Sample Informational Letter Template
Sample Survey
Sample Communication Plan Template
SWOT Analysis on My Writing Skills
Communicating Through Body Language
Impact of Body Language Communication
Repetition
Contradiction
Substitution
Complementing
Accenting
What Body Language Can Communicate
Demonstrate Personal Qualities
Establish Hierarchy
Promote Social Functioning
Foster High-Quality Relationships
Display Emotions
Dress to Impress
Observing Body Language
Elements of Effective Body Language
Be Self-Aware
Share Appropriately
Manage Your Mood
Take Time to Respond, Instead of React
Look for Solutions Instead of Blame
Body Language for Leaders
Summary
Reflection Questions
The School Leader’s Communication Challenge: Body Language
Body Language Look-Fors in Others
Body Language Indicators for Emotions
The Dos and Don’ts of Body Language Communication
SWOT Analysis on My Body Language
About the Author
Jasmine K. Kullar, EdD, is an assistant superintendent for Cobb County School District, the second-largest school district in Georgia. She is also a faculty member in the College of Professional Studies Educational Leadership Department at Albany State University in Georgia. In addition, she is involved with the Wallace Foundation’s University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) and a member of the national UPPI Professional Learning Community, focused on redesigning university educational leadership preparation programs.
Prior to these roles, she was a middle school principal for seven years at two separate schools. With over ten years of school leadership experience, Dr. Kullar has worked at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has taught in both Canada and the United States, giving her a variety of experiences in working with schools and school districts. She has expertise in building professional learning communities (PLCs) as well as school leadership.
Her experience with PLCs began in her first year of teaching, when she attended a PLC workshop and heard Rick DuFour. Since then, she has been implementing those tenets. When she became a school administrator, she led her school to Model PLC status—the first school to receive this designation in the state of Georgia. Her school’s success as a PLC is featured on AllThingsPLC.info as “Sample Professional Learning Community Manual.”
She has published articles with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and presented several workshops at both the state and national levels. She is a lifelong learner, with her latest certificate from Harvard University in Leading School Systems at the National Level. She earned her doctorate degree from Argosy University in Georgia, her master’s degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland, her teaching certificate from Medaille College in Buffalo, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto.
Introduction
The art of communication is the language of leadership.
—James Humes
As a school leader, your job depends heavily on effective communication skills. Everything that leaders do requires communication skills—whether it’s navigating a crisis, giving out directions, resolving conflict, or solving problems. Unfortunately, many leaders do not spend enough time strengthening this skill. Think about the workshops or conferences you attend; chances are they weren’t on improving your communication skills. Yet all the workshops and conferences you have attended require strong communication skills in order for you to implement any of your new learning from those events.
I remember when I attended my first Professional Learning Community at Work® institute and learned about all kinds of things: prioritizing standards, grading and assessment, creating interventions, building a guiding coalition—and so on. My biggest challenge was figuring out how I was going to take all that new knowledge and learning and communicate it to my teachers. One mistake in my communication, and I wouldn’t convey this important knowledge effectively. I personally have seen great ideas fail because of ineffective communication. I remember rolling out a writing across the curriculum initiative in which all teachers, regardless of what they taught, would incorporate writing into their day-to-day lessons. But when I observed the teachers, I didn’t see that happening. It was easy to get upset with the teachers for not doing what I asked; however, when I self-reflected, I realized my communication about this initiative was incredibly weak. I didn’t do a good job explaining, I tried to do too much via email instead of face to face, I didn’t communicate examples of what I was looking for—all in all, what I wanted to see happen didn’t happen because of my inability to communicate effectively. The good news is that these mistakes are easy to avoid.
Anchal Luthra and Richa Dahiya (2015) stress that without
