In this episode of the Counselor Chat podcast, we explore the various ways school counselors can step into leadership roles within their schools and communities. I discuss the differences between vertical and horizontal leadership and share examples of how these leadership styles can make a significant impact on student success and school culture. Whether you’re a new counselor or a seasoned professional, this episode offers valuable insights into embracing leadership to better support students and advocate for our profession.
Key Topics Covered:
Types of Leadership: I break down vertical and horizontal leadership and explain how they apply to school counselors.
- Vertical leadership focuses on leading from the top down, including roles like department head or lead counselor, advocating for students, and supervising counseling programs.
- Horizontal leadership involves collaboration, teamwork, and community engagement to support students in a more collective manner.
Examples of Vertical Leadership:
- Administrative roles such as department head or lead counselor.
- Advocacy leadership, where school counselors participate in school leadership meetings and propose policy changes that benefit students.
- Instructional leadership, focusing on designing and implementing guidance curriculums and conducting teacher training on social-emotional learning.
Examples of Horizontal Leadership:
- Collaboration with teachers, school psychologists, and social workers to develop support plans for students.
- Community engagement, organizing parent workshops, or partnering with local organizations for volunteer programs.
- Peer leadership, including mentoring newer counselors and participating in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).
The Value of Leadership:
- Leadership roles help school counselors advocate for students and positively influence school culture.
- Participation in professional associations, such as state or local counselor associations, is crucial for personal and professional growth.
- Volunteering for committees, attending conferences, and engaging with other counselors enhances the counseling community and strengthens the profession.
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Transcript
Carol: You're listening to the counselor chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy. I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students. If you're looking for a little inspiration to help help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place because we're better together. Ready to chat? Let's dive in.
Carol: Hi, everyone. It's Carol. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor chat. Today I thought we could talk all about leadership, specifically examples of leadership, really specifically for school counselors. It took me a while to really understand different types of leadership. And I think as school counselors, we're not only seen as leaders within our school, but we play, we really do play vital leadership roles. And I don't know how much you guys really know about leadership, but really, as we talk about leadership, there's really two different types. There's horizontal leadership and there's vertical leadership. Now, if you're trying to figure out what's the difference between horizontal and vertical leadership, I want you to kind of imagine that you are playing a game with your friends, and there are two ways that you can be a leader. Well, vertical leadership is like being the leader of your team in the game. You make the big decisions, like which game to play or where everyone should go next, and everybody, they look up to you because you're in charge. Horizontal leadership, on the other hand, is more like when you and your friends work together as equals. Maybe you all decide together on the rules of the games or take turns choosing what to do next. It's really about sharing ideas and working as a team without having one person be the boss. So really vertical leadership is about leading from the top down with one person in charge, while horizontal leadership is really about working together side by side with everyone having a say. Both ways are important for getting things done and for having fun. But as school counselors, we really need to look at these leadership roles and the roles that we play in each kind of category. So if we're looking at that vertical leadership, you know, school counselors, we can take on different administrative roles within our school hierarchy, such as being a department head or the lead counselor or being maybe even a mentor towards other team members. And we might, in this role, oversee the implementation of our counseling program. We might supervise other counselors, and we coordinate with other school administrators. But in terms of vertical leadership, there's also advocacy leadership. That's where school counselors can really advocate for students needs by participating in school leadership meetings. So think about what meetings and what kind of like admin teacher partnerships they have in your building, and think about what teams that you can be on so that you can really address issues that are affecting your students and maybe propose policy changes that can benefit the whole student body. So maybe you have a DEI team or you have a school improvement team. If you can try to get yourself on that, you not only will learn a lot of things, but it's a great way to really advocate for student needs. Instructional leadership is really another way that you can show vertical leadership. If you can help design and implement the guidance curriculum within your school program or develop sessions for teachers on topics like social emotional learning or classroom management strategies, that's another great way to show those leadership qualities. Now, horizontal leadership, on the other hand, this is where we're collaborating with other educators, maybe like teachers or school psychologists or social workers, and we're really working to develop comprehensive support plans for our kiddos. Think of this as your MTSs or your RTI or maybe even part of your 504 teams or IEP team meetings. You are working together for the benefit of the kiddo. You can also show horizontal leadership through community engagement. This might be by organizing parent workshops or partnering with a local organization, maybe the church or some other type of program that will really help provide resources for families and maybe can help you with some volunteer programs that you're running. An example of this in our building right now is we are working and partnering with some of our local organizations like the local community college. And in New York we have BOCES, which is our VotEC program, as well as there's a military base, an air force base that's in Rome, and we're working with these places to really try to bring a career fair to our elementary students. So we are really working on our community