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About STAR Factor Coaching
For over two decades, STAR Factor Coaching has been providing leadership coaching and professional development services to educators, principals, superintendents and the like. The foundation of STAR Factor is rooted in the profound belief and understanding that emotional intelligence is key to effective leadership and the overall success of any educational institution.
The inception of STAR Factor Coaching dates back to 2004. The organization was born out of the collaborative efforts of two educational visionaries – Dr. Janet Patti and Dr. Robin Stern. Their shared passion for social and emotional learning (SEL) and the development of emotionally intelligent leaders led to the creation of a unique platform aimed at fostering emotional intelligence in educators.
Dr. Patti has an extensive background in education. As a former member of the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), she has contributed significantly to the field of SEL. Her journey includes turning around her own school in the early ’90s by implementing comprehensive school-wide SEL. Later, she served as a professor at Hunter College of CUNY, where she continued to promote emotional intelligence in education. Today, she stands as the CEO of STAR Factor Coaching, leading the charge in developing emotionally intelligent school leaders.
Dr. Robin Stern brings to the table her deep understanding of human emotions from her extensive work as a psychoanalyst.
She is the Senior Advisor to the Director at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a co-creator of the RULER Approach to Emotional Intelligence for schools. Her expertise in understanding and managing emotions provides a unique perspective to the educational leadership approach of STAR Factor Coaching.
Robin continues to consult with many different organizations, schools, and events about the importance of emotional intelligence.
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Building Emotional Intelligence
The coaching model of STAR Factor Coaching is built upon the Goleman/Boyatzsis framework of emotional intelligence leadership. It encompasses four fundamental emotion-related abilities:
- Perception/expression of emotion
- Use of emotion to facilitate thinking
- Understanding of emotion
- Management of emotion in oneself and others
The model also incorporates elements from the Salovey, Caruso, Mayer framework of emotional intelligence. The coaching for school leaders, teachers, and principals focuses on improving school leadership by developing emotional intelligence skills and preparing them to make thoughtful decisions that promote student growth.
The coaching model of STAR Factor Coaching also integrates the RULER approach to emotional intelligence. This distinctive methodology helps educators recognize, understand, label, express, and regulate emotions. The model emphasizes the importance of authentic, transformational leadership supported within the coaching relationship and training approaches.
How STAR Factor Coaching Empowers School Leaders
STAR Factor Coaching’s model focuses on refining specific emotion skills prominent in the SEL RULER Approach to Emotional Intelligence. This includes recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions. By honing these skills, school leaders are better equipped to make thoughtful decisions that promote student growth.
The organization offers comprehensive coaching for school leaders, teachers, and principals. Through their courses and training, school leaders build emotional and social strengths, improve their ability to handle challenges, and inspire others. The triple focus of educating self, others, and the larger community streamlines the learning process so that the leader embodies and models emotional intelligence, fostering an organization that follows suit.
STAR Factor Coaching’s model aids schools in enhancing teacher quality by engaging school leaders in self-evaluation, self-monitoring, and goal setting of their EI skills. As schools adapt to the most effective practices, school leaders are equipped to promote coherence among improvement efforts in the social, emotional, and academic aspects of school organization, programs, and services for adults and children.
Unlike many vendors who provide coaching and professional leadership services to school leaders and their teams, STAR Factor has the unique advantage of being built upon and by professionals who have actively worked in schools to develop Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) since the early 90’s. Dr. Patti was an original team member of the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and is well-known and published in this field. She has provided numerous hours of professional development to schools and turned around her school in the early 90’ws implementing comprehensive school-wide SEL.
The Future of STAR Factor Coaching
As STAR Factor Coaching moves forward, its mission remains the same – to train and develop emotionally intelligent, culturally responsive leaders for today’s world. The organization continues to expand its partnerships and adapt its coaching models to the ever-evolving educational landscape. By doing so, it hopes to make a lasting impact on the future of education and ultimately, society.
STAR Factor Coaching is a testament to the power of emotional intelligence in education. Its work has transformed the leadership landscape in numerous schools, and its commitment to fostering emotional intelligence in leaders promises to continue shaping the future of education.
For more information about STAR Factor Coaching, consult with us today!
