

Your first step is to re-examine what your organization aims to do. Of course, it will have a mission statement and other documents that outline its remit, and you should look at these as your first step.

However, it pays to reflect on...

Learn More and Join Today

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Taking Responsibility in a New Leadership Role: Taking Control of Your Accountabilities

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Sarah has just been appointed CEO of her organization, and she's feeling excited but anxious. The realities of her new job have hit home. She is no longer simply in charge of making plans and reaching targets.

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In this course, I learned that there is a big difference between leading and managing. A leader is someone who puts others first, motivates, inspires, is empathetic, and connects with others.

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This short video helps the viewer understand how to reflect on their own emotional intelligence as well as ways to improve their EQ.

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Here I have saved an article from Module 2 about some of the negative effects of being emotionally intelligent. People who have honed in their emotional intelligence can become better at manipulating others by being fake, or intentionally being what they think the audience will like rather than being genuine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Emotional Intelligence with John C. Maxwell

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Emotional Intelligence with John C. Maxwell

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This was one of our resources from Module 2 that helped me to understand Emotional Intelligence and the importance of being aware of my own EQ.

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

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Interview Questions for a School Counselor

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Interview Questions for a School Counselor

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As I was writing interview questions in preparation for interviewing a school counselor, I found a great deal of resources out there to help think of interview questions. This long list of interview questions is not only helpful as I prepare to interview counselors, but is helpful for me as I will be searching for a position soon and will want to prepare for my own interviews.

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Interviewing School Counselors | American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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In Module 2, an article was linked about emotional intelligence and how it relates to leadership. There were several resources presented in that article and this communication quiz was something that I found to be useful in rating my own communication skills as well as learning how to improve in this area.

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Self-Assessment * 18 min read

Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading Effectively

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Communication is one of the most important skills that you need to succeed in the workplace.

If you want to be an expert communicator, you need to be effective at all points in the communication process - from "sender" through to "receiver" - and you must be comfortable with the different channels of communication - face-to-face, online, written, and so on. This is because poor communicators often struggle to develop their careers beyond a certain point.

So, how can you find out how good your communication skills really are? Take this short quiz to find out.

The Communication Quiz

Instructions

For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score in the "wrong direction." When you are finished, please click the "Calculate My Total" button at the bottom of the test.

15 Statements to Answer

Not at all

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

Detailed Interpretation

Whenever you communicate with someone else, you each follow the steps of the Communication Process (see figure 1, below).

Figure 1. The Communication Process

During this process, the person who is the source of the communication encodes it into a message, and transmits it through a channel. The receiver decodes the message, and, in one way or another, feeds back his or her understanding or a lack of understanding to the source.

By understanding the steps in the process, you can become more aware of your role in it, recognize what you need to do to communicate effectively, anticipate problems before they happen, and improve your overall ability to communicate effectively.

The sections below help you do this, and improve the way that you communicate at each stage of the process.