engagement leadership. We're working to bring this program to our kids. And then of course there is peer leadership. That's like mentoring the newer counselors or maybe leading Plc community where you're really focusing on honing your skills and your crafts as school counselors. This could also be participating in your local counselor association. I know I used to run a PlC for school counselors and we had some speakers come in and talk to us about different topics that would help us in working with kids, but we also shared a lot of resources and information with one another. We asked questions like, how did you best do this? Or what are you doing in your program for safety lessons or for. I want to run an anxiety group with kiddos. What kind of curriculum are you using? So these peer leaderships can be really helpful in growing ourselves as school counselors. I wanted to talk about leadership today because I think it's something that we don't necessarily think a lot about, but really can help us as school counselors, not only have these really awesome programs, but can also benefit us professionally as well because they make us do better, be better, and become stronger in supporting kids needs. I think you guys know that I have been a part of NISCA, which is the New York State School Counselors association and state school counselor associations. They're another great way for us to grow professionally and really contribute to the field. I always like to say, you're either at the table or you're on the table. And I think as we think about our role as a school counselor, we want to be sitting at the table. We don't want to be on the table. We never want to be on the table because that usually means that people are questioning what we do. We want to be sitting at the table. We want to be have our voices heard, our opinions do matter. And we come with all this expertise that is really important for student growth and student outcomes. So by participating in our counselor associations, whether they're at the local level or the state level or ASCA, it's so important to do. It's really important for us to attend association events by going to a conference or workshop or even a networking event, because if there's a local networking event, those are great ways to see who else is in your community that is also a school counselor. Sometimes local schools share kids. Kids go from one school to another. So it's important to know who can you call if a kid is transferring from one place to another, who's that other counselor that they're going to? So these networking events, they can be really crucial and join committees. I know right now I'm not on the board for NiSca, but I am on several committees. I'm on our public relations and marketing committee and I'm on our conference committee. But there's other committees as well. Whether you want to join the advocacy committee or the membership committee, or there's really a bunch, depending on what state you live in, there could be an emerging leaders committee. There's usually some for graduate students and things like that. But there could also be affinity groups as well. And the affinity groups would be like maybe a group for school counselors of color or for rural school counselors or for LGBTQ. So there's lots of different affinity groups and places to connect with people that have similar visions and missions and backgrounds as you. And those are really awesome things to join. I think when it comes to maybe a state school counselor association, you can also really volunteer in some capacity, sign up for a leadership role. I know right now at NISCA, we are in the middle of elections, so vote for the people that you want to serve you, because that's important, too. And we have positions like our president elect is up, some of our regional governors, and so there's different roles that need to be voted on. And so it's really important to put people in those positions that are going to be acting as your leadership at the state level. So make sure you vote there. You can also, with your state association, participate in some leadership training if you are on the board or a member of a committee. You could even go to what we call the leadership development institute every summer. NISCA has an LDI, we like to call it, and we get together and we learn about each other, but we learn how the organization works and how we figure out ways that we can best serve other school counselors in the state, but also our students, because that's what it's all about, is serving the students. And ASCA has one, too. And I know that I participated in both the Asca LDI as well as the Nisca Ldi. And the best way to learn about all of these opportunities is really just by getting involved and staying informed. Look at the association's website. Go to meetings, subscribe to the newsletter, get those email updates. But whatever form of leadership you do, it really helps us to grow and contribute to our field. So, my friends, get involved. Show your leadership. I know sometimes it's hard to think of ourselves as leaders, but you guys have so much to offer. You are leaders, and I want you to know that you are leaders. You are well trained. You're well equipped to do the job that you're doing with kids. And it's important to let other people know that we're experts. It's important to let other people know that our profession is valuable to student growth. So if you haven't thought of taking on a leadership role, I hope you think a little bit differently now, because there's really a lot of ways that you can contribute. And when you do, it really is. It's all for the kids. So let me know what other ways that you contribute to leadership. How are you a leader? Because I I love to hear this kind of stuff. I like to know what other people are doing, and, and I am all about advocating for school counselors all over the place, and I want to do what I can to really make this profession one that people love so much that they, they don't leave. Like me, I just don't leave. I just keep staying around for more. Anyway, I do hope that this was helpful. And like I said, I want to hear what you guys are doing, so let me know. Get a hold of me on social media. It's carolounselingessentials.org. If you want to send me an email or just go to counseling essentials on Facebook or Instagram and send me a little DM, I'd love to hear what you're doing. Anyway, my friends, this was kind of short and sweet, and I hope it was helpful. Until next time, have a great week. Bye for now.
Carol: Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor chat. All of the links I talked about catch be found in the show notes and@counselingessentials.org podcast. Be sure to hit, follow, or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it.
Carol: Want to connect?
Carol: Send me a DM on Facebook or instagramounselingessentials until next time. Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.