The purpose of this final chapter is to discuss how leaders and educators alike can promote global trait EI in their leadership and classrooms by implementing the recommendations in the author's list of suggested recommendations. In addition, this chapter also discusses the advantages and disadvantages leaders and educators experience while using trait EI and discusses the similarities that exist between leadership and education. This chapter provides the foundations for future research on the topic of trait EI, also includes advice from Award-Winning Professors (AWPs), and concludes with the author's final thoughts on trait EI, leadership, and education.
TopIntroduction
The greatest adventure is what lies ahead. Today and tomorrow are yet to be said. The chances, the changes, are all yours to make. The mold of your life is in your hands to break. -Jules Bass and Maury Laws
You are on the precipice, and you have a choice. Do you take what you have learned in this book, and put it in the back of your mind staying in your old world, or do you begin to alter your behavior in an active manner so that you can begin to promote trait EI in your leadership and teaching, thereby ushering in the future? This decision rests solely with you; however, you are not alone in this journey, for this final chapter will meet the following objectives that will guide you on your journey to promoting trait emotional intelligence in leadership and education:
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Discuss the importance of global trait EI.
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Provide recommendations for leaders and educators so that they can actively begin to promote trait EI in their leadership and classrooms respectively.
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Examine the advantages and disadvantages that leaders and educators face when promoting trait EI, and consider the similarities that exist between leadership and education.
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Provide a foundation upon which future research on the topic of trait EI, leadership, and education may build.
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Share advice from Award-Winning Professors (AWPs).
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Conclude with the author’s final thoughts on promoting trait EI in leadership and education.
TopGlobal Trait Ei
The final item measured by the TEIQue® is global trait EI, which Petrides (2009a) defines as “a broad index of general emotional functioning” (p. 62), and comprises all 15 facets and four factors of trait EI. Petrides (2009a) continues his definition by stating that global trait EI “correlates positively with extraversion, conscientiousness, mental health, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, seniority, pro-social behavior, popularity, sensitivity, and susceptibility to affect, over-prediction of affective reactions in decision-making, overconfidence, social desirability, and hubris” (Petrides, 2009a, p. 62). Meaning that although it is imperative that leaders and educators alike have high levels of global trait EI since their effectiveness often depends upon it (Goleman, 2005; Mortiboys, 2012; Powell & Kusuma-Powell, 2010); leaders and educators alike must temper their global trait EI. Lest it lead to negative personality traits, such as hubris (Petrides, 2009a), narcissism (Goleman, 2005), Machiavellianism (Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997), and a vast array of other negative traits, for Petrides (2009a) specifically states, “high scores are not necessarily adaptive and low scores are not necessarily maladaptive” (p. 9). Thereby emphasizing the importance of temperance, moderation, and a happy medium between extremely high trait EI and extremely low trait EI scores for both leaders and educators in order to minimize the barriers they face and maximize the benefits they obtain when using trait EI skills and techniques in their leadership and classrooms respectively. Regarding the barriers that leaders and educators encounter when promoting global trait EI in their leadership and classrooms, chapters 1-17 cover these barriers and disadvantages in detail, and therefore, they do not merit reiteration here.