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I've spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and I recently completed a seven-year study on brave leadership. The goal of Dare to Lead is to share everything we've learned about taking off the armor and showing up as leaders in a skills-based and actionable playbook. Here are a few of the big ideas that emerged from this research:

You can't get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck.

Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.

Self-awareness and self-love matter. Who we are is how we lead.

The greatest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear-it's how we respond to our fear. Our armor-the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we use to protect ourselves when we aren't willing and able to rumble with vulnerability-move us out of alignment with our values, corrode trust with our colleagues and teams, and prevent us from being our most courageous selves.

To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded. We have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.

The skill sets that make up courage are not new; they've been aspirational leadership skills for as long as there have been leaders. We just haven't had the courage for real talk about courage. But it's time. And if you want to call these "soft skills" after you've tried putting them into practice-go for it. I dare you. Until then, find a home for your armor, and I'll see you in the arena.

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Daring leadership requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with our whole hearts.

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2156759X18773581

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2156759X18772988

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

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

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

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

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

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Emotional Intelligence Test - Global Leadership Foundation

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Free emotional intelligence test developed by Global Leadership Foundation

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Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions and;

Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.

In practical terms, this means being aware that emotions can drive our behavior and impact people (positively and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions - both our own and others.

Managing emotions is especially important in situations when we are under pressure. For example, when we are...

Giving and receiving feedback

Meeting tight deadlines

Dealing with challenging relationships

Not having enough resources

Navigating change

Working through setbacks and failure

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What Is Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

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Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions and; Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others. In practical terms, this means being aware that emotions can drive our behavior and impact people (positively and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions - both our own and others.

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Emotional Intelligence - Global Leadership Foundation

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

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership: How to Be More Aware

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership: How to Be More Aware

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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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A transformational leader is one who encourages others to find ways to grow and change. Although you might think of it as a strategy for business leaders, transformational leadership can be useful even beyond the corporate world. In education, this leadership style helps educators, from teachers and administrators to counselors and coaches, motivate each other to improve and innovate within their classrooms. It can even help educators find solutions to conflicts within their educational organizations.

We discuss the many applications and rewards of transformational leadership in education below.

What Is Transformational Leadership?

Traditionally, managers simply ask employees to complete assigned duties and expect compliance. A transformational leader, though, pushes team members to get creative.

Transformational leadership became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, following the publication of James MacGregor Burns's Leadership. The book, according to Sage Publishing, "is still considered the seminal work in the field of leadership studies. [Burns's] theory of transactional and transformational leadership has been the basis of more than 400 doctoral dissertations."

In any field, transformational leadership helps teams improve their performance. Here are some specific advantages of this leadership style in education.

Encourages Differences

Consider the following situation. An elementary school hires three math teachers. Each instructor uses the same lesson plans and curriculum. But each of them is different in an important way: each holds valuable knowledge and a perspective about the world that's unique to them. One was a statistician at a top government agency before deciding they wanted to help students understand math. Another recently worked with underprivileged children in the Peace Corps. And the third was an actor and performer before deciding to become a teacher.

A transformational leader wouldn't ignore these new math teachers' diverse skills and abilities. Instead, a transformational leader would encourage these new instructors to share their unique insights. This leader might encourage the former statistician to find engaging ways to teach statistics. They would motivate the Peace Corps volunteer to share their experiences abroad. They would ask the actor/performer to use their creative skills in the classroom.

Any organization is made up of a diverse group of individuals. Some of these individuals may follow unique religious or cultural customs. Others may have valuable skill sets and professional experiences. An organization that embraces differences enables staff members to use their diversity to the benefit of all. This also includes parents and families, who can benefit from the unique education their child is receiving. This approach lends itself to education as well as to the corporate world.

Fosters Participation in School Decisions

How does transformational leadership affect decision making in schools? Suppose a superintendent is considering adjusting the start time for middle schools. They have heard that starting school 30 minutes later leads to better educational outcomes for middle schoolers, and wants to try this in their district. The superintendent could simply make this decision without any teacher input. Instead, they hold a forum on the topic within the school district so educators, parents, and other family members can share thoughts.

