
School Counseling Leadership Specialist Training
It’s been said that leaders are born, not made. If that’s true, then we’re all born leaders. Leadership is an attitude and a state of mind, not an innate ability. Everyone has leadership qualities and the potential to lead, no matter what official position we may hold.
The need for effective leaders in school counseling has never been greater. Students need school counselors to be effective educational leaders who can effect systemic change in their schools. ASCA and state school counselor associations need leaders who can guide the school counseling profession into the future.
To address these needs, ASCA has developed a new professional development package – the School Counseling Leadership Specialist program. This course is meant to be transformative. It doesn’t focus on how leaders behave but how leaders think, not what leaders do but what leaders are. At the completion of this course, you should not only know what makes a good leader, you should be a good leader – in your school building and district as well as in your state school counselor association. Completion of the course also fulfills training requirements for leadership positions in ASCA at the national level.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of the course, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge about the nature of leadership and leadership attributes.
- Be familiar with various leadership theories and principles
- Demonstrate effective leadership in traditionally non-leadership roles.
- Understand the sources of power and authority
- Develop your own personal leadership attributes
- Develop a greater self-awareness and identify personal attributes, such as motivations and limitations, that may become obstacles to effective leadership
- Understand how leaders effect systemic change in organizations
- Understand ways to collaborate with people at higher levels of authority as well as peers and how to foster collaboration throughout an organization
- Understand the challenges of leadership in educational settings
- Understand Policy Governance and how it can be used effectively in a variety of settings
- Learn how to monitor and evaluate organizational (and management) performance
- Be prepared to be an effective leader in your state school counselor association and in ASCA.
Don’t forget to Join In our Edmodo Book Club and Study Group. We’re beginning now and will accept new members until July 25th. I’ll post guided reading questions for members to respond and discuss, have links to all the articles and handouts, and keep everyone moving through the course. Even if you don’t want to sign up for the training, feel free to read along and join in with the discussions. Part of leadership after all is learning to collaborate and share ideas, as well as expressing your ideas and thoughts to others.
Want to connect with other school counselors? Join one of the groups below.