Effective leaders use personal skills that can be acquired by all students. These essential skills include developing a vision, motivating others, taking initiative, communicating effectively, setting goals, making decisions, managing resources, and facilitating the development of additional leaders. When practiced within the context of students’ primary social groups, these skills will build competence and confidence that prepare students to assume a variety of leadership roles.

EC.7 The student will communicate effectively in pairs, small groups, teams, and large groups.

a. Develop active listening skills and good reading skills.

b. Share own ideas, both verbally and in writing.

c. Recognize differences of opinion.

d. Provide positive feedback.

e. Support other group members to achieve team spirit.

ES.7 The student will communicate effectively in pairs, small groups, teams, and large groups.

a. Listen and read for purpose, meaning, and expression of feeling within a variety of situations.

b. Share own ideas and feelings both verbally and in writing.

c. Empathize with others.

d. Seek resolutions to problems.

e. Provide and respond appropriately to positive feedback.

f. Work as a team to communicate and support group projects.

MS.7 The student will communicate effectively in pairs, small groups, teams, and large groups.

a. Analyze and interpret purpose, meaning, and expression of feeling within a variety of situations.

b. Examine one’s own ideas and feelings in relation to those of others.

c. Use effective written, verbal, and nonverbal skills to present information.

d. Work toward consensus in groups.

e. Provide and respond positively to constructive criticism.

f. Demonstrate team-building skills that promote effective communication and project completion.

HS.7 The student will communicate effectively in pairs, small groups, teams, and large groups.

a. Suspend judgment until all ideas are expressed.

b. Refine interpretation and synthesis of ideas.

c. Present personal ideas as well as those of others in a clear, concise, and effective manner.

d. Balance personal expression with others’ contributions.

e. Distinguish between fact and opinion.

f. Work toward consensus in heterogeneous groups.

g. Facilitate the mediation of conflict.

h. Motivate team members individually and collectively to collaborate to achieve a common purpose.

EC.8 The student will identify and practice decision-making skills.

a. Recognize problems.

b. Gather facts for decision making and problem solving.

c. Make simple decisions.

d. Manage personal, classroom, and school resources.

ES.8 The student will enhance and apply decision-making skills.

a. Generate alternative solutions to problems.

b. Describe the consequences of personal decisions.

c. Work toward consensus in making group decisions.

d. Participate in orderly, organized group processes.

MS.8 The student will transfer decision-making skills to new tasks.

a. Evaluate potential outcomes of a decision.

b. Consider advice from others when making decisions.

c. Generate objectives and strategies to make effective decisions.

d. Monitor and evaluate progress toward accomplishing objectives.

e. Define and use parliamentary procedure to facilitate decision making.

HS.8 The student will analyze and refine decision-making skills.

a. Take the lead in implementing, monitoring progress toward, and evaluating solutions.

b. Support group decisions.

c. Adjust group decisions according to changes within or outside the group.

d. Refine skills in parliamentary procedure to facilitate meetings or discussions.

EC.9 The student will recognize the importance of setting goals.

a. Define and set personal short-term goals.

b. Identify long-term goals.

c. Share personal goals.

d. Discuss the importance of setting goals.

ES.9 The student will explore long-term goals.

a. Recognize that it is possible to have a variety of personal goals.

b. Review and set new short-term goals on a regular basis.

c. Set long-term goals.

d. Evaluate and modify personal goals.

MS.9 The student will express a personal vision.

a. Define vision.

b. Relate personal goals to one’s own vision.

c. Recognize the risks involved in presenting one’s personal vision.

d. Consider the contributions of others to one’s own vision.

HS.9 The student will evaluate the relationship between personal vision and the group vision.

a. Present one’s personal vision to a group, using persuasive techniques.

b. Compare one’s personal vision with that of a group.

c. Recognize the necessity for compromise in various leadership situations.

d. Motivate others to act according to the group’s vision.