The superintendent is showing transformational leadership by encouraging individuals to participate. Participants appreciate that their concerns are being heard and acknowledged and are willing to contribute their ideas.

Emphasizes Morals, Communication, and Authenticity

Over the front entrance of a high school hangs a banner that reads, "Speak your mind. Be part of the school community." But educators and students at the high school, as well as students' families, don't believe the banner actually reflects their school's real attitude toward speaking out.

How would a transformational leader change this view? The leader could use traditional methods to encourage educators, parents, and students to share their feedback. But these traditional methods might not work in actual practice.

For example, the school could create a suggestion box where students, parents, and educators share their thoughts and concerns. But the suggestions might never be addressed, or even collected, by school leadership. Another traditional method is asking educators directly about their concerns. In this case, educators may mention specific problems-for example, the period between classes is too short to give them enough time to prepare for the next class. But when educators point out the problems they see, leaders often don't follow through with solutions.

Whether suggestions come in the form of anonymous notes in a suggestion box or directly from polling educators about their concerns, administrators at high schools like this one often fail to address the complaints raised.

Suppose the high school used transformational leadership. Transformational leaders would understand the importance of authenticity and practicing what they preach. Encouraging, listening to, and responding to feedback shows the school cares about the concerns of teachers and students. Also, it communicates the message that the school has strong morals, such as trustworthiness and respect, and sticks to them.

Allows Students to Make their Own Decisions and Have Autonomy

Here's another case illustrating transformational leadership in education. In this scenario, two science instructors are teaching physics and engineering basics. Each has assigned the same activity- students build toothpick towers and notice the results. The first instructor gives students an extensive set of guidelines for completing the class project, such as how many toothpicks they can use. Their students follow the guidelines and achieve the expected results. The other teacher encourages students to find new approaches to the project on their own. Their students experiment with alternative materials and find innovative ways to design and build their toothpick towers This is possible simply because they, a transformational leader, allowed students the freedom to make their own decisions.

Teachers can't always give students choices in the classroom or grant them a voice in every aspect of their educational experience. But when they get an opportunity to give students autonomy, it allows both educators and students to thrive.

Transformational Leadership in Education

Educators can choose between two leadership styles: transmissional or transformational. A transmissional instructor focuses on conveying information to students, without inviting their participation. A transformational leader, on the other hand, finds ways for students to share their viewpoints. This open communication then improves student understanding.

Educators who are transformational leaders get positive results, including higher student engagement with their course material and other school pursuits. "Subordinates of transformational leaders have less role conﬂict, higher task performance, and higher satisfaction with a task than subordinates with non-transformational leaders," according to an article published in the Journal of Instructional Psychology.

For example, suppose a history instructor wants to teach a lesson about the 2019 protests in Hong Kong. They encourage their students to participate in a classroom discussion regarding the protestors, how the United States should help or respond, and if actions by the Hong Kong government are justified. The lively discussion sparks student engagement. And their engaged students end up doing better on their assignments and showing a deeper understanding of current events in context.

This type of leadership can also positively impact parents of students. For example, an educator may be concerned that the Hong Kong protests are too divisive of a subject to cover in class. That educator could reach out to parents and families to gauge their thoughts on how the topic should be covered.

A component of transformational leadership is celebrating the unique elements that make individuals different. Suppose an elementary school teacher plans a lesson on the holiday Diwali, which is celebrated by Hindus as well as members of other faiths. Merely explaining the customs of Diwali could lead to low participation or engagement. But if a student in the class celebrates this holiday, a transformational leader will encourage that student to share their personal experiences with the holiday. Again, students are engaged and end up doing better work and understanding more as a result.

Professionalism vs. Direct Leadership

Even though transformational leadership is more dynamic and its counterpart, direct leadership, is more rigid, both are equally appropriate choices for educators. Educators who are dedicated and professional can choose either path if they understand that transformational leadership doesn't mean anything goes and direct leadership doesn't mean an authoritarian stance that kills student enthusiasm.

In fact, in education, transformational leadership might actually promote a more professional atmosphere. This is because direct leadership can stir up conflict in classrooms, with students and teachers alike pushing back against strict rules and formulaic directions. It can also encourage parents and families to voice their opinion about their child's educational process. So by encouraging transformational leadership and embracing differences, educators can achieve greater progress and a more positive school and classroom atmosphere. Despite not using a direct style of leadership, educators can still maintain a high degree of professionalism, leading students by modeling trust and respect.

