Blog 9

     I found this chapter on Leadership, Advocacy, and Coordination a particularly interesting read this week. I liked the analogy of the copilot on a plane acting in ways a school counselor would act in a school setting. If both the pilot and copilot work together well and also are responsible for their own set of duties, all usually goes well. When one or both are unbalanced, even minor turbulence can cause trouble.

     I appreciated the new models of leadership that were presented in the Mason & McMahon article. As they note, "More recently, however, scholars have promoted new conceptualizations of leadership that have more to do with skills, relationships, and processes than with authoritative power or position within a hierarchy." (Mason & McMahon, 2009, p. 108). They go on to say that there is a "shift from a leader role of separation to one of collaboration" (p. 108). This works well for school counselors as we just recently learned the importance of collaboration in this position. The description of  transformational leadership felt comfortable to me and I could see myself working out of this type of framework.

     I worked as Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries for a large church in Newark, DE I was privileged to have as my boss for 10 years,  a pastor named Cliff Armour. There were many things I admired about his leadership style but I also now after this week's reading see many areas where he fell short. I think one of the things that he struggled with was that he was such a strong introvert. He could play the social game but it left him exhausted and he often made only brief appearances at events. He was a wonderful speaker (and so many did not know how shy he really was) and I always enjoyed his sermons. He was a very hands off boss in that he trusted you to run your programs with little input from him. His office door was often open so while he was approachable I didn't spend a lot of time one-on-one with him. He was passionate about many causes and put in a lot of his time and money into these causes but I don't always think I understood his vision for our church and community. Maybe he didn't articulate it well or maybe it wasn't clear to him, but I would have liked to have had a clearer direction of where our staff was headed. Back to the plane analogy...where where we flying to? what was our route to our destination? how would we know when we arrived?

     The section on participatory leadership and distributed leadership was thought provoking. The idea of participatory leadership with "the view that all participants - leaders and followers- have energy, insights, and potential to offer on behalf of shared goals" (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p.190) is exciting. I also liked the concept in distributed leadership of "The practice of leadership is the focus, rather than the leader him or herself, and the leadership process is seen as the interactions among multiple leaders, their followers, and the situation itself. " (p. 190). I have a lot to think about concerning my own leadership style. There are times when I have felt effective as a leader and other times where I have fallen short. I am still searching for my own style. The balance of power and control need to be tempered with listening, insight and guidance.




Dollarhide, C.T. & Saginak, K.A. (2012) Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.

Mason, E.C.H. & McMahon, H.G. (2009). Leadership practices of school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 13 (2), pp. 107-115.