NEA Leadership Competencies
Discover the knowledge, skills, and abilities NEA educators need to lead thriving Associations and become world-class leaders in their professions. The NEA Leadership Competency Framework was developed by educators to provide a tool to define and assess current leadership skills, knowledge, and abilities of education leaders.
Competency Domains
The seven competencies are:
- Advocacy: Advances the cause of public education through advocacy for students including addressing racial and social justice in education and how it benefits our students and members’ professional needs and rights.
- Communication: Build and execute an integrated communications strategy that drives the mission, vision, core values and strategic goals of the association.
- Governance and Leadership: Sets the mission and establishes and monitors strategies necessary for relevant and thriving associations while empowering, motivating, and fostering a pipeline of diverse leaders.
- Leading Our Professions: Advocates for professional learning, professional quality and social diversity inside our professions and promotes our union’s role in advancing education transformation, student learning, and equitable access to opportunities.
- Organizing: Mobilizes and engages members and leaders to support internal and external relationships and association capacity to: recruit, retain and identify diverse groups of members and leaders; and advance strategic priorities at the national, state, and local levels.
- Social and Emotional Intelligence: Understands the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that create healthy identities, manage emotions, and achieve personal and collective goals; demonstrates ability to feel and show empathy, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible, caring decisions.
- Strategy and Fiscal Health: Use association resources responsibly to accomplish the goals of the association through strategic thinking, effective financial management and understanding of fiduciary responsibilities.
