School counselors as program leaders: applying leadership contexts to school counseling

Professional School Counseling, June, 2003 by Colette T. Dollarhide

1. Structural leadership, or leadership in the building of viable organizations.

2. Human resource leadership, or leadership via empowerment and inspiration of followers.

3. Political leadership, or leadership in the use of interpersonal and organizational power.

4. Symbolic leadership, or leadership via the interpretation and re-interpretation of the meaning of change.

When each leadership context is applied to school counseling, it is possible to identify the activities that correspond to each context (adapted from Bolman & Deal, 1997). In the context of structural leadership, school counselors would lead by activities involving the building of an effective comprehensive school counseling program, including technical mastery of counseling and education, strategies for growth of the comprehensive school counseling program, and implementation of an effective program. The skills needed for these activities--namely counseling, consulting, teaching, advocacy, and research--are taught in most graduate programs for school counselors (Gysbers & Henderson, 2000; Paisley, 2001; VanZandt & Hayslip, 2001).

In the context of human resource leadership, school counselors would lead via the activities of believing in people and communicating that belief, being visible and accessible, and empowering others (Bolman & Deal, 1997). These activities require skills in communication, empowerment, trust building, and listening. Both structural leadership activities and human resource leadership activities are within the traditional skill sets of most school counselors.

Political leadership, however, may be a more non-traditional role for many counselors and may cause counselors to experience anxiety and dissonance. In this leadership context, school counselors would lead through activities involving the assessment of the distribution of power within the building and district, the building of linkages with important stakeholders such as parents and school board members, and the use of persuasion and negotiation (Bolman & Deal, 1997). School counselors can expand their leadership through awareness of and access to formal and informal structures of power in the school and the district, negotiating with important stakeholders and advocating on behalf of the school and the comprehensive school counseling program. These activities require skills in negotiation, persuasion, collaboration, and advocacy, which may be taught directly or indirectly in graduate programs, or may be developed as counselors become more aware of the power dynamics of the school environment.

Finally, the context of symbolic leadership requires activities involving using symbols and metaphors to capture attention, framing experience in meaningful ways for followers, and discovering and communicating a vision (Bolman & Deal, 1997). School counselors who lead in this context have a relationship with their community (students, parents, school professionals) and are effective models in efforts to meet the needs of students, inspiring others to follow their example. Furthermore, school counselors help students, families, and others understand their experiences as symbolic of growth and development. In this leadership context, school counselors lead by articulating a vision of healthy, resilient students and by maintaining faith in that vision (Littrell & Peterson, 2001). The skills required by these activities--designing symbols, expressing meaning, inspiring others, and modeling for others--may be obtained through graduate education or may evolve as counselors develop a professional identity (Johnson, 2000).