Social-Emotional Leadership

17 Sep

Posted at 10:01h in biases, customs, Inspiration, Life Coach, Mindfulness, neuroscience, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Schools, Social-Emotional Leadership, spirituality, Traditions, Uncategorized by

Today is the highest of the Jewish holy days: Yom Kippur (I love saying that with my gentile accent!). My Facebook status and Twit feed read: Am realizing we don't have to be Jewish to seek forgiveness today. Traditions are good, even when we borrow them. Atoning is about clearing psychological and emotional space, a task that I take quite seriously with myself and my clients. Who will you risk having a conversation with to ask for forgiveness? Don’t forget forgiving yourself! We are often our worst critics. Last week, the Jews celebrated Rosh Hashanah symbolizing the start of a new year...

12 Jul

Posted at 17:24h in Action Research, Coaching, family, forgiveness, gratitude, Hope, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Moments that matter, Positive Psychology, Relationships, savoring, Social-Emotional Leadership by

[caption id="attachment_303" align="alignleft" width="190" caption="circa 1980"][/caption] Picture it: 1978, Pascack Valley Hospital, Westwood, NJ - I was born an unexpected twin, breech, the youngest of four children. “Doctor you have another baby in there,” the nurse said as she was cleaning up after Christine was born. “WHAT?!??! my parents screamed.” I grew up in the suburbs of NYC (not far from the Housewives of NJ), overweight and pseudo-overachieving. I lost my brother Todd to suicide when I was 12. He was 19. Awful, tragic, sad. But I remember where I was standing that day of his death, at the edge of our driveway,...

12 May

Posted at 11:19h in Hope, Inspiration, Life Coach, passion, perserverance, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Schools, Social-Emotional Leadership by

I’ve been working with the Governor’s Committee on Scholastic Achievement to give talks around New York to high school and college students - giving them nuggets of positive psychology that could help change the course of their lives. The best part of these programs is that they not only involve the young adults, many of whom come from tough neighborhoods, but also include their adult mentors at high power organizations like JP Morgan Chase and the Boston Consulting Group. There’s something about the diversity of these groups that is just magical - and there’s something about the power of positive psychology...

18 Apr

Posted at 11:28h in family, Happiness coach, Life Coach, Life Coaching, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership, Thoughts-Action, Vision by

I’ve wanting to order a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime. The one (and only) that I own is getting a little ratty, like it may have been washed one too many times. The tassels are worn and even that little, plastic guard has come off. It’s time. But although I’ve been thinking about getting a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime, I haven’t done it, even with a strong intuition that it will bring me joy on some level. Every time I grab for the old sweatshirt I remember, “Oh yea, I want to look online at the Penn store...

04 Apr

Posted at 10:31h in Coaching, Engagement, family, Happiness coach, Life Coach, Life Coaching, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership by

I'm getting ready to spend Easter with my family today. Deep breaths. While I'm excited to see them, I'm a bit apprehensive. It was two years ago that I launched my life's work really - the creation of Social-Emotional Leadership - the idea that groups change when people within those groups stand up and say, "Hey guys, we can do better."  Two years ago, I started  my "research" into being a Social-Emotional Leader with my own family, on Easter. It was simple: I organized a Nintendo Wii tennis tournament, which took the place of the normal and excessive eating and...

19 Feb

Posted at 15:00h in Life Coach, Life Coaching, Positive Intervention, Positive Psychology, social contagion factor, Social-Emotional Leadership, Vision by

It is silly to assume that the more I do, the more I’ll have (or be). When we find a nice harmony between doing and being, the Universe will show us what we need to know. It must start with being. What I’ve found is that when I get caught in the whirlwind of doing for the sake of doing or because society says I should do, I lose this sense of being, which is so important to my well-being. I lose my innate ability to know. I fall asleep. That consciousness goes away. So, what I need to do...

11 Feb

Posted at 10:54h in Action Research, Engagement, family, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership by

Certainly, we know more today about the benefits of social and emotional learning than ever before. Largely, many schools are taking on the task of teaching these skills in the classroom. But what happens beyond the classroom, in real life? Is the culture of our athletic fields or music rooms, our families, or our city streets set up to support the living of this learning? For my graduate work in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, I developed a framework we can use to fill this gap. Social-Emotional Leadership is a strengths-based system of shared responsibility which ensures groups we...

15 Dec

Posted at 20:33h in Action Research, Hope, Inspiration, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Relationships, resiliency, savoring, Social-Emotional Leadership, Uncategorized by

Last week, our meetup discussed ways to really have a banging holiday season this year.  A mighty group of us talked about how to use Positive Psychology (the science of happiness & success) to make this happen.  We started by asking, "How do we want to be feeling on January 1?" Inspired? Excited? Rested? Hopeful? Some of our ideas for how to ensure this - about how to have a joyful season, included: * Keep a growth mindset (things change, people change) * Appreciate what's already good (what you look forward to each year - dig deep if need be) * Consider 'best' possible...

28 Nov

Posted at 23:47h in abundance, Action Research, Cognitive-behavioral, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, Positive Intervention, Positive Psychology, Schools, Social-Emotional Leadership by

I propose we attempt to set up learning organizations wherever possible to support a more positive evolution. According to Peter M. Senge, Director of the Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning Program at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Learning Organizations are places where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. Essentially, anywhere there are groups of people that spend chunks of time together can form learning organizations –...

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