From the Chair: Lead On

Starting my first counseling job in a rural district was a bit overwhelming. I remember my first day – a week before students arrived – sitting in my office thinking to myself, “Now what?” I quickly realized it was hard to determine my “place,” so to speak. I wasn’t a teacher, I wasn’t an administrator, I was something in between. Here was the opportunity in front of me to really shape what I wanted to be within this school district.

Let’s be honest, change is slow and leadership is not always a natural quality. As a new counselor, I tended to be more of the helper or peacemaker. I quickly realized that it was not enough just to be there when needed; I had to take control of my program and be a leader as well.

Being the sole counselor meant that all responsibility fell on me and it was my job to create a program that would benefit all members of our school community. Looking back, I can see now that relationship building has made the biggest difference in my school counseling work. I cultivated relationships with teachers, administrators, community partners, parents and students. Through these relationships I was then able to not only advocate for my program, but work to make key changes within our school system.

Talking about your program and all the great things you are doing is not always easy, but you cannot afford to keep quiet. It was through relationships that I was able to talk about the great work our counseling program was doing and how much more could be done if only I wasn’t responsible for non-counseling duties such as being the district testing coordinator. Advocating on behalf of students was more productive because I had done the legwork and built a relationship of trust and respect. When I voiced concerns to administration about lunch duty, dance duty and other activities that could put me at odds with the students that I served, my words did not fall on deaf ears and those responsibilities were soon removed. Through constant leadership and relationship building, I have been able to slowly move non-counselor duties off my plate and more counseling duties onto my plate. 

If you have not viewed yourself as a leader before, especially when you are a lone counselor in your school district, now is the time to take another look at your program and identify the ways in which you are a leader or can step up and be one. Once identified, it’s time to get to work and build up the areas in which you can be a stronger leader. This will help to give you renewed vision of your program and of the counselor you want to be.

Contact Shiloh Wheeler, AzSCA chair, at rayshiloh@hotmail.com.