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How To Build a Community of Emotionally Intelligent Leaders
Emotional intelligence or EQ isn’t just an attribute; it’s a set of skills that anyone can learn through proper training and practice. Emotionally intelligent leaders are better at building stronger relationships, having more positive interactions, and communicating clearly to achieve their goals, whatever they may be. Want to build a community of emotionally intelligent leaders in your organization? Here are some suggestions on how to get started. 3 key traits of emotionally intelligent leadership Before you can build a community of emotionally intelligent leaders, you need to understand what makes such leaders. Research shows three key traits of emotionally intelligent leadership: Developing others, trustworthiness, and social sensitivity. If you want to know if your leadership operates with emotional intelligence, ask yourself these questions: Do I encourage people to succeed? Do I recognize their contributions? Do I help them grow? If so, you’re on your way toward becoming an emotionally intelligent leader. But what about you, as an individual? It’s not just about how you relate to others at work; it’s also about how you lead yourself. Are you trying new things in your job—and constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone? Are you open to feedback and constructive criticism from colleagues and those who lead you? And do you seek to understand before being understood? If so, then congratulations! You’re already on your way to developing emotionally intelligent leadership skills. Step 1: Embed emotional intelligence in your leaders First, it’s important to have an individual-level focus on emotional intelligence. You need to start by ensuring that all employees understand what emotional intelligence is and why it is important. It means providing learning experiences for each member of your organization so they can realize their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to emotional intelligence. It is key that leaders who model effective behavior toward their peers also receive similar training so they can share those skills with others in their team or community. The most successful organizations use peer assistance leadership programs where individuals train one another. These are proven models to help spread emotionally intelligent leadership throughout an organization quickly and effectively. Step 2: Embed emotional intelligence in your community members What’s interesting about Star Factor Coaching is that it doesn’t just teach people how to understand themselves and their co-workers better. It also helps them develop a deep awareness of their strengths and weaknesses as leaders and coaches them on when to step in or back off in certain situations, depending on what they do best. On top of that, Star Factor Coaching relies heavily on peer assistance leadership. In other words, group members help each other through various challenges by sharing insights gleaned from successes and failures at work (or elsewhere). The result? A better understanding for all community members of how everyone fits into a healthy team dynamic— – and what needs to change to make that happen. Step 3: Embed emotional intelligence in the way you communicate with everyone If your goal is to build an emotionally intelligent community, you need to focus on three key areas: Your tone with everyone Your word choice in conversation Your general disposition toward people You can watch how you’re coming across by videotaping yourself and your team. Then, use some tips from Dan Goleman’s book Primal Leadership or Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves; both will help increase empathy in an organization while also bringing out strong leadership skills within everyone on staff. Read, Marc Brackett’s Permission to Feel. It is a delightful, informative book that will deepen your understanding of our emotion skills and how we use them. Once you know and understand what makes an emotionally intelligent leader and what traits they should have to effectively lead others, you can build a community of such leaders.
Read More >>4 Team Building Activities To Enhance Collaboration
Team building is an essential part of any organization. Today’s leaders lead with authenticity and thrive on establishing a healthy work culture that encourages teamwork and collaboration. With a supportive, motivated team, you can inch closer to the organizational goals rapidly. Team building activities for employees can help you in this endeavor. Here are 4 team building activities you can try to boost your team’s spirit at work: #1 Tied together This activity promotes teamwork and develops active listening and problem-solving skills among employees. You only need a few cloth strips or shoelaces, and you’re good to go. Ask your team members to create a circle while standing facing each other. Now, tie their ankles to their neighbor’s ankles and ask them to complete a task within a time limit. It can be anything from wrapping a present to a group walk. See them doing things together and develop collaboration while having fun. #2 Blind drawing Another excellent activity to promote collaboration is blind drawing that requires two people to work in sync to finish the task. Divide people into small groups of two. Give a picture to one person and a pen and paper to the other. Ask the first person to elaborate it to the other and get it drawn on the paper without precisely defining the picture. For instance, if a man is eating a burger in the picture, the person cannot say “a man eating a burger.” This activity develops leadership skills in the person guiding the other person and improves communication. #3 Suddenly It is one of the most efficient team building activities for employees that can prepare your team members to face new challenges arising in projects all of a sudden. The best part is that you require nothing to conduct this activity. Ask your team to stand or sit, creating a circle. Pick a famous story and narrate the first three lines and say “suddenly.” As you do this, the person sitting next to you will again continue the story to the following three lines and pass it on. Keep everyone thinking and listening while teaching them how to face challenges they come across suddenly. #4 Flip it over If you’re looking for a more creative option with minimal preparation, this one’s for you. Get a tarp of the size of a table cloth and build teamwork and problem-solving skills in a fun manner. Ask your team members to stand on the tarp and flip it without getting off the tarp. Want to make it more challenging? Ask them to use their feet only! This game makes the participants look for creative ways to perform a task together. As you see, all the team members have to make sure that none of them gets off the tarp. In a nutshell An organization thrives when its team members work in sync and come together to achieve a common goal. To ensure this, it is essential to develop effective practices that keep employees engaged and motivated at work. The above team building activities for employees can help bring your team members closer and develop essential communication and interpretation skills.