The Source - Planning Your Message(Questions 2, 11)Before you start communicating, take a moment to figure out what you want to say, and why. Don't waste time conveying information that isn't necessary - and don't waste the listener or reader's time either. Too often, people just keep talking or writing because they think that by saying more they'll surely cover all the points. Often, however, all they do is confuse the people they're talking to. To plan your communication:Understand your objective.Why are you communicating?Understand your audience. With whom are you communicating? What do they need to know?Plan what you want to say, and how you'll send the message.Seek feedback on how well your message was received.When you do this, you'll be able to craft a message that will be received positively by your audience.Good communicators use the KISS ("Keep It Simple and Straightforward") principle. They know that less is often more, and that good communication should be efficient as well as effective. Encoding - Creating a Clear, Well-Crafted Message(Questions 1, 5, 8, 10, 15)When you know what you want to say, decide exactly how you'll say it. You're responsible for sending a message that's clear and concise. To achieve this, you need to consider not only what you'll say, but also how you think the recipient will perceive it.We often focus on the message that we want to send, and the way in which we'll send it. But if our message is delivered without considering the recipient's perspective, it's likely that part of that message will be lost. To communicate more effectively:Understand what you truly need and want to say.Anticipate the other person's reaction to your message.Choose words and body language that allow the other person to really hear what you're saying.With written communication, make sure that what you write will be perceived the way you intend. Words on a page generally have no emotion - they don't "smile" or "frown" at you while you're reading them (unless you're a very talented writer, of course!)When writing, take time to do the following:Review your style.Avoid jargon or slang.Check your grammar and punctuation.Check also for tone, attitude, nuance, and other subtleties. If you think the message may be misunderstood, it probably will. Take the time to clarify it!Familiarize yourself with your company's writing policies or style guides.Another important consideration is to use pictures, charts, and diagrams wherever possible. As the saying goes, "a picture speaks a thousand words." Our article on charts and graphs has some great tips that help you to use these to communicate clearly.Also, whether you speak or write your message, consider the cultural context. If there's potential for miscommunication or misunderstanding due to cultural or language barriers, address these issues in advance. Consult with people who are familiar with these types of barriers and do your research, so that you're aware of problems you may face. See our article on Effective Cross-Culture Communication for more help. Choosing the Right Channel(Questions 7, 11, 13)Along with encoding your message, you need to choose the best communication channel to use to send it. You want to be efficient, while also making the most of your communication opportunity.Using email to send simple directions is practical. However, if you want to delegate a complex task, an email will probably just lead to more questions, so it may be best to arrange a time to speak in person. And if your communication has any negative emotional content, stay well away from email! Make sure that you communicate face to face or by phone, so that you can judge the impact of your words and adjust your message appropriately.When choosing the right channel for your message, consider the following:The sensitivity and emotional content of the subject.How easy it is to communicate detail.The receiver's preferences.Time constraints.The need to ask and answer questions. Decoding - Receiving and Interpreting a Message(Questions 3, 6, 12, 14)It can be easy to focus on speaking: we want to get our points out there, because we usually have lots to say. However, to be a great communicator, you also need to step back, let the other person talk, and listen.This doesn't mean that you should be passive. Listening is hard work, which is why effective listening is called active listening. To listen actively, give your undivided attention to the speaker:Look at the person.Pay attention to his or her body language.Avoid distractions.Nod and smile to acknowledge points.Occasionally think back about what the person has said.Allow the person to speak, without thinking about what you'll say next.Don't interrupt. Empathic listening also helps you decode messages accurately. To understand a message fully, you have to understand the emotions and underlying feelings that the speaker is expressing. This is where an understanding of body language can be useful. Feedback(Questions 4, 9)You need feedback, because without it, you can't be sure that people have understood your message. Sometimes feedback is verbal, and sometimes it's not. We've looked at the importance of asking questions and listening carefully. However, feedback through body language can also help you to assess the impact of your message. By watching the facial expressions, gestures, and posture of the person you're communicating with, you can spot:Confidence levels.Defensiveness.Agreement.Comprehension (or lack of understanding).Level of interest.Level of engagement with the message.Truthfulness (or lying/dishonesty).As a speaker, understanding your listener's body language can give you an opportunity to adjust your message and make it more understandable, appealing, or interesting. As a listener, body language can show you more about what the other person is saying. You can then ask questions to ensure that you have, indeed, understood each other. In both situations, you can better avoid miscommunication if it happens.Feedback can also be formal. If you're communicating something really important, it can often be worth asking questions of the person you're talking to make sure that they've understood fully. And if you're receiving this sort of communication, repeat it in your own words to check your understanding.

Key Points

It can take a lot of effort to communicate effectively. However, you need to be able to communicate well if you're going to make the most of the opportunities that life has to offer.

By learning the skills you need to communicate effectively, you can learn how to get your ideas across clearly and effectively, and understand much more of the information that's conveyed to you.

Whether you're a speaker, a listener, a writer, or a reader, you are responsible for making sure that messages are communicated accurately. Pay attention to words and actions, ask questions, and watch body language. These will all help to ensure that you say what you mean, and hear what is intended.

Note:

This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only.

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How Good Are Your Communication Skills? - Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading Effectively

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Take this test to see how well you communicate, then use our tools and strategies to improve your communication skills.