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As a professional school counselor, I believe that:

All students have dignity and worth and have a right to a welcoming, safe, and mutually respectful learning environment.

All students have the ability and right to learn and should be given the opportunity to do so.

All students' ethnic, cultural, racial, sexual, and ability differences should be valued and considered in planning, implementing, and evaluating a school counseling program.

School counseling services must be student-centered, data-driven, goal-oriented, and based on the developmental student competencies for all students.

Successful student learning requires the active participation, collaboration, mutual respect, and individual accountability of students, teachers, staff, parents, and community members.

The comprehensive school counseling program is a significant and integral factor of the total instructional curriculum, designed to promote the growth of all students in academic, career, and personal/social development.

Be empathic and compassionate. I will recognize the uniqueness and personal worth of each student, and value their individual contributions to the school community.

Engage in professional development and leadership activities to improve my competency in regards to the latest educational trends and standards.

Adhere to the professional school counseling ethics established by the American School Counselor Association.

Assist and encourage all students to reach their fullest potential and prepare all students to be college, career, and community ready.

Align my programming efforts to support an accepting, safe, and respectful school climate.

Be committed to implementing innovative, student-centered, and system-focused school counseling services to best meet the needs of all students.

Create an environment that meets the academic, social, emotional, creative, and physical needs of all individuals so they can learn, continuously improve, and meet the challenges of an ever-changing society.

Advocate for and support all students in becoming successful, responsible, and contributing members of the community.

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As a professional school counselor, I believe that: All students have dignity and worth and have a right to a welcoming, safe, and mutually respectful learning environment. All students have the ability and right to learn and should be given the opportunity to do so.

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Leading with Love - Relational Leadership

It's easy to become the type of leader who distrusts other people. This is particularly true in business. Regardless of your industry, achieving the status of a leader and helping your company grow requires embracing your competitive nature to some degree.

Unfortunately, some leaders become so competitive that they start to feel they can't trust others. They become suspicious of everyone else's motives. They may even consider their own employees to be potential threats. Thus, they may lead ineffectively, behaving too defensively to make the right decisions in all situations.

Other leaders adopt a different approach. They make the decision to "love" everyone they encounter on a regular basis. This love is not the type of love they would feel for a romantic partner, but it is similar to the love one feels for relatives and close family members.

Consider this example of leadership philosophy as you develop your own ideas about how to be an effective leader. Treating your team members (and even your direct competition) with care and respect can be very helpful in a number of ways - and is more of a relational leadership style. For instance, perhaps an employee who was once enthusiastic about their role has become clearly disengaged in recent months. A leader whose philosophy is rooted in defensiveness and competitiveness might assume this employee has turned against them for some reason. As a result, the relationship will suffer, and the worker may seek employment elsewhere.

On the other hand, someone who leads with love in a more relational leadership style would take the time to ask themselves what factors may have contributed to this employee's lack of engagement. They can then more effectively determine what steps they must take to correct the issue. This yields very practical benefits. Engaged employees are more productive, and more likely to remain loyal to an organization.

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5 Most Valuable Leadership Philosophy Examples To Understand

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It's easy to become the type of leader who distrusts other people. This is particularly true in business. Regardless of your industry, achieving the status of a leader and helping your company grow requires embracing your competitive nature to some degree. Unfortunately, some leaders become so competitive that they start to feel they can't trust others.

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Interview with school’s curriculum leader

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While there are dozens of leadership theories and psychology, there are a few that are more well-known. These more common leadership theories are important to understand and recognize, especially if you currently are, or are studying to be business leader in the future. Understanding psychological and social impacts of effective leadership will help you determine the kind of leader you want to be.

--Behavioral theory. The behavioral leadership theory focuses on how leaders behave, and assumes that these traits can be copied by other leaders. Sometimes called the style theory, it suggests that leaders aren't born successful, but can be created based on learnable behavior. Behavioral theories of leadership focus heavily on the actions of a leader-this theory suggests that the best predictor of leadership success is viewing how a leader acts. Action rather than qualities are the focal points of behavioral learning theory. Patterns of behavior are observed and categorized as "styles of leadership" in this theory. Some of the styles of leadership include task-oriented leaders, people-oriented leaders, country club leaders, status-quo leaders, dictatorial leaders, and more. At the end of the day, the actions and actual behaviors of a leader are what defines success in this theory.

The behavioral theory has many advantages, primarily that leaders can learn and decide what actions they want to implement to become the kind of leader they want to be. It allows leaders to be flexible and adapt based on their circumstances. Another great benefit of this leadership style is that it suggests anyone is capable of becoming a leader. Some disadvantages of the behavioral theory are that while it allows flexibility, it doesn't directly suggest how to behave in certain circumstances. There are dozens of leadership styles that stem from the behavioral theory, but there isn't a right one for every circumstance.

A great example of the behavioral theory is looking at a task-oriented leader vs. a people-oriented leader. If there's a problem with a team, a task-oriented leader will look at the process to see if something needs to be adjusted with the workflow. A people-oriented leader will look at the individuals and go right to them, asking what the issue is. Whatever behaviors you choose, the behavioral leadership theory helps leaders focus on their actions and utilize their decisions to be a great leader.

--Contingency theory. The contingency leadership theory, sometimes called situational theory, focuses on the context of a leader. These theories look at the situational effects of the success or failure or a leader. A leader's effectiveness is directly determined by the situational context. While a leader's personality is a small factor in their success, the most important factor is the context and situation of the leader. This theory takes the specific leadership styles and suggests that good leaders can adjust their leadership style situationally. It also suggests that it may be best to find the right kind of leader for a specific situation. Types of contingency theories include the Hershey and Blanchard's Situational Theory, the Evans and House Path-Goal Theory, and Fiedler's Contingency Theory.

The contingency theory has great advantages, including that leaders are able to be effective no matter their situational context. However, this theory does have criticism suggesting that there isn't enough detail that goes into the context of any situation. Contingency theory focuses on the importance of a situation, but may not focus enough on the psychology of the employees or the company itself. It also may not focus enough on how leadership styles can change over time.

There are internal and external factors that impact a leader and their situation. The type of company, the size of the team, and the innate leadership style of an individual are internal factors. External factors may include the customer feelings and the marketplace. All of these situations play a factor into the contingency theory.

--Great Man theory. The great man theory of leadership, sometimes called the trait theory, suggests that good leaders are born. They have innate traits and skills that make them great, and these are things that can't be taught or learned. The trait theory suggests that leaders deserve to be in their position because of their special traits.

There is a great amount of criticism for the trait theory, mainly that leaders are either born or not, that there isn't work or effort that is needed to be put in so you can become a leader. This suggests that social or psychological leaders are predetermined and that leaders are unable to come from the shadows-they are either chosen or not. There is also criticism that most of the traits associated with this theory are inherently masculine, and don't match the real psychology of good leaders.

People cite Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, and many others as their examples of the great man theory. These social giants utilized their skills to lead nations. High levels of ambition and determination are usually seen in leaders that appear to bring this theory to life. Today, leaders that climb to the top may view their traits and abilities as part of the "great man" theory. So it may appear that leaders get to their position based on their inherit gifts.

--Management theory. The management theory is sometimes called transactional leadership, and focuses on supervision, organization, and group performance. Transactional leadership is a system of rewards and punishments, and transactional leadership is regularly used in business. When employees do something successful, managers reward them. When they fail, they may get punished. Transactional rewards and punishments are given based on the idea that people really only do things for the reward. Their psychology doesn't allow human beings to do things out of goodness, but rather out of the promise of a reward.

The management leadership style can be extremely effective. Positive reinforcement is known for working wonders with employees, encouraging and motivating them to succeed. But there is lots of criticism around leadership that is strictly transactional as well. Consequences and punishments can decrease morale in an organization, negatively impacting employees. It can also be seen as a lazy leadership style-rewards and punishments are a relatively simple way to lead employees.

A common example of this management style is a leader that offers a cash bonus for employees who meet a goal. Or a leader who makes employees do extra paperwork if they miss a deadline.

--Participative theory. Participative leadership isn't as common in the corporate world. Sometimes called democratic leadership, this leadership theory suggests that employees be directly involved in decision making in their organization. The leader simply facilitates a conversation and then takes all the suggestions, and comes up with the best possible action. In this theory, everyone is very involved with decisions for the team and organization, with the leader simply helping direct the charge.

There are many advantages to this theory. Employees feel more engaged and motivated when they are directly involved in decisions and outcomes for their company. This theory is not without criticism however-some suggest that this type of style makes leaders appear weak or unnecessary. It is also a criticism that leaders in this theory don't actually get the best outcomes, because they are too engaged in what people want more than what the company needs.

Bill Gates is a well known example of participative theory. While this theory is still hotly debated, there are many examples of companies that work to incorporate employees more in the decision making process. In this theory, a leader may have a meeting to ask employees how to solve a particular problem. They encourage employees to be open and honest about their thoughts. They take all the suggestions, and meet with other leaders to discuss them. Leaders then make a decision based on the input from employees and their own decision making. Employees tend to appreciate this style, though it can be less effective overall.

--Power theory. This theory looks at the way a leader utilizes their power and influence to get things accomplished. French and Raven's Five Forms of Power is a commonly known power theory of leadership. It looks at positional power and personal power and how they impact leaders choices and outcomes.

