*Meenu Chhikara
Assistant Professor(M.Com., M.B.A., M.Ed., NET (Commerce &
Education)
)
ABSTRACT
Leadership roles
are all around us, not just in a work environment. They can be applied to any
situation where you are required to take the lead, professionally, socially and
at home in family settings. Ideally, leaders become leaders because they have
credibility, and because people want to follow them. The ability to lead
effectively is based on a number of key skills. These skills are highly sought
by teachers as they involve dealing with students in such a way as to motivate,
enthusias and build respect. This article represents five advanced leadership
qualities as emotional intelligence is the measure of an individual’s abilities
to recognize and manage their emotions, and the emotions of other people, both
individually and in groups. Where Reflective practice is, in its simplest
form, thinking about or reflecting on what you do. Becoming charismatic
involves paying careful attention to how you interact with other people; the
traits that make up charisma are positive and appealing to others. Assertiveness means
standing up for your personal rights - expressing thoughts, feelings and
beliefs in direct, honest and appropriate ways and empathy is the ability to see the world as another person, to share and
understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and/or emotional state.
Key Words: - Emotional Intelligence, Reflective Practice,
Charismatic, Assertiveness
, Empathy
Professionals
in an administrative role may not give much thought to leadership and building
leadership skills but doing so can skyrocket your career potential and your
professional success. Covey identifies four levels of principle-centred
leadership, each with a central principle. These are:
- Personal, where the central
principle is trustworthiness;
- Interpersonal, where the central
principle is trust;
- Managerial, where the central
principle is empowerment; and
- Organisational, where the central
principle is alignment.
ADVANCED TRAITS OF TEACHERS TO LEAD PUPILS:- At present scenario there are some advanced traits and qualities which are necessary for a teacher to lead pupils so that they can compete this globalised arena. These are:-
1. Emotional Intelligence:-
Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ – Emotional Quotient) is a more modern
concept and was only fully developed in the mid-1990s. Emotional Intelligence
is the measure of an individual’s abilities to recognise and manage their
emotions, and the emotions of other people, both individually and in
groups.
Emotional
intelligence is the one part of the human psyche that we can develop and
improve by learning and practicing new skills. Emotional Intelligence is split
between our personal and interpersonal skills.
(1) Personal Skills:- It includes-
(a) Self-awareness:
is the skill of being aware of and understanding your emotions as they occur
and as they evolve. It is wrong to think of emotions as either positive
or negative but rather as appropriate or inappropriate. Anger is usually
associated with being a negative emotion, for example. However, anger can
be a completely reasonable and appropriate emotion in certain circumstances –
emotional intelligence allows us to recognise our anger and understand why this
emotion has occurred.
(b) Self-management: by being aware
of your own emotions you can learn to manage them appropriately and
proportionately. Self-management skills relate to the emotions you are
feeling at any given time or in any given circumstance and how well you manage
them. Fundamental to self-management is self-control.
(2) Interpersonal Skills :- Interpersonal skills are the skills we use to interact with other people,
they enable us to communicate appropriately and build stronger, more meaningful
relationships. Emotional intelligence includes how we understand others
and their emotions and our actions and behaviours towards them.
(a)
Social Awareness: is the skill-set used to understand the
emotions and feelings of other people both individually and in group situations.
Comprehension and acceptance of the emotions of others allows us to empathise,
seeing things from their point of view and therefore developing a stronger bond
and understanding.
(b) Rapport Building
rapport.
Rapport enhances the effectiveness of communication and is fundamental to
building meaningful and lasting relationships.
2. Reflective Practice:- Reflective practice is, in its
simplest form, thinking about or reflecting on what you do. It is closely
linked to the concept of learning from experience, in that you think about what
you did, and what happened, and decide from that what you would do differently
next time. What can be done to help develop the critical, constructive and
creative thinking that is necessary for reflective practice? Neil Thompson, in his book People Skills, suggests that there
are six steps:
- Read - around the topics you are
learning about or want to learn about and develop
- Ask - others about the way they do
things and why
- Watch - what is going on around you
- Feel - pay attention to your
emotions, what prompts them, and how you deal with negative ones
- Talk - share your views and
experiences with others in your organisation
- Think - learn to value time spent
thinking about your work
3. Charismatic Personality:- Becoming charismatic involves paying
careful attention to how you interact with other people; the traits that make
up charisma are positive and appealing to others. The charismatic person
uses their skills to get people on their side, perhaps from a professional,
ideological or social point of view. For these reasons charisma is often linked
to leadership skills - being charismatic can be an important trait of a
successful leader.
v Being Charismatic Means:
·
Being Confident:-Charismatic people are confident people – or at least have the ability
to appear confident. Being confident to communicate in a variety of
situations, one-to-one, in groups and in front of audiences is a skill that
many people struggle with. A charismatic person can not only appear
confident in communication but they can also help others feel confidence too,
thus aiding and enhancing the communication process.
