Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) defined leadership as “the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation” (p. 188). To me, this pretty much sums up what a school counselor should be doing in a school. There are many different concepts discussed throughout the ASCA National Model that can be pulled out of this short and general definition. For example, the process of influencing activities of an individual or group; this reminds me of collaboration. Counselors should try and strive to coordinate collaborative efforts between teachers, administrators, parents, and other key stakeholders to implement counseling programs more effectively. By using collaboration; counselors can become leaders within their schools. The part about moving towards goal achievement can be related to the systemic change that counselors try and make for students and the school as a whole through a comprehensive school counseling program. If programs run effectively with collaboration on all parts, it is easy to see how a school counselor could be considered a leader.
I found the leadership assessment that we took in class to be insightful and helpful in seeing where we hold our leadership strengths. After having a classmate fill out their perceptions of our leadership skills; I was happy to see that the results were similar. Most of us fell into the structural and human resources categories of leadership styles. After reading the chapter; I can see how these two types of leadership styles could be beneficial for school counselors. Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) described structural leadership as creating strategies for growth and change; as well as implementation (p. 188). These are the areas where school counselors would use this leadership style to collaborate with others to implement their comprehensive school counseling program in order to generate change. The frame of human resources leadership “involves believing in people and communicating that belief, visible and accessible, and empowering others” (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p. 189). Under this leadership frame; counselors would advocate for their students, and define their roles within schools by being visible and accessible. Overall, it is easy to see how bits and pieces of all leadership frames can encourage counselors to become leaders within their schools.
Topics and concepts presented in Mason and McMahon’s (2009) article on leadership were discussed during our small group discussions in class. We got on the topic of specific qualities that leaders should possess. I said that a certain degree of experience would be necessary for me to feel like a true leader. Mason and McMahon (2009) suggested that “currently, school counselor leadership is primarily a function of age, experience, and size of the school setting” (p. 115). At this point, I would have to agree with this statement. It reminds me of the interviews that I conducted for our research project. One of the younger school counselors did not necessarily feel like a leader within her school. On the other hand, the counselor that had been in the profession for twenty plus years felt secure in his role as a leader. I feel that before I can establish myself as a leader within a school; I would first need to establish my role as a school counselor and learn more about the specific comprehensive school counseling program that was currently being implemented. There was one part of Mason and McMahon’s (2009) article that I did disagree with. This was in the section that discussed counselor education programs and how they are not fully preparing future counselors to be leaders. I feel that we have learned a great deal about leadership roles of counselors throughout our courses in this program. However, there is a difference between learning them and having experience with them. Ultimately, I feel that the best way to establish myself as a leader is to gain experience in different leadership roles; which I hope to do as a future school counselor.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs. (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.
Mason, E. C. M., & McMahon, H. G. (2009). Leadership practices of school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 13(2), 107-115.
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