Discover How American University Inspires Educators

Transformational leadership motivates educators and students alike to share insights and opinions that can change the classroom. Graduates of American University's Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership program understand how to empower others without overpowering them. They know the importance of helping students to make their own decisions. They can attest to how transformational leadership can help schools evolve. Graduates of this program are prepared to land distinguished positions with competitive salaries in the education field, all while making the educational landscape a creative and inspiring place to bring about exciting changes.

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Transformational Leadership in Education | American University

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A transformational leader is one who encourages others to find ways to grow and change. Although you might think of it as a strategy for business leaders, transformational leadership can be useful even beyond the corporate world.

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https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/47/3/181

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View of Integrating a Servant Leadership Framework: Preparing Teaching and School Counseling Students for Collaboration

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Return to Article Details Integrating a Servant Leadership Framework: Preparing Teaching and School Counseling Students for Collaboration

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(Also known as LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory)

As a manager, it's not always right to treat everyone on your team in the same way.

For instance, you probably have team members that you've developed a great relationship with: you trust them, they work hard, and they've never let you down. To you, these team members are invaluable, and you make an extra effort to send challenging projects their way.

It's also likely that you have others on your team who you think less well of. They may not have far-reaching career goals, they're less competent, and you simply don't trust them to the same extent. These team members get everyday responsibilities, and are not considered for promotions or challenging assignments.

However, have you ever stopped to analyze why you don't trust certain team members? Rightly or wrongly, do you let that distrust, or the belief that they're unreliable, influence how you relate to them? Do you, even subconsciously, withhold opportunities that might help them grow and succeed?

This situation is at the heart of the Leader-Member Exchange Theory. This theory, also known as LMX or the Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, explores how leaders and managers develop relationships with team members; and it explains how those relationships can either contribute to growth or hold people back.

What Is the Leader-Member Exchange Theory?

The Leader-Member Exchange Theory first emerged in the 1970s. It focuses on the relationship that develops between managers and members of their teams. The theory states that all relationships between managers and subordinates go through three stages. These are:

Let's look at each stage in greater detail.

Role-Taking

Role-taking occurs when team members first join the group. Managers use this time to assess new members' skills and abilities.

Role-Making

New team members then begin to work on projects and tasks as part of the team. In this stage, managers generally expect that new team members will work hard, be loyal and prove trustworthy as they get used to their new role.

The theory says that, during this stage, managers sort new team members (often subconsciously) into one of two groups.

In-Group: if team members prove themselves loyal, trustworthy and skilled, they're put into the In-Group. This group is made up of the team members that the manager trusts the most. Managers give this group most of their attention, providing challenging and interesting work, and offering opportunities for additional training and advancement. This group also gets more one-to-one time with the manager. Often, people in this group have a similar personality and work-ethic to their manager.

Out-Group: if team members betray the trust of the manager, or prove that they're unmotivated or incompetent, they're put into the Out-Group. This group's work is often restricted and unchallenging. Out-Group members tend to have less access to the manager, and often don't receive opportunities for growth or advancement.

Routinization

During this last phase, routines between team members and their managers are established.

In-Group team members work hard to maintain the good opinion of their managers, by showing trust, respect, empathy, patience, and persistence.

Out-Group members may start to dislike or distrust their managers. Because it's so hard to move out of the Out-Group once the perception has been established, Out-Group members may have to change departments or organizations in order to "start over."

Once team members have been classified, even subconsciously, as In-Group or Out-Group, that classification affects how their managers relate to them from then on, and it can become self-fulfilling.

For instance, In-Group team members are often seen as rising stars and the manager trusts them to work and perform at a high level. This is also the group that the manager talks to most, offering support and advice, and they're given the best opportunities to test their skills and grow. So, of course, they're more likely to develop in their roles.

This also holds true for the Out-Group. The manager spends little, if any, time trying to support and develop this group. They receive few challenging assignments or opportunities for training and advancement. And, because they're never tested, they have little chance to change the manager's opinion.