This theory may appear to be highly effective-leaders with great power may seem highly efficient and get things done quickly. However, most employees don't appreciate power leadership. They want a leader who doesn't wield power over them, but works with them and encourages them. Thus the greatest criticism of this theory is that it doesn't reach the end goal of inspiring and encouraging employees, but rather makes them feel dominated.

The power theory can be seen in organizations where hierarchy and promotion is key to success. Employees in power theory companies see that their only way to influence change or impact the company is to gain power of their own. This can result in low morale, political, and cliquey climates in the office.

--Relationship theory. The relationship theory of leadership focuses on leaders who are mainly concerned about their interactions with others. They are often mentors for employees, scheduling time to talk to them and working to meet their needs. These kinds of leaders are focused on making work enjoyable for as many people as possible, and they want to foster a positive work environment. Studies show that this kind of leadership behavior can be the most effective for many employees. Relationship-oriented managers often get better results from their employees.

There are many advantages to this kind of leadership. Employees feel confident in their leader and want to follow them. They are also inspired to be good leaders to others. Mentorship provides great opportunities to foster growth in employees, and encourages them to stay at the organization for a longer period of time. There are some critics for this kind of leadership however, including thoughts that relationship driven leaders may be unwilling to view employees who are causing problems at face value, they can let relationships get in the way of work, and they can be guided to favor people over productivity. However, most experts agree that relationship driven leaders are actually more effective at the end of the day.

An example of relationship theory would be a manager who takes a newer employee under her wing. She works to help this employee understand how they fit within the organization, encourage them to be open about questions and problems, and create a positive working relationship. This employee then is encouraged to work hard, point out issues, and help solve problems for the company.

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Good leadership is an essential element of any business in any industry. Good leaders can make or break a department, team, or an entire company. There are a wide variety of theories about leadership and understanding these can help you be even more effective and impactful for your organization.

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What makes a great leader?

Is it someone who takes command with a firm leadership style?

Does it take an ethical leader who seeks to follow their moral compass and embraces the shared values of their employees?

Or is a successful leader one who can transform a company's culture so that it allows each individual to thrive? While also reaching company goals and staying true to each core value of the business?

It is all of these things and many more.

If you're an aspiring leader who is intent on supporting your team, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed at all you need to be. Especially if you're also focusing on transforming and improving organizational culture. And want to be recognized as exhibiting ethical leadership behavior.

Take a breath because we've got your back.

We're going to explore the 13 core values of a leader that you should foster to be the type of leader you dream of.

Let's start, in a typical leadership style, at a high level.

What are leadership values?

Values are the underlying beliefs that guide our decisions and actions and ultimately shape our days and careers.

Leadership values are a subset of those values that positively influence one's ability to lead effectively or be a 'good leader.'

You can foster and develop leadership values with time. However, as with many character traits, you will probably have a tendency toward one specific leadership skill or another.

You can uncover these natural leadership qualities by asking yourself questions such as:

What values guide my personal life?

How do I react in common situations (such as when confronted with change)?

What kind of leaders do I gravitate to (such as a passionate leader or a more strategic leader)?

You should also consider this question: What are the goals, mission, and culture of my company?

The leadership values related to effective leadership at your company will lie at the intersection of your personal values and your company's values.

The importance of a leader with values

Everyone has values, but not everyone exhibits good leadership values.

Anyone in a leadership role should be aware of the values they hold, their strengths, and the areas they can improve on as they grow as a leader.

Why?

Because your values determine how you execute leadership, the team environment you create, and the success of your company. The values you display as a leader will permeate your entire organization and affect its performance.

Leaders who adhere to their values earn respect and commitment from their teams. Value-driven leadership can inspire others not just to follow them but to adopt those values as their own.

By embracing the notion that you can develop leadership qualities, you can also choose leadership values to develop. This is possible both through leadership training and mindful attention and practice.

13 Important values of a leader

Let's review 13 core values that an outstanding leader should demonstrate.

1. Empowerment and development

As a leader, you are in a position of power.

Instead of trying to keep all that power and control for oneself, an effective leader empowers others and amplifies their own impact as a result.

This empowerment can come from formal employee training, ongoing coaching, and workforce development. Mentorship and the delegation of responsibilities can also help.

Empowering others through mentorship and delegation of complex tasks creates a stronger team. With it, you will help build future leaders you can rely on with confidence.

2. Vision

Leaders have the important responsibility of creating and maintaining the organizational vision. What does the company seek to become in the next 5, 10, or 20 years, and what steps are required to realize that goal?

"...As a visionary leader, you should be thinking about more than just the next quarter. You should also be thinking about the next decade, and what your company's reputation and place in the world will be after 40 quarterly results."

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors

When you center vision as a leadership value, this means you keep the big picture at the forefront of your decision-making.

It also means employing foresight to plan for obstacles. Keep an eye out for anything that may get in the way of your company's vision, and be ready to update the vision as you gain more experience and information.

Successful leadership also includes the leader's ability to communicate that vision to their team members. The message must be shared in a meaningful, actionable, and engaging way.

3. Communication

"Communication and communication strategy is not just part of the game-it is the game."

Oscar Munoz, executive chairman of United Airlines

Communication is the foundation of any relationship.

In a work setting, centering communication as a core leadership value manifests in many ways. It can take the form of conveying context to employees. Or it can be setting clear expectations for individuals and teams. Or even providing and seeking constructive feedback.

A leader may have a clear vision, but unless communication is a driving value, others will not be able to share it.

4. Reinforcement and influence

Positive reinforcement and recognition to your team members are important forms of communication.

"The number one thing that you have to do as a leader: to bolster the confidence of the people you lead."

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

When things are busy, it can be all too easy to speed along without making an effort to show that you noticed someone's contribution.

However, positive reinforcement is a huge aspect of improving employee motivation and engagement. Not only that but in lifting your influence as a business leader.

Without recognition, the motivation of team members can lag, and their productivity will grind to a halt.

By demonstrating appreciative behavior, you encourage others to reinforce each other too. This helps boost morale across the organization.

5. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand others, see from their point of view, and feel what they are feeling. It is a value that is held in high regard by many senior executives and good business leaders.

The importance of empathy as a leadership value is not simply to be nice or likable. You can build a far stronger team by exercising empathy and understanding each person's motivations with whom you work.

Empathy will help you match people's strengths and skills to roles where they can make the most impact. It will help you build and sustain positive and productive relationships. It will also help you recognize the core values of others on your team.

This is the knowledge that you can harness for the betterment of each individual and the company.

6. Humility

Leaders must constantly be learning. To be in that receptive state of mind requires humility.

Opportunities to build wisdom can easily be lost if you are not willing to recognize and process mistakes. Humility also means knowing when to ask for input from others.

If you have a gap in knowledge in a certain area, seek advice from those with more experience or from coaches. If your strategy is not connecting with your audience, consult the people closest to the work or your customers.

Having a strong sense of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and humility is a key leadership trait. It prevents leaders from becoming insulated from the outside world. In turn, this allows them to focus on becoming better leaders all-around.

7. Passion and commitment

An extraordinary leader is not only capable of commanding influence or communicating successfully.

They are also:

committed to meeting organizational goals

passionate about the company and their leadership role within it

and demonstrate ferocious resolve when faced with adversity

A leader with this kind of mindset can motivate everyone around them. Their passion and energy are so infectious that it drives and uplifts the entire team.

8. Respect

As a leader, you can demonstrate respect through many of the behaviors already listed here:

Empowering others

Strong communication skills

Recognition of employee abilities

Empathizing with the situations of others

Respect should also move in all directions. Treat upper management, your board, employees, and customers with the respect they deserve to gain respect in return.

It's also important to build a culture where differences are respected and appreciated. Having diverse viewpoints within the organization is a strength, and those who differ from you in opinion should feel as valued as those aligned with you.

9. Patience

Patience is a value that is often learned with time but is an incredibly important skill for those in leadership roles. At its heart, patience is about delayed gratification.

Leaders need to be patient with new hires who aren't up to operating speed yet. They also require patience with existing team members who are working out how to deal with complex issues. This is especially true where the leader may be able to tackle with greater ease.

Patience also benefits leaders who have long-term goals, such as quarterly or annual sales targets. These goals can only be achieved incrementally through perseverance and patience.

10. Resilience

A key nature of business is change, and as a leader, you often take the brunt of big changes - or even initiate them.

You must be able to weather these times, not only for yourself but for your team.

This is not to say you can't have human reactions to challenges, but ultimately your team will respond to how you handle hardship and communicate the outcomes.

Employees look to their leaders for cues during unpredictable phases, and a show of resilience at the top will bolster the entire organization.

Resilience has tangible positive outcomes as well. As BetterUp's study on resilience shows, it increases revenue, encourages innovation, and retains employees.

11. Honesty and transparency

Employees want a coach and leader who is honest and transparent about their performance, business objectives and directives, and internal company politics.

Nobody likes to feel like they are being lied to or deceived.

Transparency does not mean telling everyone everything as soon as you hear it - there is a time and a manner in which to convey information.

You want to be aware of how new information impacts people and impart it with care, utilizing values we've discussed like empathy, communication, and respect.

Take a company reorganization, for example. You don't want to sound the alarm that change is coming before you've worked out the details. Nor do you want to spring the news on people the day before everything shifts.

Valuing transparency, in this case, would mean communicating why there is a reorganization and getting other company leaders on board with how it affects them and their teams. It could also include hosting a Q&A for everyone who will be affected and setting clear expectations for how and when changes will occur.

