Leadership is a daily augmented process which we will never outgrow. Peter Block is quoted as saying, “We get the leaders we create.” This could be in our workplace, community, school or even our home. Developing leadership qualities from an early age is essential as it lays a strong foundation in their character development. Leadership does not only infuse confidence but it also helps children to work collaboratively in teams and have good social interaction skills. An important question for all educators and school managements is how can they teach and instill children with necessary skills to take on leadership a role now and in the future? There is an emerging research which demonstrates that students perform better academically, socially, and emotionally when they are meaningfully engaged and are considered as contributing members of a school with a positive, caring, equitable school climate. As adults, we often think we are the architects of a school's culture, but we underestimate the influence and impact students have on their own school community, particularly when they are trusted and involved in school climate improvement efforts. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is one such process which has five important skills as its pillars, which when embedded into the curriculum result in the Improved Leadership Skills of students: 1. Communication Skills- focuses on cooperation, problem-solving and listening skills. In addition, students learn how to deal with conflict situations. 2. Social Awareness Skills- develops empathy and respect to consider other peoples’ opinions. 3. Emotional Management Skills- stress management & self motivation to achieve their goals. 4. Self-Awareness Skills- throughout the process of collaborating, students become more informed about their strengths, weakness and easily express their feelings. 5. Decision-Making Skills- enhance decision machining abilities within the constraints of resources and situations. The question is how exactly can you implement Social-Emotional Learning in the classroom in a way that supports leadership skills? As a School Management & an Educator you come across several different challenges you’ll need to overcome, such as: 1. Transforming from “me” to “we”. 2. Designing projects collectively in which teams develop a single final product. 3. Preventing conflicts from ruining the teams. When Social-Emotional Learning is implemented into actual classroom situation, students are encouraged to consider the team’s success as their own. Without a doubt there will be conflicts in the teams. When individual students are asked to provide their opinions, you can expect the differences. The overall objective of implementing leadership program in school is to help students overcome these differences and come to a mutual consensus. That’s what good leadership is all about and that should be the outcome which should be kept in mind while implementing a leadership program. The aim of implementing the Social-Emotional Learning process in the classroom is to prepare students to develop soft skills that turn them into successful & sensitive members of society. Once the students transit from the protected school environment to the real world, they are expected to display ‘Intelligent Leadership’, which is nothing but to be self –aware, whereby they display, recognize and control their own emotions. Firstly, the students become aware of how their actions affect the people around them. Secondly, they start taking ownership of the task, hence being accountable for the same and not engaging in any blame-game. Thirdly, instilling self-motivation as an emotional skill that shall push the students to be successful leaders. Fourthly, consciously praising others and resolving any situations of conflict within the team through proper communication & collaboration, which will finally help in shaping them into effective and intelligent leaders for the future. It is a fact that leaders amongst students later become leaders at a workplace more often than those who have no prior leadership experience. This is because it is easier for them to take responsibility for other people as they already know how to make a team work. Hence as a conclusion, Education is meant to develop students’ individual abilities & help them make their way into the world. Freedom allows the creativity, curiosity & an appetite for increased learning. A well planned & effectively executed Leadership Program as per the school culture, geographical location, and demographic sensitive sets the transformative process rolling. This not only creates the inspiring ideas about children’s & teachers’ real capabilities but also results in positive change in and outside the school. As a Co-founder of VInspire Training & Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd, I strongly believe in ‘Doing the right thing when no one is watching”. If we practice this simple thought diligently & consciously, we will be able to create dynamic leaders of tomorrow, who are also followers.
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