How to Use the Leader-Member Exchange Theory

You can use the Leader-Member Exchange Theory to gain awareness of how you perceive members of your own team. The following three steps will show you how you can do this by identifying the Out-Group, reestablishing your relationship with its members, and providing means and ways for team members to grow.

1. Identify Your Out-Group

Chances are, you know who's in your Out-Group already. Take a moment to note their names down.

Next, analyze why these people have fallen "out of favor." Did they do something specifically to lose your trust? Do they exhibit bad behavior at work? Are they truly incompetent, or do they have low motivation?

Analyze what they've actually done, and compare the facts with your perceptions. Do these match, or have you (perhaps subconsciously) blown things out of proportion?

2. Reestablish the Relationship

It's important that, as the leader, you make a reasonable effort to reestablish a relationship with Out-Group team members. Research published in the Leadership Quarterly journal in 1995 showed that team members who have high-quality relationships with their leader have higher morale, and are more productive than those who don't. So you, and your organization, can benefit from creating a better relationship.

Keep in mind that this group will likely be wary of any attention or support from you; after all, they may not have had it in the past.

First, meet each team member one-on-one. Take the time to find out if they're happy with their job. What are their career goals? What can you do to make their work more challenging or engaging?

A one-on-one meeting can also help you identify that person's psychological contract with you - that is, the unspoken benefits they expect from you, as their leader. If they're in the Out-Group, they may feel that the psychological contract has been broken.

You also need to discover what truly motivates them. Use McClelland's Human Motivation Theory or Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factor Theory to find out what drives them to succeed.

Once you've had a chance to reconnect with your team members through one-on-one meetings, do what you sensibly can to continue to touch base with them. Practice management by walking around, or drop by their office to see if they need help on projects or tasks. Work on getting to know these team members on a personal level.

3. Provide Training and Development Opportunities

Remember, the biggest advantage to the Leader-Member Exchange Theory is that it alerts you to the preference you might unconsciously - and possibly unfairly - be showing some team members. This allows you to offer all of your team members appropriate opportunities for training, development, and advancement.

Your Out-Group team members may benefit from a mentoring or coaching relationship with you.

You may also want to provide them with low-risk opportunities to test and grow their skills. Use task allocation strategies to make sure you're assigning the right task to the right person. Also, take our Bite-Sized Training session, Setting Goals for Your Team, to learn how to set effective and realistic goals for these team members.

You can also use the Nine-Box Grid for Talent Management to re-assess their potential from time to time, and to give them the right development opportunities.

Warning:

A problem with the Leader-Member Exchange Theory is that it assumes that all team members are equally worthy of trust, prestigious projects and advancement. Although we may like to think that everyone is honest, hard-working and worthy of our esteem, the reality can be different!

Managers need to get the best possible results. This means putting the right people in the right places, and it means developing and reinforcing success. Of necessity, this means that talented people will get more interesting opportunities and may get more attention than less-talented ones.

Use the Leader-Member Exchange Theory to make sure that you're objective in the way that you deal with people, but don't be naïve in the way that you apply it.

Key Points

The Leader-Member Exchange Theory first appeared in the 1970s. It analyzes the relationship between managers and team members.

Team members typically go through three phases in their relationship with their manager: Role-Taking, Role-Making, and Routinization.

Typically, during the Role-Making phase, group members are classified into one of two groups: In-Group, and Out-Group. In-Group team members often receive more attention and support, and more opportunities, from their managers. Out-Group members get very little face-time, and few opportunities.

You can use the Leader-Member Exchange Theory to identify and validate any perceptions that you might have of people on your team.

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The Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Getting the Best From all Team Members

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As a manager, it's not always right to treat everyone on your team in the same way. For instance, you probably have team members that you've developed a great relationship with: you trust them, they work hard, and they've never let you down.

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Perspectives of Youth on High School and SEL

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Perspectives of Youth on High School and SEL

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High school-age students have a sixth sense for when things feel dopey, dumb, sus, cheesy, corny, basic, cringe, or "cheugy." (That last term is au courant according to The New York Times, which may mean it's already out of date.)