"Being transparent about our plans enables us to get better feedback."

Shantanu Narayen, chairman, president, and CEO of Adobe Inc.

12. Accountability

One of the values that many employees admire in a leader is accountability.

Accountability means taking responsibility for one's duties and goals and, at times, owning responsibility for the shortcomings of one's team.

However, strong leaders also need to be prepared to hold their employees accountable for the tasks they are responsible for, which helps to promote personal growth with your team.

13. Integrity

Integrity is a character trait that gains respect and trust.

As a leader, integrity means approaching all of your work with consistency and coherency: the way you communicate with others, carry out your organization's mission, and approach new situations.

Integrity means honoring commitments (including to yourself) and doing what you say you will do, as well as approaching challenges in ways that are coherent with other values and beliefs.

Leading with integrity can sound abstract because it encapsulates so much, but you can think of it as integrating all of your core leadership values - the end doesn't justify the means if the means violate our core values.

The people who work for us notice if we only exhibit our values when times are good. By knowing your leadership values, reviewing them, and having them guide your actions, you will be leading with integrity no matter what your company faces.

Core values of a leader make for great leadership

Becoming a great leader is a journey and one which will last your entire career.

Of course, the sooner you start focusing on these leadership values, the faster you'll become the leader you want to be:

1. Empower and development

2. Vision

3. Communication

4. Reinforcement and influence

5. Empathy

6. Humility

7. Passion and commitment

8. Respect

9. Patience

10. Resilience

11. Honesty and transparency

12. Accountability

13. Integrity

Are you looking for a helping hand in developing your leadership skills? Check out how we help leaders grow.

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Leadership values: 13 essential values of a leader

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What makes a great leader? Is it someone who takes command with a firm leadership style? Does it take an ethical leader who seeks to follow their moral compass and embraces the shared values of their employees? Or is a successful leader one who can transform a company's culture so that it allows each individual to thrive?

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Best Speech Ever - Lessons from a 3rd Grade Dropout - Dr Rick Rigsby

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Mike Rowe, the host of "Dirty Jobs," tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it's been unjustifiably degraded in society today.

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Today's school leaders face many challenges. In addition to advancing academic achievement, principals also attend to an increasing array of mental health challenges with which students are faced. At the same time, secondary school leaders are under pressure to ensure all students are set up for success in college and the workforce. Understandably, principals can feel overwhelmed by these enormous pressures. However, they might be missing an untapped resource in their buildings-school counselors.

School counselors are uniquely positioned to support students' academic achievement, social-emotional well-being, and postsecondary readiness and success. Multiple studies have shown that strong school counseling programs are linked to improvements in attendance, increased college-going rates, decreased discipline referrals, and other positive outcomes. However, in some parts of the country, school counselors struggle to meet students' diverse needs because of high caseloads, ambiguous job descriptions, outdated and low expectations, limited professional development, and sometimes a lack of support from school leaders who may not understand how the counselor role should be carried out.

While providing clearer and higher expectations for school counselors can go a long way, meeting the myriad challenges students face calls for a reenvisioning of the school counseling profession. School counselors could work more efficiently, and students could be served more effectively, if they embraced an approach to school counseling that author Mandy Savitz-Romer refers to as an "academic home" in her book Fulfilling the Promise: Reimagining School Counseling to Advance Student Success. In this approach, counselors work at the hub of student supports, connecting and coordinating services much as primary care physicians coordinate patient care in medical settings.

In this role, school counselors serve as the first point of contact for students, providing as much support as is feasible and referring students for specialized services when needed so they don't fall between the cracks. Specialized supports could include mental health counseling, legal support for immigration issues, or even individualized assistance with college essays. Most school counselors already work within a robust network that includes teachers, administrators, and community partners. In the "academic home" model, the counselor serves both as the first point of contact in a student support system and as the person who provides leadership to create alignment among the services provided by community partners that might otherwise become fragmented or inequitable.

Use the following strategies to be sure you're maximizing the impact that counselors can have on students' academic and social-​emotional development.

1. Protect School Counselors' Time With Students

Historically, there's been some confusion about school counselors' roles and where their priorities should lie. To support a comprehensive school counseling program, principals need to have a clear understanding of counselors' roles and how their time can best be utilized to support the school's mission.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) offers guidelines for appropriate counselor responsibilities. Principals looking to unlock their counselors' potential might begin by developing a clear, shared understanding of how counselors spend their time. Talk to your counselors about their duties and see if certain responsibilities could be distributed to other staff to allow for more time directly supporting students.

It might not seem revolutionary to suggest that school leaders formulate clear expectations for counselors' roles, but as the profession has evolved and counselors have found themselves adjusting their roles to meet changing societal needs, it's time for educational leaders to update their expectations, too. (For instance, when counselors are asked to carry out extensive noncounseling duties such as test administration, it compromises their ability to provide critical direct services, such as implementing a social skills lessons, meeting with a student struggling with gender identity, or reviewing attendance data and identifying appropriate interventions.)

2. Adopt Clear Mission and Vision Statements

School leaders know that mission and vision statements are an important factor in creating a school culture founded in core values. Most schools' mission statements emphasize key components of school counselors' purpose, namely promoting academic achievement and postsecondary readiness. It is important not to overlook that these are also primary goals of counseling offices. Therefore, principals should consider how a school's mission statement might reflect a commitment to supporting students' personal development as well as their academic and postsecondary development.

Many school counseling programs also offer their own mission statements to reflect their internal core values and purpose. Not only does this help situate the counseling program within the larger educational vision of the school, but it helps focus programming. When the goals of counselors are aligned with those of school leaders, it increases commitment and motivation to pursue that vision. Also, because students and families may not understand what school counseling today offers them, updating your mission statements can offer a clear message to outside stakeholders about how these professionals support students.

3. Provide School Counselors With Leadership Opportunities

Some of the most promising school counseling programs we have found place school counselors on the leadership team. More often than not, this decision reflects the school leaders' vision of school counselors as experts on their students and it highlights school counseling as instrumental to meeting schoolwide goals.

In September of 2018, NASSP hosted an informative roundtable exploring the principal/counselor relationship. "Our counselors provide what I like to call 'qualitative formative assessment' data on the culture and climate of the school. Simply put, they have and understand the pulse of the school," noted Tommy Welch, former principal of Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, GA, during the roundtable. "This information is vital when implementing a new initiative."

At TechBoston Academy in Dorchester, MA, the director of school counseling partnered with the school's special education director to launch an intervention team that included active participation of the principal. The team meets weekly to identify struggling students and connect them with the appropriate support programs or interventions, further ensuring that no student falls through the cracks. Because the school's principal attends each week, the team often sees their feedback turned into action-they spot changes they can make at their school to better serve all students. Positioning counselors to take on leadership roles enables them to launch new systems that serve the entire school community.

4. Invest in School Counselors' Professional Learning and Development

Just as professional development is critical for improving teachers' content knowledge and instructional practice, similar training for school counselors provides new learning opportunities. Indeed, students' needs are constantly evolving, and today, they depend on counselors to support them on issues ranging from homelessness and anxiety to managing admissions processes that are increasingly competitive and complex.

Our research shows that counselors say they don't always engage in professional learning opportunities due to financial constraints, lack of relevant opportunities, and sometimes, because of limited support from school leaders. Certainly, school leaders try to offer school-based professional learning that applies to the majority of the school staff. However, this may miss the mark for counselors. Fortunately, there is a range of virtual and in-person professional development associations that can offer support to counselors at a reasonable cost. Organizations such as ASCA and the Southern Regional Education Board offer webinars and online learning opportunities for counselors. School leaders should budget for counselors to attend these sessions, as they not only provide great learning opportunities, but they also enable counselors to network with colleagues-something that is often missing for counselors.

Mentoring programs across schools, especially for new counselors, ensure that counselors can consult on ethical issues or learn new ways of approaching a challenging issue. I have also seen school districts offer meaningful districtwide professional learning on topics for which there is a shared interest. Using professional learning communities, book clubs, or affinity groups, school counselors gain opportunities for networking and sharing best practices within role-alike groups. School and district leaders might also consider partnering with nearby school districts to share the cost of bringing in professional development providers.

5. Encourage School Counselors to Use Data-Driven Practices

Like teachers, school counselors have adopted the use of data-driven practices to improve student outcomes. The ASCA National Model states that school counselors should be proficient in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. As school counselors implement a comprehensive school counseling program, utilizing attendance, behavior, and academic data allows them to meet the diverse needs of all students. School climate data can drive schoolwide counseling initiatives, such as antibullying programs. Data can be used to provide financial aid workshops based on low rates of FAFSA applications the previous year. Additionally, school counselors can use data to support targeted student interventions by identifying students with multiple unexcused absences or who are not on track to graduate.

School leaders can support counselors' use of data by ensuring they have access to data reports on early warning indicators and academic milestones, or statewide data regarding wellness. Because some school counselors report feeling intimidated by the use of data, principals might also include them in schoolwide data inquiry teams, research-practice partnerships, and other opportunities where other school-based staff is engaging with data.

