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While targeted towards 5th graders in K-12 education, this lesson could be useful for leaders who have difficulty with conforming or believing in themselves due to past trauma or acceptance issues.

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Cultivating Leadership Through Self-Acceptance and Forgiveness | PBS LearningMedia

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In this lesson, students watch videos about self-acceptance and forgiveness and then explore how these qualities relate to leadership potential. This resource is part of the Transformative Teachers collection. Find out more about The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT.

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What First-Time Supervisors Need to Know to Be Successful

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What First-Time Supervisors Need to Know to Be Successful

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An article that might be useful for first-time supervisors (like myself) and things to keep in mind to help navigate through the adjustment process.

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As a manager, especially a first-time supervisor, your employees' success is your success. To be a top-performing supervisor with a top-performing team, you will need to:

1. Learn and practice basic supervisory skills.

2. Avoid common mistakes and pitfalls that trip up most new supervisors.

3. Understand the differences between your previous role as a frontline contributor and your new management role.

4. Adopt the behaviors of exemplary leadership that are proven to drive real results.

5. Constantly continue learning and adapting as a manager.

Here's why it matters. Extraordinary leaders have been shown to post twice as much in company profits as their peers who are less proficient in leading and supervising. In one Folkman study of bank branch managers, the bottom 10% averaged a net loss of $1.2 million while the top 10% posted a profit of $4.5 million per branch. The difference? Primarily, it was linked to the effectiveness of the leader.

You can get a strong start on these five essentials to boost your performance in your first six months on the job as a new supervisor. If you've been supervising longer, never fear! Although you'll have some habits to break, it's never too late to make these shifts and become more successful.

Keep reading to learn more about all five areas that will help you grow and thrive as a supervisor.

1. What Basic First-Time Supervisory Skills Do I Need?

There are five categories of supervisory skills to focus on in order to accelerate your success as a supervisor. They are:

1. People skills ("soft" skills)

2. Setting expectations, managing performance

3. Communication

4. People development

5. Technical skills

Many new supervisors focus far too much time and energy on the technical skills of their job function and business unit. After all, this expertise and background is what got them promoted in the first place. Being the "best" at whatever you used to do might be what got you here. But it's not enough to get you "there..." wherever your next success will be. In fact, over-relying on your functional expertise is a surefire way to stall out in your career.

The better focus for supervisors is on the "soft" skills related to communicating with, coaching, and developing people. Remember: you cannot be successful if the people on your team are not successful. That means you need to invest in their success.

Don't make the mistake of focusing short-term on getting today's work done today. That's not enough. Managers are expected to get today's work done through other people AND to build the capacity of the team for the long-term, too.

Think of your dual role as managing work and leading people.

Supervisors who put too much energy and time into the technical or functional skills related to their job find themselves experiencing low levels of employee engagement and high rates of employee turnover. That's because employees won't invest themselves in managers or companies or work that doesn't seem like something more than work.

Leading people and investing in them (as people, not as hired hands!), includes giving candid feedback plus encouragement along the way to a goal. It requires active listening and inviting diverse points of view. Leading people involves setting expectations and coaching people so they develop the skills and abilities to perform at their best. To lead people, you'll need to develop leadership skills. And, by the way, leadership skills are not the same as management skills . You need both to succeed as a supervisor.

2. How to Avoid Common Mistakes New Supervisors Make

New supervisors are prone to several common mistakes, most stemming from a desire to be liked.

Coming from the front lines and empathizing with employees causes many new managers to respond ineffectively. This exacerbates problems instead of fixing them. Despite their intentions to help, these supervisors find themselves with disgruntled employees and workloads they cannot handle.

Take a look at these seven classic examples that illustrate how well-intentioned supervisors try to save themselves time and/or try to make things easier on others. In each example, there's a better way - one that builds confidence, competence and capacity of the team.

INEFFECTIVE RESPONSE

BETTER RESPONSE

There are other examples. To avoid pitfalls like these, make it your top priority to consider the development needs of each team member. Avoid quick fix, self-sacrificing, short-term solutions. Instead, choose the solutions that include leading people vs. simply managing work.

3. How to Transition from a Contributor Role to a Management Role

To develop the skills needed for leading people and managing work, you'll first need to step away from the work you used to do. Now that you're a supervisor, what you used to do is not what you need to be doing any more. This is a shock to many new managers who are unsure how to demonstrate their value in a new way. Becoming a manager may be the reward for being a superstar contributor, but being effective in management means those superstar contributions are now someone else's to make. You've got other places to focus.

In " The Leadership Pipeline ," author Ram Charan describes three ways that all new supervisors must adjust. Similarly, there are passages associated with each next-level job. The three areas of passages are the skills you develop and exhibit, how you spend your time, and what is valued in your work. Not making appropriate passages will tank your career and derail your team.