Nowhere are the pitfalls greater than in well-intentioned social-emotional learning programs for secondary students. To put it bluntly, if you're doing mood meters, "scared straight" lectures, or feeling sticks with high school students, there's probably a good chance that the students are tuning them out.

The big problem, researchers and practitioners say, is that too much of what constitutes SEL learning feels patronizing to teenagers and fails to address their core psychological needs and motivations: developing an identity and sense of agency, being recognized and respected by peers, finding ways to excel, and committing to specific goals and activities.

Programs that explicitly teach SEL skills generally have a good track record for younger children. But for older students, the paradigm looks different. It's less explicit and requires creating leadership opportunities-formal and informal-where students will have to exercise their relationship and self-regulation muscles.

And it means adults have to do things differently, too, to create a school climate that supports rather than contravenes those efforts.

"When we think about working with younger students in general, often being a great teacher feels very theatrical. And as students get older, it's actually the opposite," said Jeffrey Imwold, the managing director of student support services for KIPP NYC, a chain of charter schools. "Students will know when you're being inauthentic. What matters is how you show up for them and deliver the material-and it can be really hard to show up authentically."
What do we know from research about high school SEL?
There are fewer resources for teachers and school leaders who want to devise strong SEL programs at the high school level, according to several recent reports from the RAND Corporation, a research and analysis firm.

Using a nationally representative sample of teachers, it found that more than half of secondary teachers said they didn't often make connections to SEL through academic work, and just 19 percent used written lesson plans to promote SEL.

There is also less research on SEL at the upper secondary level. In a second report, RAND found just eight programs for high school-age students that had at least some positive research-and not a single one had been evaluated using a random-assignment design, the most rigorous way to assess effectiveness.

Researchers who study social-emotional learning say the focus on doing "programs" is perhaps part of the problem. Too many are retrofits of initiatives aimed at younger children that feel phony to older students, said David Yeager, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Yeager analyzed six dozen studies on anti-bullying programs and found that most of them were beneficial through about 7th grade, but had no overall benefits in high school. Like failed anti-smoking or anti-gang initiatives, too many SEL programs just don't align with what older students need, he concluded.

"Teenagers are really sensitive to social status. Anti-bullying programs don't deal with the teenage need to have status. They just tell you, don't do it," he noted. "That argument doesn't work for 14- or 15-year-olds. Anti-bullying efforts need to give kids alternative routes to status, rather than telling them to not care about status."

Thus, successful SEL approaches are often implicit, getting adolescents to exercise their SEL muscles without necessarily knowing that that's the intent-a little bit like sneaking kale into a fruit smoothie.

Here, Education Week outlines five ideas for thinking about SEL programs in high schools-both what to do and what to avoid. They aren't a recipe and should be tailored to districts' local context and instructional goals. But they could help district and school leaders avoid SEL efforts that feel lame. (Or cheugy.)

1. Integrate high school SEL programs into academic learning.

Research indicates that it's difficult to teach noncognitive skills, including core SEL concepts such as self-management and responsible decision-making outside of content. That's partly because these skills look different depending on the task at hand. (Compare, for example, persistence in writing an essay to persistence at solving a multi-step mathematics problem.)

And when students engage in rich and robust classroom discourse-learning how to disagree constructively and how to persuade others-those are as much SEL opportunities as they are academic ones, noted Eugene Pinkard, the director of practice and leadership at the Aspen Institute's education and society program.

There are some major challenges with this type of high-quality integration. For one, noted Cami Anderson, the founder and CEO of ThirdWay Solutions, a consulting firm, even rich, well-regarded academic curricula often lack the scaffolds and supports that help teachers and students engage with the social-emotional implications of each lesson. (Anderson, a former Newark, N.J., superintendent and administrator in the New York City district, worked on SEL and curriculum in both positions.)

"It needs to be rigorous and content-rich, but also provide opportunities for meaning-making around SEL skills," she said. Take, for example, a lesson that focuses on Ruby Bridges, who helped desegregate New Orleans schools in 1960. Great content will have students reading Bridges' reflections, as well as those of students and parents who opposed integration, and situate the historical moment within the larger civil rights struggle.

But teachers can also use the lesson to prompt dialogue about what kinds of social and emotional strengths Bridges drew on.