Moving Forward

Too often, graduate programs fail to prepare principals for their role in supporting school counselors; therefore, administrators must collaborate with their counseling staff to identify systems and supports they can implement to improve counselors' practice. In addition to implementing these strategies, principals might consider adopting biannual administrative conferences to discuss school responsibilities, updating school counselor job descriptions, or identifying goals for the year and outlining plans for the counseling department to meet those goals. With a national average of 482 students to every one counselor, principals may not be able to budget for additional staff. However, they can create conditions for current counselors to positively influence students' educational experiences.
Mandy Savitz-Romer, PhD, is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Laura Colletta is the former assistant director of College Counseling at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn, NY. Danielle Duarte is an education leadership doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Leadership for a Strong School Counseling Program: March 2020

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Today's school leaders face many challenges. In addition to advancing academic achievement, principals also attend to an increasing array of mental health challenges with which students are faced. At the same time, secondary school leaders are under pressure to ensure all students are set up for success in college and the workforce.

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School Counseling Leadership Specialist (first edition)

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To address these needs, ASCA has developed the School Counseling Leadership Specialist program. This course is meant to be transformative. It doesn't focus on how leaders behave but how leaders think, not what leaders do but what leaders are.

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2021-22 National FFA Official Manual (2)

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A leader's most important responsibility is to create an environment where teams and team members can do their best work, accomplish great results, and demonstrate respect for others. Successful leaders have many different styles and approaches for leading teams, but there are some universal truths about what leaders must do to build great teams.

5 Leadership Practices For Building Great Teams

1) People First

A leader's most important task is to build a team of people around them that are engaged and capable of advancing the organizational mission. The best strategy is to have a group of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what changes or challenges arise. Great leadership is irrelevant without great people.

Leaders need to work to surround themselves with employees who are Capable, Engaged, and Connected. Individuals who demonstrate these three attributes have the most influence on team productivity, low turnover, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

Capable

Use their strengths every day

Consistent levels of high performance

Natural innovation and drive for efficiency

Engaged

High energy and enthusiasm

Broaden what they do and build on it

Clear about desired outcomes of their role

Connected

Intentional building of supportive relationships

Emotionally committed to what they do

Show commitment to the organization, workgroup, and role

2) Clear Goals and Roles

It is the leaders' responsibility to create a foundation for team success. This success starts by establishing an environment where employees have clear and aligned goals and roles. The importance of meaningful goals and role clarity on employee performance, engagement, and motivation is well-researched and documented.

Goals

Setting clear and meaningful goals provides a team with clarity, focus, increased performance, and accountability. Goals provide direction to a team, which enables team members to understand where they are now, where they want to go, and unites each individual's effort in getting there. Common goals are what makes a team a team.

Roles

Clarity of roles, responsibilities, and authorities are essential for team members to effectively accomplish individual and collective goals. Everyone should have a clear picture of who is responsible for what, the extent of each person's authority, and how people must work together to accomplish shared goals. Team members must cooperate to be able to achieve their goals and build strong relationships.

3) Effective Core Processes

Person touching screen with icons of process assessment for risk, analytics, quality.
getty

Every team has a handful of core processes that facilitate efficiency, scalability, and performance. The leader needs to ensure that team members understand which core processes are essential for their team success. Once identified, these processes should be documented, thoroughly tested, simplified, and regularly measured for efficiency and participation.

Core processes vary from team to team but are most often in the areas of service delivery, building products, marketing, accounting, human resources, customer service, etc.

4) High-Trust Environment

Great leaders invest in creating a trusting work environment and take the necessary steps so that teammates feel safe to take risks. They are confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea. Establishing an inclusive team environment that invites equal voice and values all team member perspectives is not created by accident.

A 2017 Gallup poll found that only 3 in 10 employees strongly agree with the statement that their opinions count at work.

Creating a culture of trust starts at the top. Below are behaviors that leaders need to model to create a high-trust environment.

Live the values every day

Quickly address negative employee behaviors

Inclusive process for Problem-Solving (see #5)

5) Problem-Solve Important Issues

The best teams are great at problem-solving. Resolving the ongoing issues that get in the way of accomplishing strategic team goals should be the central component of a team's recurring meetings. Too often, a team will spend a majority of their time together sharing general updates, many of which are not pertinent for everyone to know or could be shared electronically. Below are best practices for teams that excel with inclusive problem-solving.

An agreed-upon process and dedicated time to problem-solve issues

A clear expectation that a team member input is valued and expected when working through defined organizational issues

Explicit agreements for the next steps and accountability are clearly documented

Now more than ever, organizations need leaders that can build and maintain high-performing teams that can produce results and build strong relationships in the midst of ongoing change. These 5 Leadership Practices for Building Great Teams help leaders enable their teams to deliver on the promise of their potential.

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leadership practices for building great teams

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5 Leadership Practices For Building Great Teams

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A leader's most important responsibility is to create an environment where teams and team members can do their best work, accomplish great results, and demonstrate respect for others.

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How School Leaders Can Respond to Pushback Over Social-Emotional Learning

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See 7 tips for how to talk to parents and community members about social-emotional learning.

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12 Leadership Models That Can Define Your Style - University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences

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Discover how leadership models can help you become a better leader and work well with others.

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12 Leadership Models That Can Define Your Style

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New legislation will provide resources for social-emotional learning in Texas - Education and Human Development

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Recent legislation passed by the 87th session of the Texas Legislature will provide much-needed resources and support for students and educators heading back to classrooms after a year and a half of hybrid and remote learning.

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My name is Rachel Cantrell Allphin, and I use either the last name but never both. Cantrell is my Maiden name that I chose to keep after I got married to my wonderful husband.

I grew up in Katy, TX; after graduating from high school, I went to college at SFASU, where I earned a B.S. in Agriculture Development. I taught Agriculture at the high school level for four years in various parts of Texas. After those four years, I ended up taking two years off, and during that time, I was a programs coordinator/ Outdoor Educator/ Ropes Course Facilitator. It was a great time working with kids outside of the classroom. Once Covid shut everything down, I was laid off, and my only choice was to go back to teaching.

When I am not at work, I enjoy weight lifting, shooting, hiking, fishing, "camping" ( we have a 40' 5th wheel with a memory foam mattress), and I recently became a certified firearms instructor. I am very passionate about firearm safety and helping people overcome their fear surrounding firearms.

One woman that has inspired me is Temple Grandin. While many do not know of her outside of the Ag Community, I am glad. She is currently a professor at Colorado State University; before that, she worked in Feedlots and developed different methods to help keep livestock calm while being moved within the feed yards. She has revolutionized the livestock industry and continues to do so today! While many may not understand the importance of her developments, what she has struggled with to gain such respect for the community is something that I admire. Unfortunately, she is Autistic and female, which are significant issues within the Ag community. Being Autistic is not the issue, but being different is as the Ag industry is male-driven. She has fought many battles over the years and has overcome more than most people will in their lifetime. She is an inspiration to me because she faces some of the same struggles I do, and she has shown me that with an iron will, dedication, and confidence, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Being a four-year FFA member in high school and then being an Ag Teacher, the FFA has instilled in me that you lead by example. There is a time and place for every kind of leader, but in my eyes, a leader who is willing to get down and dirty and work alongside their peers is the most influential. That leader says they are there to help and not just give out orders. That leader is most respected. If I walk into a school barking orders and ruling with an Iron fist, I may get my peers to perform their duties, but they will not be happy and, as a result, will leave. Happy employees "take care" of their work environments and perform better.

While being a Counselor does not necessarily put me in a position of authority, it does put me in place to create the best program for my students and provide advice for teachers that may struggle with their students. Being a leader does not always mean being a boss; it can also be someone who takes point on a project. Creating a CSCP takes a tremulous effort. "There are five characteristics that make a good leader, and those are the ability to: educate, motivate, delegate, empower, and provide a vision." (Gleeson, 2016) My job as a counselor and a leader is not only to create a great CSCP but also to know when I can pass on parts of a task. I need to be able to help create a positive environment for everyone on campus by teaching and empowering respect for a diverse population.

"Transformative leadership is a leadership paradigm that addresses the need for systemic, equitable change in education." (Shields et al., 2017) The world constantly changes, and being able to adapt and evolve is inevitable. A CSCP goes through an annual audit, and evolving the CSCP for the current school population is necessary. I was stuck in my ways for many years. As a result, I had students and parents mad at me because I was unwilling to change and adapt to the environment I was in; once I got out of that mindset and began to adapt to my school environment, my students and I were able to form better relationships, and they are more successful. Counselors lead by using multiple strategies and resources to solve problems, build relationships with stakeholders, and more. (Young, 2013)

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All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together.

Many experts across countless leadership books and articles agree on certain principles required for leading a team to greatness, but when it comes down to it, the most important factor is whether or not the leader is getting the job done.

My philosophies on leadership have evolved over time through research, experiences in combat as a Navy SEAL and from my successes and failures running my own businesses. I believe that the best leaders are passionate about developing the emerging leaders around them, they constantly work to improve their emotional intelligence and know that a strong team culture is the foundation for accomplishing the mission. They are in a perpetual state of preparation and embrace the inevitable changes their businesses will face.

For the purposes of this article however, I wanted to get other business leaders' perspectives by having them answer one question:

In your opinion, what makes a great leader?