Here's an example of a new manager who failed to make these passages. Mary, a new sales manager, focused her efforts on boosting sales. She took over some of the selling work. She told her team members how to sell like she did. She accompanied them on sales calls and often took over to ensure that the sale would close. Here's why Mary failed as a sales manager:

Mary relied on selling skills instead of managing skills.

Rather than developing people to do the work of selling, she stepped in as the super seller. She signaled a lack of confidence in others' abilities, positioning herself as the superior seller. Since Mary is only one person, this approach was not scalable or sustainable. She couldn't be on every sales call. And now she had sellers who didn't believe they could do the job without her.

Mary spent her time selling.

She didn't spend it on coaching sellers to work more confidently and competently in their own jobs. She didn't spend time on setting expectations and managing performance. She didn't communicate with her team because she was too busy doing the work her team should have been doing.

Mary didn't understand that what's valued from a manager is different than what's valued from a frontline contributor.

She kept selling because she did not know other ways to deliver the desired results. What's expected from and valued in supervisors is their ability to get work done through other people.

It's impossible to get work done through other people if you try to do the work for them. Transitioning to a management role means stepping back from the day-to-day work you used to do. You have to let go.

The strongest managers are the ones with the strongest teams. That's not an accident of hiring or a lucky stroke. It's deliberate. Strong teams are the result of building people so they can build the business. To build people, effective managers delegate work and coach from the sidelines.

Step back from the work so you can step into a true management role.

4. Beyond the Basics, What Do the Most Successful Supervisors Do Differently?

The key difference between most supervisors and the most successful supervisors is that they take a people first approach to their work.

Putting people first changes the way you work. It may seem counterintuitive to put people above profits, processes, programs, policies, and daily deliverables. But none of those things are possible without people. Those things all come from confident, competent people who can solve problems and drive results.

To put people first, the most successful supervisors invest time and energy in three key areas.

Coaching for Development

To coach means to extract what's already known and to invite self-discovery. Coaching builds on what people can do and gives them opportunities to decide for themselves how to leverage their own strengths and set goals for their own development. It's not mentoring (which means to tell or show people what you already know).

Employee Engagement

Strong supervisors understand that highly committed employees will apply more discretionary effort to the work they do. These supervisors challenge employees and invest in their success. They maintain high levels of engagement by ennobling individuals and maintaining emotional connections. Employee engagement is linked to every type of business success, from improved retention of top talent, to increased productivity and customer satisfaction levels, and even to double-digit growth in profit margins.

Leadership Development

Since the secret ingredient in supervisor success is the part about leading people (not just managing work), the most successful managers develop themselves as leaders. They learn what it means to be a leader. They practice the behaviors that are proven to inspire others. They allocate time to leading and to growing in their own leadership. What's more, they build other leaders around them.

5. How Can I Become a More Effective Supervisor Long-Term?

You CAN become more effective as a supervisor. It's about making the right commitments and avoiding the ones that will take you off course. This is simply a matter of choice. Your choice. To be an effective supervisor:

1. Stop doing what you used to do as an individual contributor. Your technical or functional expertise is now important for context and teaching, not for your daily work.

2. Master the basics of supervision. Learn how to set expectations, give candid feedback, communicate about change and other matters, manage for performance, and coach for development. Be sure you also learn how to delegate effectively because that's what will liberate your time for the leadership work that's so important to getting long-term outcomes. One tool you can use is this self-paced eLearning course that's designed to build all these skills for supervisors like you.

3. Work on daily measures that increase employee engagement. Simple changes can make a big difference. With modest increases in engagement levels, you can see dramatic changes in performance, output, and results. This daily checklist for new supervisors will help you get started.

4. Make sure you don't have a "blind spot" when it comes to your soft skills or style. You can take this fun, simple quiz to see which of the 12 classic career roadblocks is most likely to interfere with your success as a supervisor. You'll even get a report that details specific steps you can take to work through your own roadblock.

5. Get coaching if you are struggling (before it's too late!). There's no shame in asking for help. In fact, showing your own openness to seek and accept help models an important mindset to your team. Wouldn't you like them to be equally open and receptive to the help you can offer them?

Don't make your transition harder than it has to be. Don't make these mistakes that so many other new supervisors have made. Give yourself a strong start by heeding these tips and taking these actions. Your future self - and your entire team - will thank you!

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What First-Time Supervisors Need to Know to Be Successful

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As a manager, especially a first-time supervisor, your employees' success is your success. To be a top-performing supervisor with a top-performing team, you will need to: Learn and practice basic supervisory skills. Avoid common mistakes and pitfalls that trip up most new supervisors.

