7 Cups Leadership Community Forum | Online 7 Cups Leadership Groups

Leadership ABCs Game

by Remina

3 hours ago

Congratulations to 2026's PB and Smalls Awards Winners!

by Heather225

6 hours ago

...See more Happy 13th Birthday, 7 Cups! Every year on the birthday of our beloved community, we award two very special badges: The Smalls Award and the PB Award. The Smalls Award is a badge of honor created after Laura Small in 2019 to honor her legacy and can-do attitude. Every year, we thoughtfully select a community member who exemplifies our values and champions for our mission. I am thrilled to announce this year's winner is @Rebekah! Rebekah joined 7 Cups back in 2019 as a teen, and I have loved watching them grow into a phenomenal leader here. As our Safety Ambassador, they have put in a massive amount of work. Over the past year, Rebekah has scaled the Safety Awareness Team exponentially. They have also made it their focus to bring real education to our community, strengthening our shared knowledge and making sure we all have the tools we need to support each other. Thank you, Rebekah, for your hard work, your leadership, and for genuinely caring about the people here. The PB Award is named after Paul Buchheit (PB), the first big believer in 7 Cups. PB is mostly known as the creator of g/mail and the person responsible for their early motto do no evil. He has the keen ability to see through to the essence of things and often uses this ability to help make the world a better place. He immediately saw the potential of 7 Cups and was instrumental in our initial success. This award is the highest honor given to a community leader every year who has gone above and beyond to believe in the mission of 7 Cups and support the community. I am so happy to announce that this year's recipient is @bookworm4! Book has been a part of 7 Cups since 2015. Over the years, they have consistently supported the community and put in a massive amount of work behind the scenes. They are a dedicated advocate for safety and our teen community, heading the ATL program. Beyond the work they do, Book is genuinely one of the kindest people you will ever meet. Thank you, Book, for everything you bring to 7 Cups and for caring so much about the people here. Please join me in a round of applause for these two passionate well-deserving leaders!

7 Cups Leadership Guidelines

by Heather225

2 days ago

...See more Thank you for being a leader on 7 Cups! Community leaders are a significant part of our community. In stepping into a leadership role with 7 Cups, you have agreed that you align with our values and wish to uphold our mission. You have the ability to inform and influence our community members. So, it is important to lead by example and be a role model to inspire others to aspire to be someone like you to extend the support to others. In addition to the community guidelines, rules, and policies [https://www.7cups.com/about/communityGuidelines.php] currently in place, we are including a list of reminders, as well as one new rule. ➡ As a community leader, you may be provided with confidential information to perform your work on a team or a project. Use this knowledge for its intended purpose only. In other words, please do not abuse your privileges. We trust you to be responsible and maintain confidentiality. ➡. Refrain from engaging in triangulation. This is a very common mistake people make without even realizing it's happening. Triangulation manifests itself in our community as one person who will not communicate directly with another person, and instead use a third person to relay communication to the second, thus forming a triangle. Triangulation is damaging because it interferes with healthy conflict-resolution and lends itself to rumor spreading by taking a private situation between two users and exposing it to more people. Read more about this and take the Triangulation Pledge. [https://www.7cups.com/forum/ListenerCommunityampSiteUpdates_38/LaurasOffice_169/WhatisTriangulation3StepstoAvoidingStoppingitfromhappeninginthecommunity_35107/1/] ➡. Community leaders must maintain strong boundaries. Being a role model, and a trustworthy and reliable leader, users may become dependent on you. To nurture healthy relationships with the community, it's imperative that you set boundaries for yourself and respect those of others. ➡. Community leaders accept feedback gracefully. Getting feedback can be hard to hear, especially if it's more of a constructive criticism than a praise. Leaders should be able to accept feedback gracefully if given constructively. We all are human and all have things to work on and grow. ➡ Please honor and follow our social media policies (i.e. no off-site contact with community members). 7 Cups is a safe environment for you to build and create connections. We love that you are building supportive relationships with each other and enjoy connecting! In order to preserve this safe space, we ask you not to solicit off-site contact. Also bear in mind, once you take interactions off 7 Cups, we are unable to assist you in the event something happens outside of our site. ➡ Reporting is our responsibility. You are the eyes of our community. We have several ways to report incidents that cover all areas of the site, and we rely on you to direct users to those channels. We also rely on you to use them as well. As the slogan goes: if you see something, say something. ➡ We respect your right to use whatever sites you'd like. However, since we launched, we have discovered that some of our leaders have also been working with non-crisis sites that are similar to 7 Cups. We are all for competition, but we want the intention behind it to be solving broader emotional health challenges. We don't want the competition to be a negative interaction between companies. To protect our community and its ongoing progress, we ask that if you would like to pursue leadership with us that you do not affiliate yourself in leadership positions with non-crisis sites similar to 7 Cups. (When I say similar sites, I am referring to any site that offers the same services as us. This would not include therapists, AA, NAMI, and assistance programs that share our broad goal to provide support in the healthcare industry but are not set up to operate like we do. They all offer different components that work in tandem with us.) Leaders: please reply below if you have read and understood these rules! ------------------------- If you have any questions, you may PM anyone on the community team (@SoulfullyAButterfly, @Hope, any Ambassador, or me).

