The Dance of Leadership

In my 27 years at Goshen Middle School, a RAMP® school in Goshen, Ind., I found that school counselors were naturals at advocating for students but reluctant to advocate for themselves. The dance of advocacy is really a dance of leadership. Like steps in a waltz, the leadership dance moves up, down and sideways, depending on the need and context. It’s dynamic, a way of relating; it doesn’t have an instructional flowchart.
 
Leading down reflects how I led students and staff I supervised or who reported to me. Leading sideways reflects how I led those I worked alongside – other school counselors, teachers, families, other staff. Leading up reflects how I navigated issues important to the school with those who supervised me or who I reported to – administrators, superintendent, school board members.
 
A useful approach has been considering advocacy in terms of the urgent, the important and the strategic. The “urgent” targeted issues related to students’ emotional and physical safety. The “important” addressed issues related to the school or district’s needs and priorities. The “strategic” involved creating a vision and a plan for the long game of building a comprehensive school counseling program.
 

Leading in Different Directions

Leading down includes building a comprehensive school counseling program that addresses all students’ unique needs and provides equitable access to programming and resources for academic, career and social/emotional development. This is a never-ending process in eliminating barriers and offering hope and vision for students’ futures. Some days, this means “going to the mat” when you strongly believe an injustice was happening.
 
When leading sideways, you’ll work with both like-minded and resistant individuals or teams. It’s important to recognize and foster the leadership skills in the individuals you work with. Sometimes that requires getting out of the way and trusting them, even when they may falter. If they falter, regroup together. When working alongside the like-minded, there’s freedom to say, “I don’t know; let’s find out together.” This might involve digging into data to test assumptions, looking for gaps that need to be addressed, or creating appropriate programming.
 
When working alongside those resistant to being led, I found the first step was to cultivate trust, creating the steps necessary for transformation and connection. Building trust requires focus and intention; some moments flowed naturally, while others demanded careful choreography. I needed to constantly reflect on my leadership, always learning, adapting and evolving so I could empower others to learn, adapt and evolve as well.
 
Finally, leading up may be the most challenging. You’re either advocating for systemic change to benefit students or advocating for the school counseling profession. My best advice for leading up is to start small by providing information from ASCA, such as the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors, position statements and infographics regarding recommended caseload ratios or the difference between school counselor and guidance counselor. Gradually, add evidence from your daily efforts, sharing use of time, advocating to eliminate inappropriate school counseling duties, creating results reports and implementing the annual administrative conference with your administrator.
 
I tried leading our school counseling team by example in ways that would support my building and district leadership, focusing on annual student outcome goals and activities that could have a positive impact on school data, thereby allowing my middle school and administrative leadership to shine through the efforts of the school counseling program.
 

Navigating the Rhythm 

Regardless of which issues or practices you’re addressing when building a comprehensive school counseling program, consider the following as you navigate the rhythms of advocacy and leadership.
 
Accept that advocating for change is a long-game endeavor requiring intentional strategic steps and planning: A comprehensive school counseling program isn’t built in a day.
 
Understand the school and district culture to determine locus of control: What do you have the power to change, effect, refine, enhance, improve, eliminate? Culture will trump strategy, impeding the best efforts and planning.
 
Bring solutions, not complaints: Get on the solution side, rather than solely pointing out problems.
 
Lead by example: How can you adjust your own actions to demonstrate effectiveness and provide data?
 
Identify the like-minded who are receptive to change and open to new ideas: Ask to field test with other school counselors, teachers and staff. Success with one person travels by word of mouth and opens doors to more opportunities.
 
Embrace the discomfort of conflict and disagreement while protecting personal well-being: There is growth through conflict. This can’t be avoided, but recognize when it’s time to step back to rest and regroup.
 
Reflect upon your leadership style to learn, refine, grow and adapt: Accept the fact that a change in approach may be necessary.
 
School counselors are skilled at identifying issues within their school setting that impede their ability to build a comprehensive program to support all students. Our work also requires skill at creating our own solutions, finding the resources needed, determining how to tackle the problem and finding others to work with when addressing those needs.
 
Jan Desmarais-Morse is a recently retired school counselor from Goshen Middle School, a RAMP® school in Goshen, Ind. She can be reached at scjanm@gmail.com.