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Being a Strong Leader Despite a Bad Boss

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Being a Strong Leader Despite a Bad Boss

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While it might be considered controversial, sometimes people have difficult supervisors or bosses that make it difficult to work and bring all of the great ideas you have to life. This article writes about how to use your own effective leadership style, and how to play your supervisor's beliefs or ineffectiveness to your strength.

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"...At one point, I had an extraordinarily difficult boss, who could literally drive you into tears. And it was easy to convince yourself to allow the fear that naturally arose to, if not paralyze you, certainly greatly restrict what you did, and the risks you were willing to take. And I think coming to grips with that was not an easy one...I decided life was too short to hide in the corner and worry about this guy. And I also decided that I was right, and he wasn't." - John Kotter, leadership author and Harvard Business School professor

Strong leaders don't allow themselves to be victims of a bad boss. Choosing to do that is like choosing to hang wallpaper with one arm tied behind our back. Many managers lose the "boss lottery" and, through no fault of their own, end up reporting to an ineffective executive. We may not be able to choose our boss, but we can choose how to respond to him or her. Good leaders refuse to be a victim of their boss's weaknesses. They don't let a dumb boss make them act dumb. They know that the worst thing they can do is to sabotage their careers just to spite the boss.

Unless the boss is so bad that a bigger career decision (i.e. looking for a new job) is called for, a strong leader tries to make the best of a difficult situation. What can I learn from this boss? Sometimes a bad example - of what not to do and how not to behave - is very instructive! Keep in mind, too, that your boss may not be as entirely bad as you might think. Ask yourself: What are the boss's strengths that I could learn from? Am I allowing my own style or preferences to cloud my opinion and damage our relationship? For example, is he or she cold and analytical while I am more emotional and focused on people - or vice versa? (Typically the people we have the most problems with are those at the opposite end of our own behavioral style.)

Ask yourself, too, whether there are ways you can play to your boss's strengths and preferences. Are there other people reporting to your boss who have a good relationship with him or her? If so, and assuming that these people aren't simply sucking up to the boss, can I emulate some of what they are doing to build a better relationship with the boss? Do I know what work issues are keeping my boss awake at night? Can I link the changes I am trying to lead to those "hot button" issues? Could I more effectively partner with my boss to use his or her higher organizational position to leverage the larger change or leadership agenda I am trying to drive forward? Do I understand the bigger political picture of which my boss is a part? Am I "stage managing" my boss to help him or her look good and bring the additional weight of his or her office to our situations?

Many bad bosses do a poor job of planning, setting priorities, and following through. Sometimes that's because he or she is being pulled in many directions by forces beyond his or her control. Do I know what those are? Other times bosses are just disorganized and undisciplined. But before I throw a Pity Party and complain about that, I need to take a look in the mirror. How's my leadership example? Strong leaders take the initiative to regularly plan, set priorities, and follow through with his or her boss. Does my boss share the same sense of urgency I have about the changes that need to be made in our organization? Have I done enough to increase his or her understanding of the need for change?

Research indicates that effective middle leaders make valuable contributions to change in successful organizations. INSEAD professor Quy Nguyen Huy found that strong middle leaders have good entrepreneurial ideas. They are often better than executives at leveraging informal networks. The best ones stayed attuned to and meet the emotional needs of people throughout the organization during major change. Effective middle leaders also manage the ongoing tension between continuity and change.

There is a difference between middle managers and middle leaders. Both are needed. However, most organizations need stronger leadership to counter-balance years of focus on management systems, processes, and technology. The best middle leaders provide strong leadership up, down, and across the organization. They use influence, persuasion, "tempered radicalism" (change-leaders use their anger or energy to alternatively heat and cool their approaches as they become tougher and stronger), networking, and other skills to lead at the speed of change.

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Being a Strong Leader Despite a Bad Boss - The Clemmer Group

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"...At one point, I had an extraordinarily difficult boss, who could literally drive you into tears. And it was easy to convince yourself to allow the fear that naturally arose to, if not paralyze you, certainly greatly restrict what you did, and the risks you were willing to take.

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A great article outlining the reflection process and decision-making it takes before becoming a higher education administrator.

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Almost any administrative position in higher education today - department chair, dean of admissions, facilities manager - comes with a heavy workload and a lot of stress. Yet the average docent at your local children's museum has received far more training than those of us in campus administration.

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This is a useful, quick 12-question assessment to help ascertain what leadership style is closest to yours. While not perfect, it is a useful self-reflection tool into how a person views leadership and the approaches they take. Mine given during the assessment was a Democratic, Participative Leadership style. A summary is below:

You lean toward a democratic or participative style of leadership. You tend to set the parameters for the work and have the final say on decisions, but you actively involve your team members in the process.

This style can build trust between you and your people, as they'll likely feel engaged and valued. But it's not great in a high-pressure situation that requires a fast turnaround, as it will slow you down. And, if you dislike disagreement or conflict, you might struggle with how people respond to consultation. Read more below.

