Wherever there is a human being, there is a chance for a kindness.
-Seneca
In her popular book,
What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program: Emotional Intelligence in Practice, Holly Elissa Bruno offers a unique insight on leaders experiencing guilt:
"A director in New Jersey once told me, 'Guilt is a selfish emotion.' I was stunned! I always thought feeling guilty was the first step toward accepting responsibility for what I need to change. For that director, prolonged guilty feelings block her from taking action to make changes for the better. Guilt is 'all about me' and is paralyzing. In that case, I came to see her point. As Wayne Dyer, author and motivational speaker, observes, 'Worry is an attempt to control the future. Guilt is an attempt to control the past.' Perspective is a director's best friend."
What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program
What You Need to Lead an Early Childhood Program: Emotional Intelligence in Practice is the first and only early childhood leadership book anchored in what matters most: the art and science of building relationships. Emotional intelligence is the ability to read people as well as you read books and to know how to use that information wisely. Each chapter begins with a case study that features richly complex, everyday challenges facing early childhood program directors. Alongside case studies are theory and principles, pointers and problem-solving steps to help you practice and hone your leadership skills.
- Part I — Forming: Setting Up the Program and Yourself for Success
- Part II — Storming: Identifying, Preventing, and Addressing Resistance to Change
- Part III — Norming: Establishing Management Systems
- Part IV — Performing: Putting Principles into Practice
- Part V — Re-Forming: Renewing, Refreshing, Dreaming of What Might Be
Learn More
Comments (2)
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Anchorage, AK, United States
I would like to put in a good word for guilt.
I remember as a young boy wantonly destroying a robin's nest and eggs with a basketball. Immediately after I felt what I would call remorse. I still feel a twinge today when I think about the episode many years later. The feeling spurred an appropriate, albeit small, course correction on my development as a human being.
United States
This piece reminds me of the wonderful Eda LeShan who said, years ago, that guilt is destructive and paralyzing. A better approach, she said, is to regret and move on. Don't hang on to guilt. She was good.
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