Read More >>Emotional Intelligence Mistakes That Some Leaders Make
There is no doubt about the fact that the business world has become quite competitive and intense in today’s time. Managers and leaders need to have qualities such as integrity, courage, vision, humility, etc., Education is always challenging, in that educators are entirely overwhelmed and burnt out. Healthcare’s demands on nurses and doctors, especially during a worldwide pandemic has perhaps made this the most challenging field of all? To successfully lead teams and departments toward the objectives requires an investment in emotional intelligence However, it is rather surprising to observe that in spite of its significance, many leaders do not invest time in learning about emotional intelligence. It is good to have intelligence, skills, knowledge, and expertise about your business. However, if you lack the ability to connect with your own emotions and the emotions of others, all the aforementioned qualities would not be enough to make you a top leader. In simpler terms, you need to possess the ability or capacity to be aware of your emotions, know how to control them, and express them effectively. It also includes knowing how to deal with interpersonal relationships judiciously. In this blog, we will tell you some common mistakes that leaders make with emotional intelligence. Try to steer clear of them if you want to successfully lead your team. Let’s take a look at those mistakes. Becoming Inaccessible as A Leader Leaders who are not able to control their own emotional state will struggle to deal with their team members, mentees, and colleagues emotionally. Emotional intelligence is primarily about becoming aware about our own emotions. Once you become aware of them, you gradually start to regulate them and express them clearly. Yes, it is true that negative experiences in life may make us guarded and reserved but if you become that, you will unknowingly become inaccessible as a leader. Emotional intelligence is necessary in the workplace because it brings transparency, openness, and vulnerability, all of which are required in a leader. Assuming Emotional Intelligence Is an Innate Quality Some leaders make the mistake of assuming that emotional intelligence is a quality that only some people have. They think of it as an innate quality, which is not true at all. When you hold this view, you lose the ability to influence the EI of those around you. Anybody can learn emotional intelligence as it is a learnable skill. If you’ve learned it and wish to teach it to your team members or colleagues, firstly you shouldn’t assume they can’t learn it and secondly you should try to make an impact on them by demonstrating emotional intelligence. How do you do that? By becoming self-aware, controlling your emotions, showing empathy, dealing with conflicts calmly, and respecting others around you. Ignoring Or Putting Off Your Own Needs Again, emotional intelligence starts with you. Before you begin to positively influence others around you, you should first focus on yourself. As a leader, it is essential for you to take some time out once a day or at least every couple of days to sit down and ask yourself,” how am I feeling and why am I feeling this way”, without any judgement. You need to ask yourself whether my emotions are affecting others around me or not. Doing this is necessary because it allows us to become more aware of our emotions and control how it affects others around us. Now, it is important to understand that it is not easy to learn emotional intelligence on your own. You can try and you may even learn it, but it is always better to seek help from those who are experts in this intelligence. When you learn emotional intelligence from experts, you won’t make the above-mentioned mistakes. If interested, you can get in touch with Star Factor Coaching for social emotional learning and professional development training. Our goal is to bring out a leader’s best self. To know more about our services in detail, call us at 917-474-6952 or 914-8936-954.
Read More >>Be the STAR Leader You Are Destined To Be!
Use our researched-based process to help grow your team’s leadership skills.
connect@starfactorcoaching.com or call us at 917-474-6952