With this approach, you set goals, guide team discussions, and make the final decision. But you also acknowledge that your people can have valuable insight into a problem or process, so you actively consult them . As a result, you'll likely gain creative input and fresh ideas that you wouldn't have come up with if you were working alone.

You might wonder how to manage differing opinions in the team, once you've invited participation in this way. Your goal is to build a culture in which people can have healthy debates with one another. So:

Set an example by being open and flexible yourself.

Make managing mutual acceptance  a priority, to ensure everyone's participation.

Learn some Conflict Resolution  skills.

Read our article on Managing Emotion in Your Team .

Be aware that processes could become dangerously slow if you involve your team members in every decision. You'll need to judge carefully  whether you need to adopt a more autocratic approach, even if it's only briefly.

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Do you believe that you can adapt your style? Harvard University professor Ron Heifetz and leadership experts David Rooke and William Torbert say that you can. So let's look in more depth at Lewin's leadership styles, their strengths and risks, and how you might become more skillful in using them.

Authoritarian, Autocratic Leadership

This approach is helpful when your team needs to follow a process "to the letter," to manage a significant risk. It's also effective when you need to be hands-on with people who miss deadlines, in departments where conflict is an issue, or in teams that rely on quick decisions being made.

But you need to be aware that relying on control and punishment to maintain standards will likely drive people away. Similarly, if you always demand that your team works at top speed, you can end up exhausting everyone.

Instead, you can show respect for team members by providing the rationale for your decisions. And they will more likely comply with your expectations if you take the trouble to explain Why the Rules Are There.

You can improve your ability to "lead from the front" by Planning for a Crisis, Thinking on Your Feet, and making good decisions under pressure. But be sure to balance these skills with an awareness of their potential negative impact on creativity, ideas gathering, motivation, and trust within the team.

Being too autocratic can also mean that you'll find it hard to stand back from the detail and take a wider, more strategic view.

Democratic, Participative Leadership

With this approach, you set goals, guide team discussions, and make the final decision. But you also acknowledge that your people can have valuable insight into a problem or process, so you actively consult them. As a result, you'll likely gain creative input and fresh ideas that you wouldn't have come up with if you were working alone.

You might wonder how to manage differing opinions in the team, once you've invited participation in this way. Your goal is to build a culture in which people can have healthy debates with one another. So:

Be aware that processes could become dangerously slow if you involve your team members in every decision. You'll need to judge carefully whether you need to adopt a more autocratic approach, even if it's only briefly.

The Delegating, "Laissez Faire" Leader

"Laissez faire" is a French phrase adopted into English that means, "Let (people) do (as they choose)." It describes a policy of leaving situations to run their own course, without interfering.

By adopting this style of leadership, you empower your team to make decisions and to organize its own processes, with little or no guidance. The danger of this approach is that situations can collapse into chaos if your people have low motivation or poor skills. It can work, however, if they are experienced, knowledgeable, confident, creative, and driven, or if deadlines are flexible and processes are simple.

Be in no doubt, though, that as the leader you will still be held accountable for the outcome! So you might want to organize team decision making processes to support your people while you take a "hands off" approach. Just be sure to delegate the right task to the right person, as a mismatch could mean that the whole team fails.

Avoid becoming too remote, even with a high-performing, highly autonomous team. Change can occur at any time in business, so your organization's requirements for your team might shift after your initial brief. If this happens, stay in touch with your people, and communicate clearly and promptly. Remember, you can offer your support without becoming a micromanager!

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What's Your Leadership Style? - Learn About the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Way You Like to Lead

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Leadership styles. Strengths and weaknesses.

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School Culture Recharged: Strategies to Energize Your Staff and Culture & Committing to the Culture: How Leaders Can Create and Sustain Positive Schools

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School Culture Recharged: Strategies to Energize Your Staff and Culture & Committing to the Culture: How Leaders Can Create and Sustain Positive Schools

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Gruenert also wrote a second and third book on the topic of school culture.

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Committing-to-the-Culture.aspx

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Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker Table of Contents About the Authors

About This Book

Why do some schools succeed while others struggle? Why do policies and programs often fail to deliver what they promise? In this follow-up to their insightful School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It, authors Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker offer practical advice and strategies that help you build positive energy to reinvigorate your school's culture and staff.

Written as a standalone guide, School Culture Recharged clarifies the difference between culture and climate and zeroes in on key school improvement efforts, including

Moving from the culture you have to the culture you want;

Using the school's culture to improve teaching, job satisfaction, and morale;

Maximizing the intentions of professional learning communities; and

Developing organizational habits-rules and rituals-that can contribute to positive change.