Their responses were collected in partnership with the American Board of Experts™. Here they are!
1 - Have Faith in Their Beliefs
"It's a mix of a lot of things, but first and foremost it's about having faith in your beliefs. You can't expect others to consider you a leader unless you have solid faith in your ideas. And once it's there, you build on it by being a good communicator, listening to others, setting examples and by putting your best foot forward and not giving up. Leadership is all about being passionate about what you do, and having confidence in yourself and your followers whom you have to motivate and inspire."
Matei Gavril, CEO at PrMediaOnline 2 - Make the Hard Choice
"Great leaders make the hard choice, and self-sacrifice in order to enhance the lives of others around them. As a business owner, not only does your family rely on you - so too, do the families of those who work for you. Each employee has a family. Even if you're a small business owner with four employees, you're in essence potentially responsible for an additional ten or fifteen people."
Joel Farar, Farar Law Group 3 - Earn the Respect of the Team
"Having the ability to show respect, empathy, and care to those that follow you, are all attributed to being a great leader. Earning respect is crucial to a successful relationship with someone, while also showing that you care about their work or ideas. Being empathetic allows a leader to tap into the emotions of that individual in order to connect in a way that lets that person know you understand what it means to be in their situation. Combining all three of these traits can definitely make someone a great leader. These are things I work on constantly with my own staff and myself, all in order to become a better leader to those I care about."
Brandon Swenson, SEO Pros 4 - Know the Team
"Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every individual to effectively manage the outcome of a team is imperative for success. Leaders have a great vision and use the resources at hand to solve problems. They take risks and make hard decisions, knowing they could sometimes be wrong. Those are the most important qualities of a real leader that work similarly in our professional and personal lives."
Alex Gerasimov, Insomnia Escape Room DC 5 - Know That the People are the Key to Success
"A great leader understands that it is the people they lead that ultimately determines the success or failure of any venture. They surround themselves with great people that they can cultivate into a team of competent, confident individuals who can work well as a team. They then have the ability to guide this team towards a well-defined vision by clearly communicating short and long terms goals, inspiring confidence and trust among colleagues, and influencing common efforts through character rather than by a position of authority. Ultimately, a great leader creates and nurtures other leaders."
Randy Soderman, Founder of Soderman Marketing SEO 6 - Articulate a Clear Vision
"A great leader posses a clear vision, is courageous, has integrity, honesty, humility and clear focus. He or she is a strategic planner and believes in teamwork. Great leaders help people reach their goals, are not afraid to hire people that might be better than them and take pride in the accomplishments of those they help along the way."
Bhagi Rath, Mattress Inquirer, Do Your Research to Find a Great Bed 7 - Push People to Be Their Best
"Great leaders have clarity of purpose and are great at articulating their beliefs. I aspire to be the kind of leader that pushes people to be the very best they can be but still make people feel safe because it starts with the heart."
Amas Tenumah, CEO BetterXperience 8 - Serve a Greater Cause
"Great leadership is determined by one's periodical blend of personal humility and unparalleled will to lead others in service of a cause bigger than themselves. Great leaders are incredibly ambitious, but never for themselves. Rather, they are ambitious for the company and possess the will do do whatever is necessary in service of this greater cause."
Jake Rheude, Director of Business Development for Red Stag Fulfillment 9 - Focus on Helping the Team
"Someone who leads by positive direction and builds agreement among its group members towards the accomplishment of a coordinated goal. Ultimately, leadership is not about who is in charge. It's about making sure your team stays focused on the goals, keeping them motivated and helping them be the best they can be to achieve those goals. This is especially true when the risks are high and the consequences matter."
Kara Kelly, Executive Director of CompleteContents.com 10 - Do Not Lead by Force
"A great leader does not lead by forcing people to follow. Instead, a great leader motivates people. They encourage others to follow them. They also lead by example, which few leaders do today."

Being an effective leader requires constant focus, perseverance and building a team that is accountable and designed get results. Without the team there can be no real leadership. These ten unique perspectives provide great insight while also validating certain commonalities.

Many of us in leadership or management positions know what we need to do to be better leaders, we just sometimes fail to act. Being a great leader requires constant personal and professional development, regular transparent feedback from the team, self-reflection and taking action on feedback received. Great leaders are rarely satisfied with their performance.

A special thanks to our respondents for their insight!

... Read More

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10 Unique Perspectives On What Makes A Great Leader

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All business owners and executives have varying experiences and perspectives on the approach and qualities necessary for effective leadership. And not all situations require the same type of leadership style. Great leaders adapt to their surrounding environments and empower the team to succeed together. Many experts across countless leadership books and articles [...]

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Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40 years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now here's how you can do it too. Lessons on eggs, flywheels, hedgehogs, buses, and other essentials of business that can help you transform your company.

I want to give you a lobotomy about change. I want you to forget everything you've ever learned about what it takes to create great results. I want you to realize that nearly all operating prescriptions for creating large-scale corporate change are nothing but myths.

The Myth of the Change Program: This approach comes with the launch event, the tag line, and the cascading activities.

The Myth of the Burning Platform: This one says that change starts only when there's a crisis that persuades "unmotivated" employees to accept the need for change.

The Myth of Stock Options: Stock options, high salaries, and bonuses are incentives that grease the wheels of change.

The Myth of Fear-Driven Change: The fear of being left behind, the fear of watching others win, the fear of presiding over monumental failure—all are drivers of change, we're told.

The Myth of Acquisitions: You can buy your way to growth, so it figures that you can buy your way to greatness.

The Myth of Technology-Driven Change: The breakthrough that you're looking for can be achieved by using technology to leapfrog the competition.

The Myth of Revolution: Big change has to be wrenching, extreme, painful—one big, discontinuous, shattering break.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Totally wrong.

Here are the facts of life about these and other change myths. Companies that make the change from good to great have no name for their transformation—and absolutely no program. They neither rant nor rave about a crisis—and they don't manufacture one where none exists. They don't "motivate" people—their people are self-motivated. There's no evidence of a connection between money and change mastery. And fear doesn't drive change—but it does perpetuate mediocrity. Nor can acquisitions provide a stimulus for greatness: Two mediocrities never make one great company. Technology is certainly important—but it comes into play only after change has already begun. And as for the final myth, dramatic results do not come from dramatic process—not if you want them to last, anyway. A serious revolution, one that feels like a revolution to those going through it, is highly unlikely to bring about a sustainable leap from being good to being great.

These myths became clear as my research team and I completed a five-year project to determine what it takes to change a good company into a great one. We systematically scoured a list of 1,435 established companies to find every extraordinary case that made a leap from no-better-than-average results to great results. How great? After the leap, a company had to generate cumulative stock returns that exceeded the general stock market by at least three times over 15 years—and it had to be a leap independent of its industry. In fact, the 11 good-to-great companies that we found averaged returns 6.9 times greater than the market's—more than twice the performance rate of General Electric under the legendary Jack Welch.

The surprising good-to-great list included such unheralded companies as Abbott Laboratories (3.98 times the market), Fannie Mae (7.56 times the market), Kimberly-Clark Corp.(3.42 times the market), Nucor Corp. (5.16 times the market), and Wells Fargo (3.99 times the market). One such surprise, the Kroger Co.—a grocery chain—bumped along as a totally average performer for 80 years and then somehow broke free of its mediocrity to beat the stock market by 4.16 times over the next 15 years. And it didn't stop there. From 1973 to 1998, Kroger outperformed the market by 10 times.

In each of these dramatic, remarkable, good-to-great corporate transformations, we found the same thing: There was no miracle moment. Instead, a down-to-earth, pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process—a framework—kept each company, its leaders, and its people on track for the long haul. In each case, it was the triumph of the Flywheel Effect over the Doom Loop, the victory of steadfast discipline over the quick fix. And the real kicker: The comparison companies in our study—firms with virtually identical opportunities during the pivotal years—did buy into the change myths described above—and failed to make the leap from good to great.

How change doesn't happen

Picture an egg. Day after day, it sits there. No one pays attention to it. No one notices it. Certainly no one takes a picture of it or puts it on the cover of a celebrity-focused business magazine. Then one day, the shell cracks and out jumps a chicken.

All of a sudden, the major magazines and newspapers jump on the story: "Stunning Turnaround at Egg!" and "The Chick Who Led the Breakthrough at Egg!" From the outside, the story always reads like an overnight sensation—as if the egg had suddenly and radically altered itself into a chicken.

Now picture the egg from the chicken's point of view.

While the outside world was ignoring this seemingly dormant egg, the chicken within was evolving, growing, developing—changing. From the chicken's point of view, the moment of breakthrough, of cracking the egg, was simply one more step in a long chain of steps that had led to that moment. Granted, it was a big step—but it was hardly the radical transformation that it looked like from the outside.

It's a silly analogy, but then our conventional way of looking at change is no less silly. Everyone looks for the "miracle moment" when "change happens." But ask the good-to-great executives when change happened. They cannot pinpoint a single key event that exemplified their successful transition.

Take Walgreens. For more than 40 years, Walgreens was no more than an average company, tracking the general market. Then in 1975 (out of the blue!) Walgreens began to climb. And climb. And climb. It just kept climbing. From December 31, 1975, to January 1, 2000, $1 invested in Walgreens beat $1 invested in Intel by nearly two times, General Electric by nearly five times, and Coca-Cola by nearly eight times. It beat the general stock market by more than 15 times.

I asked a key Walgreens executive to pinpoint when the good-to-great transformation happened. His answer: "Sometime between 1971 and 1980." (Well, that certainly narrows it down!)

