One Step Further: Leadership in School Counseling

We have all met school counselors who are highly skilled and confident professionals that are just waiting to emerge as leaders. What our profession deserves more than anything now are school counselors in leadership roles within their school communities. Many districts have directors or supervisors of school counseling services. However, many in those roles serve a more administrative purpose instead of having a clear focus on school counseling services. School counselors who are leaders need to apply for and create these roles, where our field is front and center.

So how can school counselors interested in leadership thrive?

• Program Development: What services are delivered by your school counselors and what is the foundation for these services? Consider the ASCA National Model. Do you have a curriculum that is followed?
• Data Usage: What kind of data does your office collect and analyze to improve your school counseling services? Consider grades, attendance, test scores, behavior, surveys and other assessments to gauge student interest and participation in school tasks or specific school counseling activities (groups, classroom lessons, individual counseling).
• Professional Advocacy: What are your interests in our field and do you write or post about them, present or teach them? Think about articles for newsletters, magazines or journals, presentation proposals for conferences, workshops in college classes or professional development at your school or in your district.
• Identity and Image: What are some of the ways you declare and define the role of the school counselor to your school community? Do you correct colleagues if they say “guidance counselor” and explain why? Do you actively dispel myths about our career? Do you explain our role and know when to say no to the inappropriate duties? Do you continuously strive to prevent school counselors from being the scapegoats?
• Highlights and Celebration: How do you acknowledge and honor the amazing work that is being done by school counselors? Do you celebrate National School Counseling Week at your school? Is there a bulletin board or newsletter showcasing the department’s activities?

Many school counselors may have some hesitation to pursue an administrative role because of the fear that many other non-school counseling duties may be placed onto them. Depending on the district, this may occur, but if you are hired with one of the major goals being to build and sustain a strong and powerful school counseling department, then your responsibilities and your schedule can be built around this. Your intent has to be clear and your agenda has to be thought through. You have to be well-informed, reflective and open-minded.
 
There is a fine balance between the role of the school counselor and that of a school administrator. Someone who serves as a supervisor or director of school counseling services has an incredible opportunity to bridge these two worlds and use their skill set as a counselor – which includes empathy, patience and understanding – and merge them with the talents of an effective administrator, such as vision, determination and team-building. Many of these and other qualities, such as forethought and intuition, overlap in both roles. And the merging of the two can allow a true school counselor leader to evolve.
 
There are challenges due to the pressure felt by school counselors on their level and those faced at a managerial level, as well. But with a true comprehension of what comprises an effective school counseling department, a leader in this department can work smart and find the significance in many different types of projects.
 
Questions to ask yourself if you are considering school counselor leadership: 

• Where do the different tasks assigned fit in and what happens if they do not?
• What tasks can we create and place in our schedule first?
• How can we seriously change what is not working?
• How can we work more efficiently and not repeat work or waste time?
• How can we go home every single day having done work that matters?

If you are considering a school counselor leadership role, know that it can be a very fulfilling one and many of us are out here to support you in your endeavor.
 
Sweety Patel is a school counselor at Renaissance Institute/U-CAN Academy with Jersey City Public Schools.