For education leaders at all levels, this book delivers a compelling message: Understanding and harnessing the transformative power of school culture can propel your school into the kind of place where teachers want to work, administrators can focus on what matters most, and students can thrive.
See the book's table of contents and read excerpts
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Aboutthe Authors

STEVE GRUENERT is a professor at Indiana State University. He has studied organizational culture and climate for more than 20 years and continues to learn and collaborate with other researchers as these concepts evolve. Read more

TODD WHITAKER has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion with his profession. He is a leading presenter in the field of education and has worked as teacher and a principal. He is the author or coauthor of more than 40 books. Read more

professional development

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School Culture Recharged: Strategies to Energize Your Staff and Culture

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Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker Table of Contents About the Authors Why do some schools succeed while others struggle? Why do policies and programs often fail to deliver what they promise?

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This book was recommended to me as a next read during my interview with Dr. Adrien Bennings for my Leadership course

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Last week I took a vacation with my family to enjoy the lovely beaches of south Alabama. I was able to squeeze in a little reading, and here are the fruits of that labor. Today we have book review on Leadership in the Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader by Sandy Shugart, PhD ( Amazon).

The book was interesting, and I read it like I mentioned in my previous post on reading for leaders. Here are a few insights from the book:

Sometimes followers are as important as the leaders. The author talks about the importance of having a clear, strong leader in musical ensembles-an example I've never considered previously. Leaders jumping up to "take the reins" in those situations would hamper performance, not improve it.

I think I wrote about this another time, but it bears repeating: leaders should ask themselves "Am I seeking genuine commitment from my associates, or deep down do I only want compliance?" There is a major difference in the two, and it would do us all well to think about the people we lead. How can we best garner commitment from them without forcing them into a mindset where they must comply blindly?

Bouncing off the previous comment, if you truly want commitment, are you willing to give it yourself? Like so many things (respect, attention, value) when you want something, you have to offer it to others before it can be returned to you.

Do you truly believe in the talent of those you lead? Do you believe they are great at what they do? Because if you spend all of your time thinking, "I could do that job better than them if I had time," then you'll never have a great team. And if they truly are not that great, consider replacing them. It's not worth it to walk around all the time second guessing people.

This quote:

The most dangerous thing about communication is the illusion it occurred.

A note on the price of experience: "We run to the familiar. This is the price of expertise, the loss of the innocence of a beginner for whom nothing is familiar and so all choices are still possible.

And finally, a note on collaboration. We hear the word often and are expected to just "know" what it means. But it doesn't have the same definition in the mind of each person (hint: for some it looks like an opportunity for micromanagement under the veil of collaborative working). The author's comment on it made me stop and consider my own method of defining what collaboration looks like: collaboration enlarges leaders and those being led; micromanagement diminishes both.

So, if you're looking for a book on leadership with some good, thought-provoking takeaways, you might consider checking out Leadership in the Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader by Sandy Shugart, PhD ( Amazon link).

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Leadership in the Crucible of Work (Book Review)

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Last week I took a vacation with my family to enjoy the lovely beaches of south Alabama. I was able to squeeze in a little reading, and here are the fruits of that labor. Today we have book review on Leadership in the Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader by Sandy Shugart, PhD ( Amazon).

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Located at this link is an EdWebinar recording of Steve Gruenert's presentation on school culture.

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Presented by Steve Gruenert, Professor at Indiana State University
WATCH THE EDWEBINAR RECORDING If you attended the live session, you'll be emailed a CE certificate within 24 hours of the edWebinar. If you view the recording and would like a CE certificate, join the Leadership 3.0 community and go to the edWebinar Archives folder to take the CE quiz.
Too often educators and school administrators confuse the concepts of school culture and school climate. The book School Culture Rewired was built around that issue. In the book, our presenter Steve Gruenert and his co-author Todd Whitaker bring the complex ideas around this subject into useful thinking for school leaders.

People are hardwired for belonging to a group, culture provides that need, and more. Once school leaders understand the power of culture they may be able to use it to improve the school and no longer serve as victims of nostalgic illusions. Join this live, interactive event for explanations and activities designed to engage staff in thinking about the culture in their schools.

In this edWebinar, Steve presents the major components for rewiring your own school's culture as well as experiences from the field that school leaders have shared regarding successes and challenges of shaping their cultures. He explores:

What is culture

Where do cultures come from

When is 'it' part of the culture

Subcultures

Culture busters

When to start culture change and who to include

Steve also discusses two books that follow School Culture Rewired to further help school leaders with this challenge. All K-12 stakeholders, including administrators and educators, are invited to watch this recorded session to learn how to rewire their school culture.

