Bill MacKenty

Emotional Intelligence and being a Director of Technology

I’ve begun a two year program for administration and supervision at Hunter College in New York City.

The course is essentially for mid-level educational professionals who want to move forward and work as school principals and superintendents.  The course ends in New York State certification in Administrative and Supervisory in New York. The focus on the course is improving instructional quality through effective supervision.

My objective is to work as a director of technology - and I decided this course would be a good choice towards that goal. Many of the help wanted ads for director of technology mention administration certification is required.

One of the the main thrusts of the ADSUP program is the identification and building of emotional intelligence (E.I.).

According to an article in one of my text books (Smart School Leaders - Leading with Emotional Intelligence), written by Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence at work comprises five components:

1. Self-awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills

So, my initial reaction to emotional intelligence was “oh no….hippy stuff”. I saw E.I. as a “soft skill” and I wondered about the real impact on organizational leadership.  I’ve started asking around and consulting with friends and colleagues, and I’ve started to see the value in E.I. Many of them nod their heads and say stuff like “yea, you gotta know your tech, but E.I. helps manage the intersection between technology and humans”.  I’ll blog more about this as I go on, but for now, I’m thinking more about E.I.

I’ve always been a pleasant guy - smiling, approachable and generally nice. I guess I’ve been calling it “being nice” but I can see how it could also be called emotional intelligence.