·
.Showing
Optimism:- As with confidence charismatic people are, or have the
ability to appear, optimistic. This means they try to see the best
in other people, situations and events. Charismatic people have the
capability to encourage others to see things as they do, thus they can enthuse
and enable others to feel more optimistic.
·
Being an
Emotional Player:- Although charismatic people are very good at
showing their true emotions when this works to their best advantage, they are
usually also good at masking or acting in a way that makes others believe what
they see. The analogy of a swan is useful in this example, calm and
serene on the surface but with a lot of hidden activity out of view to the
casual observer.
·
Being
Interesting and Interested:- Charismatic people are both interesting –
others want to listen to what they have to say, and interested – they want to
listen to what others have to say. Charismatic people are often good
storytellers, with an engaging manner when speaking and explaining. They
are able to communicate their message clearly and concisely, being serious and
injecting humour where appropriate to keep their audience attentive and focused.
When they are in one-on-one or small group situations, charismatic people will
use open, relaxed, body language including lots of eye contact.
·
Demonstrating
Intelligence:- As charismatic people want to be able to communicate
effectively with others they are usually good at initiating
conversations. They tend to be intelligent, with an up-to-date knowledge
on current affairs and rounded general knowledge. This makes small talk,
the sometimes awkward beginnings of conversations, easier.
4. Assertiveness:- The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines assertiveness as:
“Forthright, positive, insistence on the
recognition of one's rights”
In other words, Assertiveness
means standing up for your personal rights - expressing thoughts, feelings and
beliefs in direct, honest and appropriate ways. It is important to note
also that by being assertive we should always respect the thoughts,
feelings and
beliefs of other people. Assertiveness concerns being able to express
feelings, wishes, wants and desires appropriately and is an important personal
and interpersonal skill. In all your interactions with other people,
whether at home or at work, with employers, students or colleagues,
assertiveness can help you to express yourself in a clear, open and reasonable
way, without undermining the rights of yourself or others.
Assertiveness
enables an individual to act in their own best interests, to stand up for
themselves without undue anxiety, to express honest feelings comfortably and to
express personal rights without denying the rights of others. Assertive
behaviour includes:
- Being open in expressing wishes, thoughts and
feelings and encouraging others to do likewise.
- Listening to the views of others and responding
appropriately, whether in agreement with those views or not.
- Accepting responsibilities and being able to delegate
to others. Regularly expressing appreciation of others for what they have
done or are doing.
- Being able to admit to mistakes and apologise.
- Maintaining self-control.
- Behaving as an equal to others.
5. EMPATHY:- Empathy is the ability to see the world as another person, to share and understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and/or emotional state.'
Empathy is a selfless act, it enables us to learn more about
people and relationships with people - it is a desirable skill beneficial to
ourselves, others and society. Phrases such as ‘being in your
shoes’ and ‘soul mates’ imply empathy - empathy has even been likened to a
spiritual or religious state of connection with another person or group of
people. Being empathetic requires two basic components - effective
communication and a strong imagination; shared experiences can
also help you to empathies.
·
Effective
Communication:-Understanding is the desired outcome or goal in any
communication process. Basic understanding is easily achieved but a deeper
·
understanding is the result of effective
communication. This involves overcoming the various barriers to
communication, being able to express yourself effectively verbally and non-verbally,
by active listening, clarification and other interpersonal skills.
·
Strong
Imagination:-In addition to effective communication good powers of
imagination are required to empathise with others. Everybody sees the world
differently, based on their experiences, their up-bringing, culture, religion,
opinions and beliefs. In order to empathise with another person you need
to see the world from their perspective and therefore need to use some
imagination as to what their perspective is based on, how they see the world
and why they see it differently from you. Many people find it easier to
empathise with people who are closer to them and have more shared experiences
and views.
Ethical leadership
requires navigation by ‘moral compass’. It requires you to abandon the
idea that ‘the end justifies the means’, and instead embrace the idea that
maybe it’s the other way round. Not all your decisions will necessarily be
popular, but an ethical leader, whose life and leadership is centered on
principles, will find that they have true power, in that they and their
decisions are trusted by those who follow them.
REFERENCES
1.
Khan M.S. (1983) Teacher Education in India and abroad, New Delhi , Ashish Publishing House.
2.
Shankar V. (1984) Education of Indian Teachers, New Delhi Sterling
Publishers.
3.
Patil V. (1996) ‗Teacher‘s Handbook‘ Pune, MSCERT.
4.
Kadam – Chavan (2006) Primary Education : Problems and
measures Latur, Sanskar Prakashan.
5.
Khan M.S. (1983), ‗Teacher Education in India & abroad‘, New Delhi , Himalaya Publishing House.
6.
Kohli V.K. (1992), ‗Teacher Education in India,‘ Ambala
(India), Vivek Publishers.
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Hill,Kogakusha Ltd.Tokyo,1973.
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