About the Presenter
Steve Gruenert is a professor at Indiana State University. He has been a student of school culture for over 20 years. Steve is the author of many books and publications that attempt to reveal what culture is, and what it is not.
Join the Leadership 3.0 community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, view past edWebinars, take a quiz to receive a CE certificate for a past edWebinar, and access free resources. WATCH THE EDWEBINAR RECORDING

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School Culture Rewired: Proven Strategies from an Expert

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Presented by Steve Gruenert, Professor at Indiana State University WATCH THE EDWEBINAR RECORDING If you attended the live session, you'll be emailed a CE certificate within 24 hours of the edWebinar. If you view the recording and would like a CE certificate, join the Leadership 3.0 community and go to the edWebinar Archives folder to take the CE quiz.

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I found this activity in a book I am reading for class, "School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform it" by Steven Gruenert and Todd Whitaker. I am excited reading through the results of this activity in the book and would love to conduct a study like this at my college!

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MLLC 8-09 SCHOOL CULTURE TYPOLOGY CONSENSUS WORKSHEET School:____________________ Date:____ Steve Gruenert & Jerry Valentine, MLLC 2000, Revised 2006
Read the description for reach row. Complete a row at a time by assigning 10 points for each row. Distribute 10 points as appropriate in proportion to how each statement best describes your
school; i.e., if one statement is exactly accurate, assign 10 to that box; assign 5 each to two equal descriptors or maybe a 5, 3, 2 as appropriate, etc. Distribute exactly 10 points per row.
ROW 1
STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT
ROW 2
COLLEGIAL
AWARENESS
many teachers believe
that if students fail it is
the students' fault___
teachers usually do not
discuss issues related to
student achievement___
most teacher discussions
teachers are given time to
teachers are given time to
teachers are given time to discuss
related to student
discuss student achievement
discuss student achievement
student achievement and this
achievement are restricted
but most of this time is spent
and are expected to do that
time is spent critically analyzing
to within departments,
on giving advice and trickduring this time___
each others' practice___
cliques, or close friends___
trading___
many teachers do not care most of the teachers are most teachers are aware of
about the effectiveness of unaware of what other
only what their friends in
other teachers___
teachers are teaching___ the school are teaching___
values shared by many
there is not much
there are small groups of
ROW 3
teachers are contradictory agreement among teachers
teachers that share
SHARED VALUES
with student needs ___ concerning ed. values___
educational values___
the school leadership expects
teachers occasionally observe teachers seek out opportunities to
teachers to know what the
and discuss what other
observe and discuss what other
other teachers are
teachers are teaching___
teachers are teaching___
teaching___
the school leadership
provides teachers a list of
school values___
there is general agreement
among teachers concerning
educational values___
there is strong agreement among
teachers concerning educational
values___
teachers are usually not
there are small groups of
school leaders expect
decisions are easily made
teachers occasionally show an there is an expectation among
interested in participating teachers that attempt to
teachers to participate in all
ROW 4
because many teachers do
interest in the decisions made
teachers to participate in
DECISION MAKING
in decisions that concern control the decisions made
decisions concerning
not care___
concerning students___
decisions concerning students___
students___
concerning students___
students___
ROW 5
RISK-TAKING
ROW 6
TRUST
ROW 7
OPENNESS
ROW 8
PARENT
RELATIONS
ROW 9
LEADERSHIP
many teachers protect most teachers typically do
their teaching style from not experiment with new
"innovation"___
ideas___
innovations are usually
initiated within a single
grade or department___
school leaders mandate
teachers occasionally like to teachers are constantly looking
teachers to try new ideas___ experiment with new ideas___
for new ideas___
teachers are placed in
trust is assumed and therefore there is a strong interdependence
situations where they are
not a critical issue___
among teachers at this school___
required to trust each other__
teachers who are
teachers usually are not teachers usually keep their
teachers are expected to
teachers are occasionally open teachers are very interested in the
committed to students interested in suggestions
opinions and advice
contribute to discussions
to giving or receiving advice
opinions of their colleagues
and to learning are
concerning instruction
concerning instruction
about effective teaching at
concerning instruction___
concerning instruction___
subject to criticism___ made by other teachers___ among their friends___
meetings___
teachers would rather not
most teachers are comfortable
many teachers avoid
there are cliques of teachers
school leaders require
teachers aggressively seek the
have parents' input
when parents want to be
parents whenever
that parents perceive as the teachers to be in contact with
involvement of parents in
regarding instructional
involved with instructional
possible___
better teachers___
parents regularly___
classroom instruction___
practice___
practices___
school leaders encourage
school leaders challenge
school leaders are seen as school leaders are not
school leaders frequently school leaders monitor the
teachers to give each other
ineffective teaching and
obstacles to growth and visible in the school very visit and/or praise the same meetings that are designed
advice without being too
encourage teachers to do the
development___
much___
teachers___
for teacher collaboration___
critical___
same___
teachers talk behind other trust among teachers is not there are teachers who only
teachers' backs___
considered necessary___ trust certain teachers___
school policies seem to
it is difficult to have
communication among
inhibit teachers' abilities
productive dialogue with communication is dominated warm and fuzzy conversations
ROW 10
teachers is not considered
COMMUNICATION
to discuss student
certain groups of
by top-down mandates___
permeate our school___
important at this school___
achievement___
teachers___
ROW 11
SOCIALIZATION
new teachers are
informally indoctrinated
by negative staff
members quickly___
ROW 12
ORGANIZATION
HISTORY
teachers are quick to
share negative stories
about this school___
TOTAL
Column A:_________
teachers at this school
quickly learn that it is
"every man for
himself"___
new teachers are
there are many mandatory new teachers are encouraged
(informally labeled, then)
meetings for new teachers to to share their experiences with
typecast into certain teacher
attend___
other faculty members___
cliques___
"teachers asking for help" some grades, departments,
school leaders have
has traditionally been
or teams consider their
established strong control
considered as a
successes as separate from over much of what goes on at
professional weakness___
the whole school___
school___
Column B:_________
Column C:_________
Column D:_________
this school is known for
celebrating everything___
Column E:_________
any teacher can talk to any
teacher about their teaching
practice___
all teachers assume some
responsibility in helping new
teachers adjust___
at this school there is an
understanding that school
improvement is a continuous
issue___
Column F:_________