Are you emotionally intelligent?

by Remina

July 2nd

...See more Emotional intelligence (EI) is a critical leadership skill that enables leaders to understand and manage their own emotions while effectively influencing and empathizing with others, driving team engagement and organizational success. Unlike IQ, EI emphasizes self-awareness, empathy, interpersonal skills, and emotional regulation, all of which are essential for effective leadership. Leaders with high EI are better equipped to handle stress, resolve conflicts, and foster collaboration, making them more effective in guiding teams through complex and dynamic work environments. * Self-awareness: A leader should recognize their emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and triggers to make better decisions * Self-regulation: A leader should manage their emotions to remain calm under pressure and respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively * Empathy: A leader should understand and consider the emotions of team members, which enhances communication and inclusivity * Social Skills: A leader should build relationships, resolve conflicts constructively, and inspire collaboration Leaders can use practical strategies to strengthen their EI. * Keep a journal. Reflect on your daily emotional responses and interactions to identify patterns and areas for improvement * Get 360-degree feedback. Seek input from your peers, managers (in 7cups case, this could be your ambassador, mentor leader, admins, etc.), and team members to uncover blind spots * Utilize active listening. Focus fully on conversations, demonstrate engagement. * Learn more about EI by taking training and courses, take EI assessments and skill-building exercises to work on your EI. EI assessment Methods * Self-reflection & Journaling. Track daily emotional experiences, noting triggers, reactions, and outcomes. This builds self-awareness and identifies patterns. * Strengths and weakness reflection. List personal strengths and weaknesses, then compare with feedback from trusted others to gain perspective. * Feedback circles. In small groups, share areas for improvement and receive constructive, empathetic feedback * Active Listening Challenges. Practice paraphrasing and summarizing what others say to gauge empathy and comprehension * Structured EI workbooks. You can use guided exercises (e.g., emotion journaling, self-regulation scenarios) to self-assess and track progress. Click here [https://psychologypdf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Emotional-Intelligence-Workbook.pdf]for the workbook (it is a safe, free PDF). Skill-Building exercises * Self-Awareness Emotion Journaling: At the end of each day, record three emotional events, your feelings, and your reactions Mindfulness Meditation: Regular practice to notice internal states without judgement * Self-regulation Pause before responding: Breathe and reflect before reacting to stress Visualization: Imagine handling challenging situations calmly to prepare for real-life scenarios * Empathy & Social Awareness Active listening challenge: One person speaks, the other listeners and paraphrases to show understanding Personal story sharing: Tell a non-work-related story and listen without judgement to build empathy * Social skills Feedback circle: Share one area for feedback, then receive constructive input from peers Role-playing scenarios: Practice difficult conversations or conflict resolution in a safe environment Practical tips for implementing these activities * Be consistent. Dedicate time weekly for reflection or group activities. * Debrief. After exercises, discuss insights and applications in real life. * Integration. Combine individual self-assessment with group activities to reinforce learning. * Track your progress. Use checklists or journals to monitor improvements over time. Interact with this post by pausing for a moment to reflect on how you are feeling, what you are thinking, and share it in this thread. The feeling wheel can used to assist you. The image below is the feeling wheel or you can try this link here [https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=a26ec0f596d0e93ccbeeb4cf2d2555c303159642e81a85261a81b6b7320e7a62JmltdHM9MTc4Mjg2NDAwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=3f769543-c369-6e5a-27f7-8226c2fb6f70&psq=EI+Feeling+wheel&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmVlbGluZ3N3aGVlbC5vbmxpbmUvIzp-OnRleHQ9VGhlJTIwRmVlbGluZ3MlMjBXaGVlbCUyMGlzJTIwYW4lMjBpbnRlcmFjdGl2ZSUyMGVtb3Rpb25hbCUyMGludGVsbGlnZW5jZSxwcm92aWRpbmclMjBhJTIwdmlzdWFsJTIwcmVwcmVzZW50YXRpb24lMjBvZiUyMGRpZmZlcmVudCUyMGVtb3Rpb25hbCUyMHN0YXRlcy4]for it. You can click here [https://www.truity.com/test/eq-emotional-intelligence-test]to take an EI quiz and then share the results in reply to this thread.