Walgreens's experience is the norm for good-to-great performers. Leaders at Abbott said, "It wasn't a blinding flash or sudden revelation from above." From Kimberly-Clark: "These things don't happen overnight. They grow." From Wells Fargo: "It wasn't a single switch that was thrown at one time."

We keep looking for change in the wrong places, asking the wrong questions, and making the wrong assumptions. There's even a tendency to blame Wall Street for the "instant results" approach to change. But the companies that made the jump from good to great did so using Wall Street's own tough metric of success: a sustained leap in their stock-market performance. Wall Street turns out to be just another myth—an excuse for not doing what really works. The data doesn't lie.

How change does happen

Now picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It's a massive, metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle. It's about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it weighs about 25 tons. That flywheel is your company. Your job is to get that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum—mass times velocity—is what will generate superior economic results over time.

Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous effort. You push with all your might, and finally you get the flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then—at some point, you can''t say exactly when—you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing.

This is the Flywheel Effect. It's what it feels like when you're inside a company that makes the transition from good to great. Take Kroger, for example. How do you get a company with more than 50,000 people to embrace a new strategy that will eventually change every aspect of every grocery store? You don't. At least not with one big change program.

Instead, you put your shoulder to the flywheel. That's what Jim Herring, the leader who initiated the transformation of Kroger, told us. He stayed away from change programs and motivational stunts. He and his team began turning the flywheel gradually, consistently—building tangible evidence that their plans made sense and would deliver results.

"We presented what we were doing in such a way that people saw our accomplishments,"Herring says. "We tried to bring our plans to successful conclusions step by step, so that the mass of people would gain confidence from the successes, not just the words."

Think about it for one minute. Why do most overhyped change programs ultimately fail? Because they lack accountability, they fail to achieve credibility, and they have no authenticity. It's the opposite of the Flywheel Effect; it's the Doom Loop.

Companies that fall into the Doom Loop genuinely want to effect change—but they lack the quiet discipline that produces the Flywheel Effect. Instead, they launch change programs with huge fanfare, hoping to "enlist the troops." They start down one path, only to change direction. After years of lurching back and forth, these companies discover that they've failed to build any sustained momentum. Instead of turning the flywheel, they've fallen into a Doom Loop: Disappointing results lead to reaction without understanding, which leads to a new direction—a new leader, a new program—which leads to no momentum, which leads to disappointing results. It's a steady, downward spiral. Those who have experienced a Doom Loop know how it drains the spirit right out of a company.

Consider the Warner-Lambert Co.—the company that we compared directly with Gillette—in the early 1980s. In 1979, Warner-Lambert told Business Week that it aimed to be a leading consumer-products company. One year later, it did an abrupt about-face and turned its sights on healthcare. In 1981, the company reversed course again and returned to diversification and consumer goods. Then in 1987, Warner-Lambert made another U-turn, away from consumer goods, and announced that it wanted to compete with Merck. Then in the early 1990s, the company responded to government announcements of pending healthcare reform and reembraced diversification and consumer brands.

Between 1979 and 1998, Warner-Lambert underwent three major restructurings—one per CEO. Each new CEO arrived with his own program; each CEO halted the momentum of his predecessor. With each turn of the Doom Loop, the company spiraled further downward, until it was swallowed by Pfizer in 2000.

In contrast, why does the Flywheel Effect work? Because more than anything else, real people in real companies want to be part of a winning team. They want to contribute to producing real results. They want to feel the excitement and the satisfaction of being part of something that just flat-out works. When people begin to feel the magic of momentum—when they begin to see tangible results and can feel the flywheel start to build speed—that's when they line up, throw their shoulders to the wheel, and push.

And that's how change really happens.

Disciplined people: "Who" before "what"

You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it's your job to get it going. You have to decide where you're going, how you're going to get there, and who's going with you.

Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.

In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with "where" but with "who." They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances. Take David Maxwell's bus ride. When he became CEO of Fannie Mae in 1981, the company was losing $1 million every business day, with $56 billion worth of mortgage loans underwater. The board desperately wanted to know what Maxwell was going to do to rescue the company.

Maxwell responded to the "what" question the same way that all good-to-great leaders do: He told them, That's the wrong first question. To decide where to drive the bus before you have the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus, is absolutely the wrong approach.

Maxwell told his management team that there would only be seats on the bus for A-level people who were willing to put out A-plus effort. He interviewed every member of the team. He told them all the same thing: It was going to be a tough ride, a very demanding trip. If they didn't want to go, fine; just say so. Now's the time to get off the bus, he said. No questions asked, no recriminations. In all, 14 of 26 executives got off the bus. They were replaced by some of the best, smartest, and hardest-working executives in the world of finance.

With the right people on the bus, in the right seats, Maxwell then turned his full attention to the "what" question. He and his team took Fannie Mae from losing $1 million a day at the start of his tenure to earning $4 million a day at the end. Even after Maxwell left in 1991, his great team continued to drive the flywheel—turn upon turn—and Fannie Mae generated cumulative stock returns nearly eight times better than the general market from 1984 to 1999.

When it comes to getting started, good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths. First, if you begin with "who," you can more easily adapt to a fast-changing world. If people get on your bus because of where they think it's going, you'll be in trouble when you get 10 miles down the road and discover that you need to change direction because the world has changed. But if people board the bus principally because of all the other great people on the bus, you'll be much faster and smarter in responding to changing conditions. Second, if you have the right people on your bus, you don't need to worry about motivating them. The right people are self-motivated: Nothing beats being part of a team that is expected to produce great results. And third, if you have the wrong people on the bus, nothing else matters. You may be headed in the right direction, but you still won't achieve greatness. Great vision with mediocre people still produces mediocre results.

Disciplined thought: Fox or hedgehog?

Picture two animals: a fox and a hedgehog. Which are you? An ancient Greek parable distinguishes between foxes, which know many small things, and hedgehogs, which know one big thing. All good-to-great leaders, it turns out, are hedgehogs. They know how to simplify a complex world into a single, organizing idea—the kind of basic principle that unifies, organizes, and guides all decisions. That's not to say hedgehogs are simplistic. Like great thinkers, who take complexities and boil them down into simple, yet profound, ideas (Adam Smith and the invisible hand, Darwin and evolution), leaders of good-to-great companies develop a Hedgehog Concept that is simple but that reflects penetrating insight and deep understanding.

What does it take to come up with a Hedgehog Concept for your company? Start by confronting the brutal facts. One good-to-great CEO began by asking, "Why have we sucked for 100 years?" That's brutal—and it's precisely the type of disciplined question necessary to ignite a transformation. The management climate during a leap from good to great is like a searing scientific debate—with smart, tough-minded people examining hard facts and debating what those facts mean. The point isn't to win the debate, but rather to come up with the best answers—and, ultimately, to lock onto a Hedgehog Concept that works.

You'll know that you're getting closer to your Hedgehog Concept when you align three intersecting circles that represent three pivotal questions: What can we be the best in the world at? (And equally important—what can we not be the best at?) What is the economic denominator that best drives our economic engine (profit or cash flow per "x")? And what are our core people deeply passionate about? Answer those three questions honestly, facing the brutal facts without blinking, and you'll begin to see your Hedgehog Concept emerge.

For example, before Wells Fargo understood its Hedgehog Concept, its leaders had tried to make it a global bank: It operated like a mini-Citicorp—and a mediocre one at that.

Then the Wells Fargo team asked itself, "What can we potentially do better than any other company?" The brutal fact was that Wells Fargo would never be the best global bank in the world—and so the leadership team pulled the plug on the vast majority of the bank's international operations. When the team asked the question about the bank's economic engine, Wells Fargo's leaders confronted a second brutal fact: In a deregulated world, commercial banking would be a commodity. The essential economic driver would no longer be profit per loan, but profit per employee. The bank switched its operations to become a pioneering leader in electronic banking and to open utilitarian branches run by small crews of superb people. Profit per employee skyrocketed. Finally, when it came to passion, members of the Wells Fargo team all agreed: The mindless waste and self-awarded perks of traditional banking culture were revolting. They proudly saw themselves as stoic Spartans in an industry that had been dominated by the wasteful, elitist culture of banking. The Wells Fargo team eventually translated the three circles into a simple, crystalline Hedgehog Concept: Run a bank like a business, with a focus on the western United States, and consistently increase profit per employee. "Run it like a business" and "run it like you own it" became mantras; simplicity and focus made all the difference. With fanatical adherence to that simple idea, Wells Fargo made the leap from good results to superior results.

In the journey from good to great, defining your Hedgehog Concept is an essential element. But insight and understanding don't happen overnight—or after one off-site. On average, it took four years for the good-to-great companies to crystallize their Hedgehog Concepts. It was an inherently iterative process—consisting of piercing questions, vigorous debate, resolute action, and autopsies without blame—a cycle repeated over and over by the right people, infused with the brutal facts, and guided by the three circles. This is the chicken inside the egg.

Disciplined action: The "stop doing" list

Take a look at your desk. If you're like most hard-charging leaders, you've got a well-articulated to-do list. Now take another look: Where's your stop-doing list? We've all been told that leaders make things happen—and that's true: Pushing that flywheel takes a lot of concerted effort. But it's also true that good-to-great leaders distinguish themselves by their unyielding discipline to stop doing anything and everything that doesn't fit tightly within their Hedgehog Concept.