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SCHOOL CULTURE TYPOLOGY CONSENSUS WORKSHEET

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MLLC 8-09 SCHOOL CULTURE TYPOLOGY CONSENSUS WORKSHEET School:____________________ Date:____ Steve Gruenert & Jerry Valentine, MLLC 2000, Revised 2006 Read the description for reach row. Complete a row at a time by assigning 10 points for each row.

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Mental Health Challenges Require Urgent Response

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Mental Health Challenges Require Urgent Response

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In Ted Mitchell and Suzanne Ortega's opinion piece, they argue that student mental health issues are not the responsibility of campus counselors alone, and that every institutional employee should be involved in the mental health of their students.

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An 18-year-old freshman, overwhelmed at the start of the college semester, takes his own life. A 20-year-old intercollegiate athlete and academic all-star follows suit. A senior with a limitless future ends her life just weeks from graduation.

It is impossible to fully comprehend such tragedies, to understand why a young person would feel so lost that they would make the decision to end their life. But with suicides now the second leading cause of death for college students, it is incumbent on college leaders, along with our faculty members and students, to understand how we can make a difference and take action.

This fall, hundreds of thousands of students across the country are re-entering campus life. Most of them will be facing general stressors and anxieties that come with being a college or university student.

Some students will thrive under these circumstances, while others will struggle. The latest report from the Healthy Minds Study indicates that four in 10 students have positive mental health and are flourishing on our campuses. Yet suicidal thinking, severe depression and rates of self-injury among college students in the United States more than doubled in less than a decade. According to the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment, the number of students who have had a previous diagnosis or treatment for depression has increased from about 9 percent in 2009 to over 20 percent in 2019.

Mental health and well-being among students is a serious and complex problem and should not be the sole purview of our campuses' counseling centers. Counseling centers play an integral role, of course, but they can't be the only office on campus responsible for students' mental health. Administrators and faculty and staff members all have a role to play in ensuring that students are not only surviving but also thriving.

To their credit, senior college and university leaders recognize these rising mental health challenges. A recent American Council on Education survey found that more than 80 percent of college presidents indicate mental health is more of a priority on their campus than it was three years ago. Nearly two-thirds of deans that the Council of Graduate Students surveyed last year said they strongly agreed or agreed that current graduate students struggle to maintain their mental health more than students five years ago. Both organizations and other higher education associations have been engaging in conversations with their own members to help leaders acquire the tools and resources they need to tackle this issue at the systemic level.

We know there can be barriers to effective support and care, and that different groups of students have distinct needs. The necessary kinds of support and access may differ, depending on whether those students are LGBTQ, students of color, low-income, international or graduate students. But there are ways for campuses to develop the services and infrastructures to identify and assist students who are struggling.
A Comprehensive Approach
Jefferson Community College, located in rural upstate New York, has fully integrated physical and mental health services for their students, many of whom are low income, for example. In addition to physicians and counselors, the Health and Wellness Center also provides comprehensive services that include emergency transportation services, emergency childcare vouchers, an on-campus food pantry, application assistance for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and housing assistance.

The ACE survey asked college presidents what they'd do first if they had unlimited resources to dedicate to student mental health and well-being on campus. More than half wrote that they would hire additional staff members, mostly in the counseling center.

The reality is, however, that most administrators do not have unlimited resources. As Billie Wright Dziech, professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, noted in an op-ed article for Inside Higher Ed recently, there are many obstacles to addressing these challenges, and, at times, they can seem insurmountable.