Learn about Communities and earn a badge!

by Hope

June 26th

I've been a listener 10 years now

by Remina

June 26th

Forum Supporter Guide: Validation

by MonBon

June 12th

...See more Hey guys :) I'm trying out this thing where I post topic guides to common issues forum supporters encounter. This one is about validation. if you like it, I may post more! ~MonBon What Does Validation Mean? What is âvalidation and what does that mean? In a 1-on-1, we are encouraged to validate the member/guests feelings and experiences, which a lot of people mistake as assuming they are right. While to invalidate a persons experience is to say they are wrong or their feelings and experiences dont matter, validating a persons experience is merely to say: Hey, if you feel this way, thats okay and it matters. It happened. As this article says, Validation doesnt mean agreeing or approving. Instead, validation is acceptance of your or someone elses feelings, choices, actions, or thoughts as understandable and as fact. What are some common misconceptions and mistakes we make with validation? Saying that an action, decision, or feeling is right. Say a member is angry with a friend and lashed out at them. As a supporter, we can say I understand youre frustrated or I can see why you might have lashed out. But a mistake would be to say You were correct to lash out or You should be angry. Condemning the other person involved in the interaction. The only people who know what happened are the member and the other person involved. We, as supporters, do not know what happened so a mistake would be to say, Your friend acted incorrectly or Your friend isnt being reasonable. We do not know what happened, we cannot act like we do. In 1-on-1s this doesnt seem as obvious as a problem. Only you and your member will see the conversation, so it doesnt really affect the other person in question. In the forums or in group chat settings, this dynamic completely changes. The listener or member being discussed can quite possibly see this interaction between you as a supporter and the member or listener that you are validating. You risk invalidating the other persons experience while not really achieving your original purpose. Take a common example seen in the forums: Member: My listener was awful and didnt seem to understand me at all. Then they blocked me so now I cant even report them. This site is definitely going down the toilet. As supporters, we tend to jump in and say, I am so sorry that happened to you, I agree they are a terrible listener and if you need to message me you totally can because I wont be like that! But there are a few problems with that. You are assuming that everything that member is saying is fact, and while we never assume they are lying, we cannot *know* that they are telling us the whole story or that they didnt misunderstand the situation. A unique situation that arises in the forum or in the group chatrooms is that the other participant in the 1-on-1 will possibly see this complaint. The only two people who know what happened in the 1-on-1 are the member and the listener, so when you assume that the first person to complain about the situation is the one in the right, you risk invalidating the other participant. A better way to handle this is to respond similarly to this: You: Im sorry that you had a negative experience, sometimes a member and listener dont click well for any number of reasons and that can be very frustrating :( If you feel your listener acted incorrectly you can report them by submitting a support ticket here [https://help.7cups.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360002045973]. I encourage you to try again with another listener! I hope your experience is more positive in the future :) In this way you are not assuming either party acted correctly or incorrectly while still validating the members experience. Another common example in the forums and in the listener group chats: Listener: My member was totally unreasonable and now Im going to get a report, thats unfair!! Why do I always get the troll members?? Again, we tend to jump in and say, I understand! It sucks to get terrible members. Dont take it personally. Do we know what happened between that listener and member? Is it fair to call a member terrible? Even if they are being unreasonable? The answer to all of these is no. It is true that sometimes a member and a listener dont mesh well and that neither of them should take it personally. The forum post "Knowing when to distance yourself" [https://www.7cups.com/forum/ListenerLearningJourney_149/TipsampHelpfulHintsforListening_61/Knowingwhentodistanceyourself_25959/] [L] outlines this very eloquently. While keeping that in mind, there is no way for us to know that this is the case, so we cannot in good faith tell a listener that they are or are not at fault, and we especially cannot shove the blame onto the member. As before, this member might see this post whether its in the public forum, listeners only forum, or the listener chatrooms. If we shove the blame onto the member, we are invalidating their experience and assuming things we simply cannot know. I hope this post helps you to understand what validation is and how we can all validate each other in a more helpful and positive way. Thank you for reading. ~MonBon [L] indicates a Listener only thread