When Darwin Smith and his management team crystallized the Hedgehog Concept for Kimberly-Clark, they faced a dilemma. On one hand, they understood that the best path to greatness lay in the consumer business, where the company had demonstrated a best-in-the-world capability in its building of the Kleenex brand. On the other hand, the vast majority of Kimberly-Clark's revenue lay in traditional coated-paper mills, turning out paper for magazines and writing pads—which had been the core business of the company for 100 years. Even the company's namesake town—Kimberly, Wisconsin—was built around a Kimberly-Clark paper mill.

Yet the brutal truth remained: The consumer business was the one arena that best met the three-circle test. If Kimberly-Clark remained principally a paper-mill business, it would retain a secure position as a good company. But its only shot at becoming a great company was to become the best paper-based consumer company—if it could take on such companies as Procter & Gamble and Scott Paper Co. and beat them. That meant it would have to "stop doing" paper mills.

So, in what one director called "the gutsiest decision I've ever seen a CEO make," Darwin Smith sold the mills. He even sold the mill in Kimberly, Wisconsin. Then he threw all the money into a war chest for an epic battle with Procter & Gamble and Scott Paper. Wall Street analysts derided the move, and the business press called it stupid. But Smith did not waver.

Twenty-five years later, Kimberly-Clark emerged from the fray as the number-one paper-based consumer-products company in the world, beating P&G in six of eight categories and owning its former archrival Scott Paper outright. For the shareholder, Kimberly-Clark under Darwin Smith beat the market by four times, easily outperforming such great companies as Coca-Cola, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and 3M.

In deciding what not to do, Smith gave the flywheel a gigantic push—but it was only one push. After selling the mills, Kimberly-Clark's full transformation required thousands of additional pushes, big and small, accumulated one after another. It took years to gain enough momentum for the press to herald Kimberly-Clark's shift from good to great. One magazine wrote, "When ... Kimberly-Clark decided to go head to head against P&G ... this magazine predicted disaster. What a dumb idea. As it turns out, it wasn't a dumb idea. It was a smart idea." The amount of time between the two articles: 21 years.

Now it begins

Our study of what it takes to turn good into great required five years—and 10.5 person-years—and amounted to our own flywheel effort. Looking back on our research, what's most striking to me about our findings is the absence of a magic moment in any of the good-to-great companies—or in our own journey to understanding. The real path to greatness, it turns out, requires simplicity and diligence. It requires clarity, not instant illumination. It demands each of us to focus on what is vital—and to eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.

After five years of research, I'm absolutely convinced that if we just focus our attention on the right things—and stop doing the senseless things that consume so much time and energy—we can create a powerful Flywheel Effect without increasing the number of hours we work.

I'm also convinced that the good-to-great findings apply broadly—not just to CEOs but also to you and me in whatever work we're engaged in, including the work of our own lives. For many people, the first question that occurs is, "But how do I persuade my CEO to get it?" My answer: Don't worry about that. Focus instead on results—on subverting mediocrity by creating a Flywheel Effect within your own span of responsibility. So long as we can choose the people we want to put on our own minibus, each of us can create a pocket of greatness. Each of us can take our own area of work and influence and can concentrate on moving it from good to great. It doesn't really matter whether all the CEOs get it. It only matters that you and I do. Now, it's time to get to work.

Jim Collins wrote the essay "Built to Flip" in the March 2000 issue of Fast Company. His new book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't, will be available in October.

Sidebar: Separating the good from the great

Can a good company become a great company? How? It took Jim Collins and his team of researchers five years to come up with the answers: 11 companies made the leap from good to great and then sustained those results for at least 15 years. How great was great? The good-to-great companies averaged cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the general market in the 15 years after their transition points. The actual screening-and-selection process was a rigorous one. The criteria were:

1. The company had to show a pattern of good performance, punctuated by a transition point, after which it shifted to great performance. "Great performance" was defined as a cumulative total stock return of at least three times the general market for the period from the transition point through 15 years.

2. The transition from good to great had to be company specific, not an industrywide event.

3. The company had to be an established and ongoing enterprise—not a startup. It had to have been in business for at least 25 years prior to its transition, and it had to have been publicly traded with stock-return data available for at least 10 years prior to its transition.

4. The transition point had to occur before 1985 to give the team enough data to assess the sustainability of the transition.

5. Whatever the year of transition, the company had to be a significant, ongoing, stand-alone company.

6. At the time of its selection, the company still had to show an upward trend.

The study began with a field of 1,435 companies and emerged with a list of 11 good-to-great companies: Abbott Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Kroger Co., Nucor Corp., Philip Morris Cos. Inc., Pitney Bowes Inc., Walgreens, and Wells Fargo.

The next step in the study was to isolate what it took to make the change. At this point, each of the 11 good-to-great companies was paired with a comparison company—a company with similar attributes that could have made the transition, but didn't.

Then the research began. Collins and his team reviewed books, articles, case studies, and annual reports covering each company; examined financial analyses for each company, totaling 980 combined years of data; conducted 84 interviews with senior managers and board members of the companies; scrutinized the personal and professional records of 56 CEOs; analyzed compensation plans for the companies; and reviewed layoffs, corporate ownership, "media hype," and the role of technology for the companies. The findings are contained in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't (HarperBusiness, 2001).

Sidebar: Great answers to good questions

Fast Company:

The CEOs who took their companies from good to great were largely anonymous. Is that an accident?

Jim Collins: There is a direct relationship between the absence of celebrity and the presence of good-to-great results. Why? First, when you have a celebrity, the company turns into "the one genius with 1,000 helpers." It creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the CEO. At a deeper level, we found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves. That doesn't mean that they don't have an ego. It means that at each decision point—at each of the critical junctures when Choice A would favor their ego and Choice B would favor the company and the work—time and again the good-to-great leaders pick Choice B. Celebrity CEOs, at those same decision points, are more likely to favor self and ego over company and work.

FC: Like the anonymous CEOs, most of the good-to-great companies are unheralded. What does that tell us?

JC: The truth is, few people are working on the most glamorous things in the world. Most of them are doing real work—which means that most of the time they're doing a heck of a lot of drudgery with only a few moments of excitement. The real work of the economy gets done by people who make cars, who sell real estate, and who run grocery stores or banks. One of the great findings of this study is that you can be in a great company and be doing it in steel, in drug stores, or in grocery stores. No one has the right to whine about their company, their industry, or the kind of business that they're in—ever again.

FC: Let's say that I'm not running a company. How do the good-to-great lessons apply to me?

JC: The basic message is this: Build your own flywheel. You can do it. You can start to build momentum in something for which you've got responsibility. You can build a great department. You can build a great church community. You can take every one of these ideas and apply them to your own work or your own life.

FC: What does your research suggest about the best way to respond to the current economic slowdown?

JC: If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could. I'd put off everything else to fill my bus. Because things are going to come back. My flywheel is going to start to turn. And the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.

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Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40 years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now here's how you can do it too. Lessons on eggs, flywheels, hedgehogs, buses, and other essentials of business that can help you transform your company. I want to give you a lobotomy about change.

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emotional intelligence
When it comes to happiness and success in life, EQ matters just as much as IQ. Learn how you can boost your emotional intelligence, build stronger relationships, and achieve your goals.

What is emotional intelligence or EQ?

Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at school and work, and achieve your career and personal goals. It can also help you to connect with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.

Emotional intelligence is commonly defined by four attributes:

1. Self-management - You're able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

2. Self-awareness - You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.

3. Social awareness - You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

4. Relationship management - You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Why is emotional intelligence so important?

As we know, it's not the smartest people who are the most successful or the most fulfilled in life. You probably know people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially inept and unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. Intellectual ability or your intelligence quotient (IQ) isn't enough on its own to achieve success in life. Yes, your IQ can help you get into college, but it's your EQ that will help you manage the stress and emotions when facing your final exams. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they build off one another.

Emotional intelligence affects:

Your performance at school or work. High emotional intelligence can help you navigate the social complexities of the workplace, lead and motivate others, and excel in your career. In fact, when it comes to gauging important job candidates, many companies now rate emotional intelligence as important as technical ability and employ EQ testing before hiring.

Your physical health. If you're unable to manage your emotions, you are probably not managing your stress either. This can lead to serious health problems. Uncontrolled stress raises blood pressure, suppresses the immune system, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, contributes to infertility, and speeds up the aging process. The first step to improving emotional intelligence is to learn how to manage stress.

Your mental health. Uncontrolled emotions and stress can also impact your mental health, making you vulnerable to anxiety and depression. If you are unable to understand, get comfortable with, or manage your emotions, you'll also struggle to form strong relationships. This in turn can leave you feeling lonely and isolated and further exacerbate any mental health problems.
[Read: Building Better Mental Health]
Your relationships. By understanding your emotions and how to control them, you're better able to express how you feel and understand how others are feeling. This allows you to communicate more effectively and forge stronger relationships, both at work and in your personal life.

Your social intelligence. Being in tune with your emotions serves a social purpose, connecting you to other people and the world around you. Social intelligence enables you to recognize friend from foe, measure another person's interest in you, reduce stress, balance your nervous system through social communication, and feel loved and happy.

Building emotional intelligence: Four key skills to increasing your EQ

The skills that make up emotional intelligence can be learned at any time. However, it's important to remember that there is a difference between simply learning about EQ and applying that knowledge to your life. Just because you know you should do something doesn't mean you will-especially when you become overwhelmed by stress, which can override your best intentions. In order to permanently change behavior in ways that stand up under pressure, you need to learn how to overcome stress in the moment, and in your relationships, in order to remain emotionally aware.