That is why it is necessary to promote a comprehensive, multifaceted preventive approach. To address mental health outside the counseling center doors, national initiatives such as Mental Health First Aid and upcoming WellStart are aimed at training students and faculty and staff members to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Those programs are one example of how institutions are making mental health the concern of the entire campus community.

We should also note here that the goal should not be to eliminate stress entirely. We know some level of stress is healthy and actually promotes learning. But faculty members can incorporate well-being practices into their course work and model appropriate coping skills. For instance, since sleep is vital for maintaining mental health, instructors could reconsider making assignments due at midnight.

Not only are faculty and staff members integral to addressing this issue, both undergraduate and graduate students are key partners in creating a campus culture that promotes student flourishing. Recent research by the Rand Corporation has shown that student involvement in groups like Active Minds empowers students to be highly effective at shifting campus culture to be supportive of mental health, while also helping to reduce stigma.

Vanderbilt University's Graduate School has developed a Mental Health Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to outline the university's and students' roles in the mental health care process. Vanderbilt commits to providing several services, including assigning an individual care coordinator to each student seeking mental health services from the university. The coordinator will assist the student in understanding, navigating and accessing the resources within the network and will also provide referrals to external providers.

Some institutions may want to consider using their pre-matriculation process and data to assess student mental health before they arrive on campus, pairing students with mentors or providing resilience courses to support those students who may need additional support. Other campuses have created early-alert systems to allow faculty and staff members an opportunity to identify students who need assistance before they are in crisis.

The entire campus community can and should be instrumental in the prevention and early treatment of mental health issues, and can do so independently without federal requirements, permitting the flexibility that is reflective of the diversity of postsecondary institutions.
A Comprehensive Network
Task No. 1 for all members of the campus community? Talk more frankly and openly about student mental health and well-being and create programs and resources that actively promote well-being. Campuswide efforts are imperative to tackling this serious problem.

Another consideration? Include student mental health as part of the institutions' strategic plan. In the ACE survey, more than 83 percent of presidents indicated student well-being was part of their strategic plan, but only 43 percent of those presidents said mental health was specifically mentioned. Actively building mental health into an institution's strategic plan can signal that mental health is a key priority for the campus community.

Kent State University, for example, has integrated mental health and well-being as part of its strategic plan. Kent State of Wellness promotes mental health, preventive care, safety, nutrition, physical activity, alcohol and drug abuse services, and other campus wellness initiatives to provide a comprehensive approach to well-being on campus.

The increased focus on student mental health and well-being is not unique to the U.S. At the recent CGS Strategic Leaders Global Summit, graduate education leaders from around the world agreed on the need for colleges and universities to take action. They discussed coordinating programs and practices across campuses, developing and implementing strategies to identify students in need of support, and establishing clear pathways to available services.

A student in mental health distress may or may not be able to ask for help, and we know that more and more students are facing problems they cannot solve themselves. The goal of campus leaders should be to put in place an effective and innovative campuswide network of friends, mentors, advisers and services that is equipped to teach, reach, support and assist students with their personal and academic success. We can lead the way in what is truly a life-or-death matter.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free, confidential 24-7 service that can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, or those around them, with support, information and local resources. 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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Students' mental health shouldn't be the responsibility of campus counseling centers alone (opinion)

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An 18-year-old freshman, overwhelmed at the start of the college semester, takes his own life. A 20-year-old intercollegiate athlete and academic all-star follows suit. A senior with a limitless future ends her life just weeks from graduation.

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This article was useful in providing a secondary perspective to emotional intelligence when working through the Emotional Intelligence Assessment.

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The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a journal. Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

Hold yourself accountable. If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being calm. The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.

How can you improve your motivation?

Re-examine why you're doing your job. It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way. And make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing. For more on this, see our article on Goal Setting.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.

If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.

How can you improve your empathy?

Respond to feelings. You ask your assistant to work late - again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social Skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: they set an example with their own behavior.

So, how can you build social skills?

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership - Learning How to Be More Aware

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Relating to others is vital in today's workplace. Learn how to build your emotional intelligence (EI) with this article.

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In Module 2, we had to take an Emotional Intelligence, or EI assessment, in order to determine our own strengths and weaknesses of emotional response. This article was particularly interesting. The article identifies two emotionally intelligent public speakers. The first example, Dr. Martin Luther King, used his emotional intelligence to deliver a measured message with the perfect amount of emotional outcry and call for response to the country's African American population. The second example used his emotional intelligence to manipulate his body language to inspire the emotional response he wanted. The second emotionally intelligent speaker was Adolf Hitler.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I pulled this file from CCC's website so I can add an extra touch to many of my assignment files and my resume. I have gotten a lot of great comments just putting this extra touch on assignments!

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My professional photo I took when I began the SDL program.