“Big Idea”: Continuous improvement requires that leaders effectively manage their attention and energy and the attention and energy of the school community.
A key to the successful management of attention and energy is leaders’ emotional and social intelligence.
A leader’s emotional intelligence determines to a large extent where the school community directs its attention and energy.
Attention can be dissipated or have a laser-like focus on a small number of essential priorities.
Leaders’ emotional intelligence also creates or destroys energy within the school community, energy that is essential to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning.
Here are some popular posts from the past year that more fully explain this idea:
“Cultivating the problem-solving ability of others”
“Creating energy for continuous improvement”
“Ways to avoid unproductive, dispiriting meetings”
You can find additional posts on emotional intelligence here.
Dennis Sparks on re·sil·ience 
Extremely important point, well stated. School leaders may engage in over 1500 interactions in a day; without emotional intelligence, as Sparks points out, this can drain every drop of energy from a school leaders. Emotional intelligence also enhances the ability to shape the school’s culture.
***Take a look at the links too–great selection.
Thanks, Kent! I particularly appreciate the link you make between emotional intelligence and the fast-paced, relationship saturated days of school leaders.