The timing of the topic of this week’s readings was very
interesting to me, considering a recent conversation that I had with a
friend. In this conversation, my friend
made the comment that a person’s calling is the thing that you might try to run
away from, but it keeps coming back to you anyway. I asked myself what this meant for me
personally. What is the thing that I
keep coming back to, even when I try to run away from it? My answer: leadership. As I look back through my life, I can see
myself beginning to sense this calling from a fairly early age. Leadership is not something that I
necessarily would have identified in myself at those early stages, but I know
that there were many people who recognized me as a leader and called me out
into leadership roles. My first and
third-grade teachers gave me leading roles in our class plays. My kindergarten teacher asked me to be a
buddy to her students when I was in fourth grade. During high school, I was asked to be part of
a student leadership team in my youth group at church. I was elected to various leadership positions
within my 4-H club. In college, I
started a Bible Study in my dorm room. I
went into training for an 8-month service project overseas as a participant on
a 4-person team, but ended up becoming the leader of the team about a month into
training. Following my return from
Bolivia, I was asked to serve as the Assistant Training Director at the center where
I’d been trained. As I finished up my
last two years of college and completed various internship experiences, I found
myself in leadership roles yet again at a camp and in two different churches. I don’t spout off all of these experiences to
brag, but to prove (mostly to myself) that leadership is the thing that I keep
coming back to. It seems like my calling. Perhaps that is why school counseling appeals
to me. I feel like it is a job where I
will get to do what I am.
Dollarhide
(as cited in Mason & McMahon, 2009, p. 108) suggested that structural
leadership and human resource leadership are likely evidenced by school
counselors. Interestingly enough, I
found that those types of leadership were the types I scored highest on after
completing our leadership style questionnaire in class last week. This was a confirmation to me that I am
heading toward a career that should be a good fit for me and that I will also be
a good fit for my career. Dollarhide and
Saginak (2012) ask us to consider which qualities of leaders we currently
possess and which qualities we might further develop as we move into leadership
in our schools. I believe that some of
the qualities that I currently possess include: adaptability, achievement
orientation, cooperation, dependability, tolerance for stress, responsibility,
honesty, ability to be organized, and supportiveness. Qualities that I hope to further develop as I
move into school leadership include: assertiveness, decisiveness,
self-confidence, diplomacy and tact, charisma, and ability to be inspiring. I’ve already begun the process of working on
developing assertiveness and self-confidence throughout our Theory and Practice
classes, and I think that I can apply the same Solution-Focused concepts and
process to develop the other qualities that I want to see myself grow in.
References
Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs:
K-12 delivery systems in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Mason, E. & McMahon, H. G. (2009). Leadership practices
of school counselors. Professional School
Counseling, 13 (2), 107-115.
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