1. Leadership and Collaboration in School Counseling
CHAPTER 6

2. GOAL
To discuss and advocate the role of leadership and collaboration in school counseling and identify leadership and collaboration competencies.

3. DEMAND FOR LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING
Leadership – The Transforming School Counseling Initiative (TSCI) called for school counselors to be the leaders and advocates who would remove systemic barriers that impede academic achievement for all students.
Collaboration – There is a need to achieve school–community collaboration. This approach focuses on improving the services available to students and their families in order to respond to social, emotional, and physical health barriers to student academic success by bringing outside services into better relationships with the schools.

4. A QUESTION OF LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOL COUNSELING
Are leaders born or made?
Leadership has not traditionally been treated as an important function in the training of school counselors.
Many individuals who entered school counseling previously did not view themselves as leaders.

5. UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP CONCEPTUALLY
Structural leadership context
Human resource leadership context
Political leadership
Symbolic leadership

6. COMPETENCIES IN BASIC LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING PART I
Cause, lead, implement, and maintain a comprehensive school counseling program.
Form and lead committees, including chairing committees, planning agendas, and establishing meeting schedules.
Coordinate the objectives, strategies, and activities of a comprehensive school counseling program.

7. COMPETENCIES IN BASIC LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING PART II
Serve as a missionary for the program.
Develop mechanisms for educating and involving others.
Develop support systems for yourself and other school counseling personnel.
Conduct meetings, make commitments for action, form and convene steering committees, form and convene school and community advisory committees, establish work groups, and meet with district administrators and school boards.
Demonstrate leadership skills as an active member of programs and committees.

8. COMPETENCIES IN BASIC LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING PART III
Mediate conflicts.
Recognize differences such as race, gender, experience, preferred learning styles, and work roles, and use that information to engage in creative problem solving even though it may involve conflict.
Recognize opportunities for empowerment.

9. COMPETENCIES IN BASIC LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING PART IV
Know how work groups operate, especially teams, and how to build effective teams.
Recruit volunteers to assist in school programs.
Build a sense of community in the schools.
Know how to effectively manage school and community bureaucracies.
Build a consensus and work collaboratively with a broad range of professionals and concerned citizens in order to achieve a sense of community.

10. COMPETENCIES IN BASIC LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL COUNSELING PART V
Work collaboratively with school administrators.
Bring community services into the schools and coordinate them.
Develop mutual prevention/intervention programs with community agencies.
Work closely with other support personnel in the schools (e.g., school psychologists, school social workers, nurses, and special educators).
Support, consult, and work with teachers.
Collect and share data (e.g., document obstacles to student growth and development).
Develop a crisis team that is educated in emergency response procedures.
Inform administrators about the contributions you plan to make rather than asking them what to do.

11. REFLECTING ABOUT LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION
What do you think about the school counselor as a leader and collaborator whose primary goal is to improve educational fulfillment and academic achievement of all students?
Interview one or more school counselors, and ask their opinion about whether or not they should be leaders. Follow up with the school counselors who believe that they should be leaders, and ask them to provide an inventory of circumstances in which they believe school counselor leadership is needed and appropriate.
Discuss the interrelationships among leadership, collaboration, and advocacy.
Make an inventory of both your leadership strengths and challenges.

12. APPLICATION TO TECHNOLOGY
Consider your audience (teachers, parents, students, other stakeholders), and create an electronic presentation to educate that audience about your role as a professional school counselor.
Post to your professional school counseling website about how you will serve as a leader in your school (using data, collaborating with community, advocacy, etc.).