0.1 Nicely, k., womack, j., & Wright, l. (july 2009). emotional  (Page 2/5)

Definitions of key terms

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence has been defined in the literature as the awareness of and ability to manage one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others (Salovey&Mayer, 2000). Salovey and Mayer described emotional intelligence as a motivational force and a means of effectively managing human interactions. Goleman (1995) added that emotional intelligence includes the ability to analyze and understand relationships, take someone else’s perspective, resolve conflicts, and manage one’s own anger.

Effective leadership

Many books and articles have been written on the topic of effective leadership . A definition of effective leadership varies among experts. Questionnaires, such as the Leadership Practices Inventory created by Kouzes and Posner (1995), have been used to measure leadership effectiveness. Kouzes and Pousner believe that effective leaders engage in five practices; model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart (1995). These practices and other leadership concepts provide a means of shaping a model leader. Understanding that effective leaders will also hold individual leadership traits, defining the term in a general sense is a challenge. For the purpose of our chapter, we will define effective leadership as “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations” (Kouzes&Posner, 1995, p. 30).

Collaboration

In practice, collaboration is sometimes mistaken for cooperation. Though the word “cooperation” is a common synonym found as a thesaurus entry, the idea of collaboration goes beyond mere cordial association to include the concept of teamwork and partnership; collaboration involves individuals whose work is interconnected in meaningful ways and collectively focused on common goals. Collaboration results in a change of behavior and a product that is superior to what individuals could have achieved on their own (Corrigan, 2000). Two pre-conditions for authentic collaboration among team members are: (1) members are intellectually and emotionally engaged in the process, and (2) members are willing to struggle with opposing ideas and work through conflict rather than avoid it.

Professional leadership communities

Collaboration is described in the literature as a key feature of professional learning communities , (Hipp, Huffman, Pankake,&Olivier, 2008; Levine&Marcus, 2007). Hord (1997) defines a professional learning community in a school as “the professional staff learning together to direct their effort toward improved student learning,” (p. 3). Five common features of this type of structure are shared values, focus on student learning, collaboration, deprivatized practice, and reflective dialogue (Louis&Marks, 1998). In an era of accountability for increased student achievement, the tasks of a professional learning community within schools are clear: identify what students should know, determine how learning will be measured, and respond to students who do not demonstrate learning (Moore, 2009b).