It's Not Just What You Say

Verbal and nonverbal skills help leaders address challenges and achieve outcomes

This is a story about two school leaders in a large Southern California urban district who used skills developed in a university school leadership program to create rapport, empathy, and trust while leading through challenging situations and achieving actionable outcomes. In addition to developing relationships in support of collaboration (Duke, 2008), these leaders also changed the culture of their schools by intentionally impacting a shift in values from an existing state to a new desired state. Since values drive behaviors (Wagner & Simpson, 2008), shifting the values in their schools resulted in changes in behaviors that promote collaboration and student achievement. We refer to these two real-life scenarios as “The $250,000 Zinger” and “Cold Mountain Disaster.” The $250,000 Zinger “My first full school year in

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Authors

Kendall Zoller, Antonia Issa Lahera, and Anthony H. Normore

Kendall Zoller ([email protected]) is president of Sierra Training Associates in Foresthill, California. Antonia Issa Lahera ([email protected]) is associate professor in the College of Education and Anthony H. Normore ([email protected]) is professor and chair of the Department of Graduate Education at California State University Dominguez Hills.

The four abilities and five capabilities of communicative intelligence

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References

Costa, A.L. & Garmston, R.J. (2002). Cognitive coaching: A foundation for renaissance schools. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

Duke, D. (2008). The little school system that could: Transforming a city school district. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.

Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Heifetz, R. & Linksy, M. (2002). Leadership on the line: Staying alive through the dangers of leading. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Wagner, P.A. & Simpson, D. (2008). Ethical decision making in school administration: Leadership as moral architecture. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Zoller, K. (2015). The philosophy of using communicative intelligence for cross-cultural collaboration. In N. Erbe & A.H. Normore (Eds.), Cross-cultural collaboration and leadership in modern organizations (pp. 303-320). Hershey, PA: IGI Global Publishers.

Zoller, K. (2008). Nonverbal patterns of teachers from 5 countries: Results from the TIMSS-R video study. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section A. Humanities and Social Sciences, 68(9-A), 154.

Zoller, K. & Landry, C. (2010). The choreography of presenting: The 7 essential abilities of effective presenters. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.

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