"As a facilitator, there's a lot to unpack there around moral decisionmaking. When do you decide to steer into conflict? What are the personal consequences of that decision? Where does that land you in terms of emotion? How do you take care of yourself personally? Where is the line around empathy?" Anderson suggested. "To me, that is the work. ... But it would require some really high-quality, adult-facing training" for teachers.

2. Aim for coherence across the system.

Many school systems now use regular climate surveys and check-ins to get a picture of overall student health. But coherence goes beyond that, the researchers and practitioners said, and it is harder to achieve in high schools if one teacher, for example, gives multiple revision opportunities for work and another doesn't, or if departments use divergent grading approaches.

"Part of the problem with high school SEL is that it's so compartmentalized. It's not obvious how to use and transfer those insights," said Yeager. "If your health teacher says 'Here's how to succeed,' your health teacher isn't the one handing out your math grades."

To create common, coherent experiences for students, some districts are investing in specially designed academic lessons that also purposefully build SEL skills. Beginning in 2015-16, the District of Columbia Public Schools began to create an academically rich set of lessons, called Cornerstones, nested within its English/language arts and social studies curricula.

Each cornerstone is anchored in complex text, includes a field trip or partnership with community groups to make the work feel authentic, and generally ends with a performance or set of outcomes in which students share their work with each other and with the community. In 10th grade, for example, D.C. students experience "Life I Choose," a cornerstone lesson focused on narrative poetry and what it means to be successful in life.

Situated within a larger ELA unit about narrative, "Life I Choose" includes learning about poetry slams; as it progresses, also students will write their own poems and revise them using a framework. They're helped by a teaching artist who partners with the district and the cornerstone culminates in an opportunity for students to present their own slam poetry in a legit performance space.

Such lessons flip the paradigm of how SEL works, said Karen Cole, the district's deputy chief of academic and creative empowerment.

"In most SEL, we present it as something you should do with students to prepare them to be successful in academics," she said. "But the idea of Cornerstones is that when you acquire academics, it develops you as a person in a way nothing else does."

3. Focus on how adults can foster a good school climate.

It's tempting to think that SEL is something that teachers "do" to students. But much actually hinges on getting educators to make changes to the overarching school climate. Schools should be nurturing places where systems and structures support SEL work, teachers are trained on learning development, and thoughtful SEL experiences are devised for students, Pinkard said.

"Where I've landed is to give kids beneficial messages and interventions that aren't too long, and therefore not insulting about telling kids what to think or how to think," added Yeager. "Work on the adults in the school to change the climate to be more student-centric."

Some aspects of creating school climate can be harder to tackle than others. Schools' dress codes and conduct manuals, for instance, can convey a quiet authoritarianism that undercuts some of the values schools purport to care about, like fostering citizenship and independence.

Similarly, said Yeager, it's all well and good to say that you support students to have a growth mindset to, for example, overcome shyness or loneliness.

"But if you're in the kind of school where there are few opportunities for you to feel like a worthwhile person-there's no leadership opportunities, no clubs, if there are no affordances for real contributions to community or peer group-it's hard for you to believe that things can improve for the better," he noted.

The good part, the SEL leaders say, is that teachers will get on board with these efforts if school leaders convince them it will support the outcomes they care about.

"When you have an SEL classroom, students want to be there and it's less work for you; and more importantly, it creates the kind of student behavior you want, and turns the classroom into the kind of classroom you want it to be," Imwold said.

One way to show high schoolers you're serious about creating a positive climate? You don't necessarily have to create your SEL initiative from scratch, Anderson said, but you do need to let the end users-students-weigh in on what they want and need from the efforts.

4. Don't neglect extracurriculars and other out-of-classroom opportunities to let students lead.

From devising cheerleading routines, building the sets for the school musical, athletic scrimmages, and the studio arts, there are tons of opportunities to build in SEL learning competencies beyond the classroom.

"We find [students] develop so many of these competencies through the extracurriculars and they frequently talk about their experiences in extracurricular opportunities," said Imwold of KIPP NYC. "That's where I developed social awareness or self awareness; I realized I was not a football player, and I found my people through theater, and that became the defining experience of my time in high school."