Learn to say NO

by Remina

June 10th

...See more The word "No" is considered to be an important part of a successful life strategy. "Focusing is about saying 'no'" - Steve Jobs "We need to learn the slow 'yes' and the quick 'no'" - Warren Buffett "The art of leadership is saying No, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes." - Tony Blair. For many of us, it can be hard to say no. There are many different reasons to why it might be hard to say no. Many of us fear conflict. We don't like it when others are angry with us or critical of us. We avoid saying "no" to avoid conflict. It is also possible we avoid "no" because we want people to like us. We desire acceptance. We might also hesitate to say "no" because we don't want to disappoint or hurt someone. We might feel like we are letting people down when we say no. We sometimes do things to make things easier for other people. Sometimes we might decide to just give in because we think if we don't, someone will be disappointed. There are times where leaders stay in roles that they have outgrown or projects that they do not have time for due to outside life commitments but prefer to spread themselves thin rather than take a break in fear of disappointing or letting someone down. Some techniques that can be done to get better at saying "No" are as followed: Practice saying "No" in small, unimportant situations, like buying something at the store. Stop and breathe before saying "yes" in order to give yourself a little space and an opportunity to assess and respond to your own needs. Seek advice. Reach out to a mentor and discuss the position with them. Sometimes talking about options with mentors can give you the ability to get what you need to say into words. Remember you are allowed to change your mind, don't get trapped in the belief that you only have one opportunity. Sometimes saying "Yes" can be the right thing, especially if it is related to your goals and it does not overwhelm you. When you do say "No" it allows you to set clear boundaries, prioritize your well-being, and prevent overcommitment, which can lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout. * Be honest, polite, and firm when saying no. Use clear language without overexplaining yourself. For example, "No, thank you, I am not available that day" or "I would love to help but my schedule is full." This is particularly useful when approached to join a discussion team or a mentoring track. * Keep it short. Avoid long explanations that invite further persuasion. A concise refusal is more effective and respectful. * Use the sandwich method. Frame your no between positive statements. For instance, "Thank you for thinking of me. I won't be able to attend, but I hope it goes well." * You can offer alternatives when comfortable. If appropriate, suggest another time or solution, but only if it aligns with your priorities. * Recognize your limits. Make sure to pay attention to physical or emotional cues, like stress or fatigue, which signal when it is necessary to decline. Feeling guilty or fearing rejection when you say "no" is common. Remind yourself that your time and energy are valuable, and saying no does not make you selfish or rude. Everyone has limits and everyone says "no" sometimes. No one here is going to be disappointed or stop liking you because you say no.

Join a Subcommunity!

by CheeryMango

June 10th

Got a question about the forums or communities? Ask it here!

by tommy

June 5th

Find a Friend

by Letsgiveatrytobehappy

May 31st

If you had to explain leadership to an alien, what would you describe it as?

by Remina

May 29th

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