Today, is January 20th, 2021, Inauguration Day. We are called upon to achieve an important cause needed for our future: To unify. What will that entail? To succeed, we will need to know, and demonstrate, the right attitudes and skills.
A long-term study shows that there are five key areas of behaviors needed for success. The behaviors identified are demonstrated through attitudes, skills, and actions critical for positive interactions to result. In combination they open the door to what is possible. In brief, they are the best ways to express our humanityand are at the heart of successful outcomes.
In addition, they are reasonable, learnable, and can be acquired and applied by all — from children to adults — who aspire to interact, play, or engage with one another. The skills are part of a system of social-emotional models that are age-appropriate and can be taught to youth (Kindergarten-to-college) and to adults. The five areas to understand and practice help to ensure that goals are met for the individual and the team. They describe how to:
- Manage emotions
- Set and achieve positive goals
- Feel and show empathy for others
- Establish and maintain positive relationships
- Make responsible decisions
The call for unity is just one among many we face. We are continuously called upon to participate in worthwhile goals: as members of work teams and communities, as students and parents of schools, and as family members. The creator of the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) process, The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), has found that social-emotional (SE) skills can help manage almost any social interaction and emotional responses. For example, social-emotional skills include social awareness and involves goal-setting and taking responsibility, which are skills critical to building teams, choosing and maintaining healthy relationships, and practicing good health-care of oneself. Furthermore, practicing these skills has shown to pay-off.
Research shows that the practice of SE skills is effective with positive results in better academic performance and higher rates of graduation from high school and college among students with SE learning. The behaviors can also be assessed to see where improvements can be continually made. For more details and a comprehensive overview, see: What is SEL?
What is your personal cause, goal, or dream? Since it’s a new year, perhaps you’ll say you’ll exercise more, save more, care more. How will your social-emotional behaviors help you achieve what you want?
Take a glimpse of an assessment of how often you practice these SE areas. This is just a sample of the Self-Awareness and Self-Management skill areas and behaviors (the others are Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making):
Awareness about how frequently a behavior is put into action may reveal room for improvement. Most of us have room for improvement. Here’s an outcome from an informal assessment I took of my own self-management attitudes and skills and found it’s an area for me to improve this year. Here’s why: sometimes I don’t believe I can do yet another project. “Can I really pull off another new project? Do I really have the right stuff for it.” Better self-management practices can give me more confidence to believe that I can handle what comes along — so I’ve made a promise to myself to work on that.
The power of the SE system is that its application has a wide reach and is scalable. I am introducing it to associates dedicated to helping students interested in and working on space-related projects. Aerospace will need not only the most knowledgeable future leaders in STEAM discipline, but leaders who know how to lead and how be a team player. Teaching social-emotional skills today will be helpful in their teamwork tomorrow. Developing tomorrow’s leaders is always a worthwhile investment today.
May this be a year we come together and help make our
lives healthier, more caring, and successful for
one another.