Similarly, said Pinkard of Aspen, "don't make the mistake of assuming all of this learning is in the classroom. The SEL experiences that we're describing require students to be in places to engage each other outside the classroom, and with adults and community members outside the classroom.

"If you want your students to give a speech about something that's important in their community, you can't expect that to just come out of their head or simply be composed in the classroom," he said.

The District of Columbia's "Our City" cornerstone looks at the city's neighborhoods and how their residents can advocate for better services through their advisory neighborhood councils, Washington's most local level of government. It concludes with students interacting with the commissioners at a municipal building.

And the Oakland, Calif., district uses capstone projects that require students to interview community members and researchers or conduct surveys to explore a social problem.

5. Consider peer mentoring programs.

Saul Vargas, a 2020 graduate of KIPP NYC high school, has a unique insight on what works for high school-age students: As a peer leader, he and a partner regularly met with underclassmen in groups of about 12 students about how to make the big transition to high school.

"We talked a lot about organization, about making friends and reaching out to teachers-just learning how to manage yourself and be independent, because you're in transition from a place in middle school where your hand is being held," he said in an interview. "In high school, you either do the work or you don't."

Peer mentoring of this sort is an approach that checks off a few SEL boxes at once: It gives one group of students an opportunity to lead, while helping younger students exercise their SEL skills in an authentic way.

The charter school's program was sometimes more prescriptive than Vargas would have liked-he wasn't a big fan of icebreakers and preferred sharing his own challenges and solutions with students. But he found the experience ultimately powerful-especially when he found success mentoring students who were struggling.

Vargas' proudest moment was speaking with a student who was struggling with motivation and filing assignments. Vargas helped her see the work as an investment in herself, rather than something to please adults.

"One of the problems with her specifically was that she felt that teachers sort of undervalued her and didn't think she was good enough to perform and talking to her about that and convincing her that you don't need external validation to do well," said Vargas, now entering his sophomore year at Princeton University. "In the next two to three quarters, her grades improved. She started getting 80s and 90s ... and it felt like a successful moment."

Samara Fraser-Wellington, now a junior at the school, also sat on its restorative-justice team, where she helped resolve interpersonal issues among students.

"Sometimes you have to sit and listen to things you don't necessarily agree with yourself but you have to still figure out how to help them," she said. "So I think that was the hardest part when I first started. I think the most rewarding part is knowing what they get out of it, knowing I was able to help them, and hearing people say thank you. That makes me smile."

The programs do take some work to set up. Students will need some training and guidelines: KIPP used an extra class period and a summer retreat to help its peer leaders learn how to model a lesson and host a dialogue.

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Why High School SEL Programs Feel 'Lame'-and How to Fix Them

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Here's how to devise high school SEL lessons that don't feel preachy and align with adolescents' cognitive and psychological development.

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What this book is about?
This is a book that has pioneered leadership training across the world. It is a set of 5 practices that leaders are suggested to embrace and about 10 behaviors in each practice to adapt. According to the writers if anyone can internalize these 50 or so behaviors across these 5 practices then he can become a successful and respected leader.

The charm of of this book is that the writers took their time by interviewing and investigating 1000+ leaders of various fields around...more

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What this book is about?This is a book that has pioneered leadership training across the world. It is a set of 5 practices that leaders are suggested to embrace and about 10 behaviors in each practice to adapt.

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How Remarkable Women Lead book. Read 93 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The Remarkable discoveries about what drives and sustains...

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Self-help books can be a tough sell. Crucial Conversations was given to everyone where I work as required reading. When given required self-help reading you may immediately make assumptions:

* This is going to be cheesy
* I don't have any issues, so I won't need this
* This book will just waste my time
* Etc., etc., etc.

However, I can confidently say that Crucial Conversations will help direct the reader toward successful and meaningful conversations at both work and in your daily life.
Do you freque...more

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Self-help books can be a tough sell. Crucial Conversations was given to everyone where I work as required reading. When given required self-help reading you may immediately make assumptions: * This is going to be cheesy* I don't have any issues, so I won't need this* This book will just waste my time* Etc., etc., etc.

