TEACHING LEADERSHIP

Teachers who effectively develop the leadership capacities of young people have three essential skills:

• They understand where young people are coming from, based on developmental psychology and brain science
• They understand how groups function
• They understand themselves

WHERE YOUNG PEOPLE ARE COMING FROM
Every day is filled with opportunities to teach people to act with conscience and courage to make their world better.

In the context of school, these “teachable moments” can occur anywhere: two students struggle to solve a problem in math class; an athlete grows frustrated during another lackluster practice by the team; a student uncharacteristically takes a risk and succeeds.

These moments happen all the time, yet typically the opportunity that lies within to teach leadership is passed over. At the gcLi, by presenting a foundation in developmental psychology and brain science, we help educators develop the ability to identify, utilize, and create teachable moments to transform individuals, classrooms, sports teams, and whole schools.

HOW GROUPS FUNCTION
Leaders do not operate in a vacuum. Leadership is all about knowing how to inspire and influence groups, which is why an understanding of group dynamics is an essential part of the leader’s—and leadership teacher’s—repertoire. At the gcLi, we help give teachers the tools to skillfully guide groups and the ability to pass this know-how onto their student leaders.

UNDERSTANDING THEMSELVES
If the skills comprising leadership were a wheel, then emotional intelligence would be at the hub. Leaders need to understand themselves and how to regulate their impact upon others. Leadership teachers need to possess this understanding, so they can model it and impart it to others.

This is why we have constructed a Leadership Lab. The six-day intensive workshop, facilitated by educational leaders from around the nation, is not merely a forum to learn ground-breaking information about the developing brain, group dynamics, and leadership theory, it is also a place to practice, to develop one’s own capacity for self-awareness, personal reflection, and effective action.