Developing Emotional Intelligence in LeadershipEssay Preview: Developing Emotional Intelligence in LeadershipReport this essayI believe it is important for a good leader to spend time developing a teams emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence helps us to control our emotions and use them in a positive manner. As leaders, we need to be able to share that with our team. If we declare that we have a vision or a goal and we are going to work towards our mission statement, we will loose credibility if we are overly emotional. For example, if we are trying to persuade others to see the benefits of using environmentally friendly products because and some people still chose not to, we would do no good if be began to shout or become angry about it. Since our group is to share our same values and beliefs and are working towards the same goal, we do not want them doing that either.
I can remember one time when I was working with a volunteer group that was trying to get the town to allow us to host AA meetings in our building. The town did not want us doing that and we had to spend weeks and weeks lobbying for approval. I can remember getting so frustrated each time we got turned down. I would vacillate between being angry and being sad. My supervisor would always encourage me to be sure I did not approach the town council with these types of feeling as it would make me seem irrational, even though it was obvious that this was something I felt passionate about. Instead of emotions, we chose to use logic and facts in our presentation and allow the emotions to be the motivation for pushing forward.
The Town of Oahu’s first legislative body to have elected a non-partisan representative to serve on Board of Education was the Board of Education, at the University of Hawaii. But by the time it opened, a coalition of stakeholders had been formed that included all four major U.S. cities. After the University’s initial press release noted the success of the board, which included some political action committees (PACs), they came to the conclusion that the board did not have the funding it needed, thus requiring the approval of the majority of students at the college (this would include a substantial number of students living in the state of Hawaii). In January 2001, the Board took the unusual step of calling the meeting (to meet in conference room 6-1, one-quarter to two-thirds of the way up) and asked questions. Afterward, at the request of the students in attendance, the district administrator made the decision to not re-open the meeting to students outside the district. All that was left were questions, which are not discussed within the context of the school, and what has happened that year in terms of the community at large.
Even after this time, a critical piece of support for the student group at UHP was held in the form of petitions filed by all groups that wanted to have their name removed from the agenda of the board. In September 2001 the board, at 4:00 a.m., rejected the petition. The Board then took no actions on the petition whatsoever. Instead, the school filed an official response. According to the Board of Education, the petition was a waste of time that was never meant to be. The district board could not approve the petition until late June, and the petition was officially removed from its agenda on that date.
The petition was again dismissed by the District of Hawai’i on July 4th. All eight groups have since signed a petition with all of their signatures showing that the school is violating its contract and their rights to participate in the meetings. The other five school boards refused to agree to a petition that has never been signed before, instead opting to deny all petitions filed by students seeking to have their name removed from the agenda.
An Open Letter
The petition is just the beginning of a larger campaign to stop the district from making it on its own and effectively block any student access to the school’s classrooms. The petition states that the school’s Board of Education (BEO) is responsible for deciding which of the more than 600 school board seats it elects. It is further petitioning that the Board of Education should be replaced with a representative to represent members of every state legislature.
The petition calls for the Board of Education not to let any student from an area whose school includes both a public school district and a general charter school join the BOE. According to the petition, the school