The key skills for building your EQ and improving your ability to manage emotions and connect with others are:

1. Self-management

2. Self-awareness

3. Social awareness

4. Relationship management

Building emotional intelligence, key skill 1: Self-management

In order for you to engage your EQ, you must be able use your emotions to make constructive decisions about your behavior. When you become overly stressed, you can lose control of your emotions and the ability to act thoughtfully and appropriately.

Think about a time when stress has overwhelmed you. Was it easy to think clearly or make a rational decision? Probably not. When you become overly stressed, your ability to both think clearly and accurately assess emotions-your own and other people's-becomes compromised.
[Read: Stress Management]
Emotions are important pieces of information that tell you about yourself and others, but in the face of stress that takes us out of our comfort zone, we can become overwhelmed and lose control of ourselves. With the ability to manage stress and stay emotionally present, you can learn to receive upsetting information without letting it override your thoughts and self-control. You'll be able to make choices that allow you to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Key skill 2: Self-awareness

Managing stress is just the first step to building emotional intelligence. The science of attachment indicates that your current emotional experience is likely a reflection of your early life experience. Your ability to manage core feelings such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy often depends on the quality and consistency of your early life emotional experiences. If your primary caretaker as an infant understood and valued your emotions, it's likely your emotions have become valuable assets in adult life. But, if your emotional experiences as an infant were confusing, threatening or painful, it's likely you've tried to distance yourself from your emotions.

But being able to connect to your emotions-having a moment-to-moment connection with your changing emotional experience-is the key to understanding how emotion influences your thoughts and actions.

Do you experience feelings that flow, encountering one emotion after another as your experiences change from moment to moment?

Are your emotions accompanied by physical sensations that you experience in places like your stomach, throat, or chest?

Do you experience individual feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy, each of which is evident in subtle facial expressions?

Can you experience intense feelings that are strong enough to capture both your attention and that of others?

Do you pay attention to your emotions? Do they factor into your decision making?

If any of these experiences are unfamiliar, you may have "turned down" or "turned off" your emotions. In order to build EQ-and become emotionally healthy-you must reconnect to your core emotions, accept them, and become comfortable with them. You can achieve this through the practice of mindfulness.
[Listen: Mindful Breathing Meditation]
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment-and without judgment. The cultivation of mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, but most religions include some type of similar prayer or meditation technique. Mindfulness helps shift your preoccupation with thought toward an appreciation of the moment, your physical and emotional sensations, and brings a larger perspective on life. Mindfulness calms and focuses you, making you more self-aware in the process.

Developing emotional awareness

It's important that you learn how to manage stress first, so you'll feel more comfortable reconnecting to strong or unpleasant emotions and changing how you experience and respond to your feelings. You can develop your emotional awareness by using HelpGuide's free Emotional Intelligence Toolkit.

Key skill 3: Social awareness

Social awareness enables you to recognize and interpret the mainly nonverbal cues others are constantly using to communicate with you. These cues let you know how others are really feeling, how their emotional state is changing from moment to moment, and what's truly important to them.
[Read: Effective Communication]
When groups of people send out similar nonverbal cues, you're able to read and understand the power dynamics and shared emotional experiences of the group. In short, you're empathetic and socially comfortable.

Mindfulness is an ally of emotional and social awareness

To build social awareness, you need to recognize the importance of mindfulness in the social process. After all, you can't pick up on subtle nonverbal cues when you're in your own head, thinking about other things, or simply zoning out on your phone. Social awareness requires your presence in the moment. While many of us pride ourselves on an ability to multitask, this means that you'll miss the subtle emotional shifts taking place in other people that help you fully understand them.

You are actually more likely to further your social goals by setting other thoughts aside and focusing on the interaction itself.

Following the flow of another person's emotional responses is a give-and-take process that requires you to also pay attention to the changes in your own emotional experience.

Paying attention to others doesn't diminish your own self-awareness. By investing the time and effort to really pay attention to others, you'll actually gain insight into your own emotional state as well as your values and beliefs. For example, if you feel discomfort hearing others express certain views, you'll have learned something important about yourself.

Key skill 4: Relationship management

Working well with others is a process that begins with emotional awareness and your ability to recognize and understand what other people are experiencing. Once emotional awareness is in play, you can effectively develop additional social/emotional skills that will make your relationships more effective, fruitful, and fulfilling.

Become aware of how effectively you use nonverbal communication. It's impossible to avoid sending nonverbal messages to others about what you think and feel. The many muscles in the face, especially those around the eyes, nose, mouth and forehead, help you to wordlessly convey your own emotions as well as read other peoples' emotional intent. The emotional part of your brain is always on-and even if you ignore its messages-others won't. Recognizing the nonverbal messages that you send to others can play a huge part in improving your relationships.

Use humor and play to relieve stress. Humor, laughter and play are natural antidotes to stress. They lessen your burdens and help you keep things in perspective. Laughter brings your nervous system into balance, reducing stress, calming you down, sharpening your mind and making you more empathic.

Learn to see conflict as an opportunity to grow closer to others. Conflict and disagreements are inevitable in human relationships. Two people can't possibly have the same needs, opinions, and expectations at all times. However, that needn't be a bad thing. Resolving conflict in healthy, constructive ways can strengthen trust between people. When conflict isn't perceived as threatening or punishing, it fosters freedom, creativity, and safety in relationships.

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Improving Emotional Intelligence (EQ) - HelpGuide.org

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emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at school and work, and achieve your career and personal goals.

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The path-goal theory suggests that a leader directs followers' behavior by motivating them to accomplish goals (PSU WC, 2014, L.6). The effective leader compensates for deficiencies of his/her followers in order to overcome obstacles toward a goal, which in its turn increase followers' intrinsic motivation (House, 1996). According to this theory, the four leadership styles that function to minimize role ambiguity and provide reward for the followers are directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented behaviors (PSU WC, 2014, L.6). Different organizational environments, situations, and tasks dictate to the leaders which of the four path-goal styles to choose in order to be effective.

I would like to discuss about how this theory has been reformulated and evolved over time. Even though this theory was developed in the 1970s by Evans (1970) and was later modified by House (1971), House (1996) admitted that the theory should be reformulated in light of the development of organizational structure in business. The original path-goal approach concerns the relationships between formally appointed supervisors and their subordinates on a personal basis; therefore, a leader should act in the way that boosts the valence of outcomes that relate to a person's work-goal attainment (House, 1971). There have been major changes in organizational structure that brought forward a group as a unit with which a leader should build relations and modify their own behavior toward achieving group goals; for this reason, a leader should primarily consider the coordination of work of the whole group and facilitating the group goal accomplishments (House, 1996). Moreover, some professionals noted that the clear structure of organizations with precise instructions of how to perform the tasks have abated and a new structure with more discretion for decision making, creativity, and responsibilities has taken the place of the old structure. Therefore role ambiguity increases and role clarification decreases in this structure. The original path-goal approach assumes that a reduction of employee's role ambiguity and increased role clarification will lead to heightened motivation. Yukl (1994), however, pointed out that these two conditions might increase expectancies and as result would change a follower's perception about the task performance and a goal achievement that they are more difficult than they were originally recognized (Yukl, 1994, cited in House, 1996). In that event, removing uncertainty might decrease an employee's motivation. House (1996) addressed this potential problem by the proposition that uncertainty and unpredictability require "a personal rather than formal planned coordination of work" that might include reciprocal coordination by members of a work group (p.339). Hence, House (1996) included the principal of delegation of authority and responsibilities to the followers by a leader in all types of behaviors; he called it "a theory of work unit empowerment" (p.347).

Finally, I want to mention a recent study that pertains to the role of leader's gender in path-goal theory. Polston-Murdoch (2013) found "no gendered differences and perceptions of leadership style in relation to subordinates' commitment" to their leader (p.36). These findings reflect the advance of women in business; even though there is still a preponderance of males in top-positions in business, we can observe the emerging tendency toward more females as business leaders (Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo; Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard). We slowly get rid of our stereotypes that while a male leader exhibits more directive behavior, a female leader engages in participative behavior; the top management positions sometimes require a directive leadership style and female leaders demonstrate that they can be as directive and controlling as males.

Even though the path-goal theory was developed in the 1970s, it was refined and contemporized over time. House (1996) included predictions of efficiency of a leader in a group performance. A leader can enhance the performance and motivation of a whole work group. Other researchers also contributed to the development this theory by investigating how moderating variables such as a leader's gender might influence the relations between leadership style and subordinates' commitment. This theory has the potential to be further developed and to continue galvanizing empirical research.

References
House, R. J. (1996). Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory. Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), 323-352.

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2014). PSYCH 485. Lesson 6: Contingency and Path Theories. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/ fa14/psych485/ 001/content/06_lesson/01_page.html

Polston-Murdoch, L. (2013). An investigation of path-goal theory, relationship of leadership style, supervisor-related commitment, and gender. Emerging Leadership Journeys. Retrieved from www.regent.edu/.../2elj_vol6iss1_polston_murdoch.pdf.

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The path-goal theory suggests that a leader directs followers' behavior by motivating them to accomplish goals (PSU WC, 2014, L.6). The effective leader compensates for deficiencies of his/her followers in order to overcome obstacles toward a goal, which in its turn increase followers' intrinsic motivation (House, 1996).