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Creating Your Personal Leadership Philosophy

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Creating Your Personal Leadership Philosophy

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Creating Your Personal Leadership Philosophy

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Developing an Effective Command Philosophy

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Developing an Effective Command Philosophy

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Developing an Effective Command Philosophy

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Develoing an Effectivve Command Philosophy

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Why You Should Have a Written Leadership Philosophy

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Why You Should Have a Written Leadership Philosophy

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Why You Should Have a Written Leadership Philosophy

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We use this inventory in a similar way to how we talk about values. Each person fills it out independently, then meets one-on-one to discuss where experiences align and where they differ. It's a relational process that, when practiced well and within a safe container, transforms relationships. Here are the seven elements of the inventory.

Boundaries
Setting boundaries is making clear what's okay and what's not okay, and why

Reliability
You do what you say you'll do. At work, this means staying aware of your competencies and limitations so you don't overpromise and are able to deliver on commitments and balance competing priorities.

Accountability
You own your mistakes, apologize, and make amends.

Vault
You don't share information or experiences that are not yours to share. I need to know that my confidences are kept, and that you're not sharing with me any information about other people that should be confidential.

Integrity
Choosing courage over comfort; choosing what's right over what's fun, fast, or easy; and practicing your values, not just professing them.

Nonjudgment
I can ask for what I need, and you can ask for what you need. We can talk about how we feel without judgment.

Generosity
Extending the most generous interpretation to the intentions, words, and actions of others.

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A guide that walks us through a conversation on Trust from a place of curiosity, learning, and ultimately trust-building.

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The Five Practices and 10 Commitments of Exemplary Leadership

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The Five Practices and 10 Commitments of Exemplary Leadership

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"If you think you are the leader but still no one is following you, then it's just a walk." -- John Maxwell

What do better leaders do consistently, that other leaders don't?

In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner write about the 5 practices and 10 commitments for effective leadership.

Their work has stood the test of time.

While the context has changed over the years, the content of leadership hasn't.

Exemplary Leadership in Action

The 5 practices and 10 commitments help anybody become a more effective leadership by practicing real leadership skills.
"The Leadership Challenge is about how leaders mobilize others to want to get extraordinary things done in organizations. It's about the practices leaders use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. It's about leadership that creates the climate in which people turn challenging opportunities into remarkable success."
The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

Kousez and Posner identify the five practices:

The Ten Commitments of Exemplary Leadership

Kousez and Posner identify the 10 commitments:

1. Find your voice by clarifying you personal values.

2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

3. Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling activities.

4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

5. Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow and improve.

6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.

7. Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.

8. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.

9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.

10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.

The 5 Leadership Practices and 10 Leadership Commitments

Here are the commitments mapped to the practices:

Model the Way
1. Find your voice by clarifying you personal values.
2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

Inspire a Shared Vision
3. Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling activities.
4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

5. Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow and improve.
6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.

7. Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.
8. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.

9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.
10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.

Key Takeaways

Here are my variation of the themes and key takeaways:

Lead by example. Set an example for others to follow. Practice what you preach. You reap what you sow. What you do comes back to you. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Take a stand. Stand for something. Find your unique voice.

Create an inclusive picture. In terms, these would be avoiding the "scarcity mentality". Have an . At work I see turf wars when there's a scarcity mentality. The solution is to frame out a bigger space where everybody gets to play.

Practice continuous improvement. The Japanese term is . Focus on small, incremental improvements. Build momentum from small wins. Start with something small. Success snowballs.

Lift others up. In Covey terms, this would be help others find their unique voice. Find the good in others. Leverage the unique values that others bring to the table.

Live with passion. Link passion with results. Celebrate the small wins. No good deed goes unrewarded. What goes around, comes around. Stop and smell the roses.

Get the Book

You can get The Leadership Challenge on Amazon:

The Leadership Challenge, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

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The 5 Practices and 10 Commitments of Exemplary Leadership

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"If you think you are the leader but still no one is following you, then it's just a walk." -- John Maxwell What do better leaders do consistently, that other leaders don't? In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner write about the 5 practices and 10 commitments for effective leadership.

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Emerging Leadership Roles for School Counselors in High-Poverty Schools

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Emerging Leadership Roles for School Counselors in High-Poverty Schools