January 29, 2024 • 29 mins
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Discover how to elevate your influence on campus as we explore a leadership framework for school counselors proposed by Bowers, Lemberger-Truelove, & Brigman (2017). We'll look at the leadership dispositions that can transform school counselors into agents of change, promoting an environment where both students and staff can thrive.
Reference:
Bowers, H., Lemberger-Truelove, M. E., & Brigman, G. (2017). A social-emotional leadership framework for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 21(1b). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X18773004
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steph Johnson (00:00):
Hello school counselor, welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm Steph Johnson, your host,glad to be back here with you
for another week of SchoolCounseling Awesomeness.
I love to get together with youeach and every week to, you
know, talk about some thingsthat don't usually get talked
about in our corners of theworld, and this week will be no
(00:24):
exception.
Our topic this week is going tobe a little touchy, and the
reason it's going to be touchyis that you may or may not be in
a position to implement this,so I want to provide our topic
this week with the caveat, andthat is if you don't feel like
(00:45):
you're up to this, don't feellike you have to do it now.
File it away, put it in yourback pocket, save it for a
better time when you can fullyimplement with presence of mind.
You'll see what I'm talkingabout as we get into this, but
first, before we jump into allthat, as always, I want to share
(01:07):
our newest review for thepodcast from one of our amazing
listeners.
This review comes from Janer'sE and it is titled my number one
school counselor podcast.
It goes on to say the schoolfor school counselors podcast is
my go to for professionalpodcasts.
(01:28):
Let me stop right there.
That one sentence blew my mind.
I don't know if you guysrealize the extent to which that
knocks my socks off.
I never, ever, imagined that wewould be putting out something
that would get praise like that.
So thank you.
All ready for this review, letme go ahead and finish it,
(01:51):
though, because I want to giveit its due diligence.
The school for schoolcounselors podcast is my go to
for professional podcasts.
Steph Johnson and her team doan amazing job in providing
school counselors all around theworld with authentic research
based topics that we need toknow about, and some I didn't
(02:12):
even know I needed.
Thank you, team at school forschool counselors, for keeping
me company on my commute to andfrom work and inspiring me to be
the best counselor I can be.
Thank you so much, janer's E,for that review.
You have no idea how that'simpacted me and my team and just
(02:34):
keeps us going.
So, guys, if you haven'tsubmitted your review for the
podcast, I would love to hearyour thoughts on what we're
putting out into the world.
All right, so back on to ourtopic for this week.
We're going to be talking abouta leadership framework for
school counselors, and that'swhy I said that if this isn't
the right time for you, don'tstress about it.
(02:57):
Don't feel like, just becauseyou're listening to information
about it, that it means you needto run out and implement this
right away.
Some of you are not in theposition on your campuses to be
able to push toward a leadershipposition, yet there is still
misunderstanding about your role.
(03:18):
You're probably beingmisutilized somewhat on your
campus and you may have anadministrator that's not open to
these kinds of conversations orthese kinds of actions.
So if you're in a place likethat, don't let it discourage
you.
Keep listening for theinspiration, be thinking about
(03:38):
what this is going to look likewhen it's the right time and
then implement it when it feelsright.
You'll know when the time isright.
I promise you'll know.
This framework is not mine.
I did not develop it.
It was presented in an articlein the Professional School
Counseling Journal in 2018.
(04:00):
And its authors were Bowers,limburger, true Love and Brigham
.
They published quite a bit inthe school counseling world and
we're going to provide the linkto this article in the show
notes, as we always do.
But I just kind of wanted towalk through some of the ideas
in this article because I thinkthey're worth sharing.
(04:21):
For sure, when schools arebeing asked to do more and more
right, we're being asked toprovide more and more or
handling more and more concernsand issues with students and
their families, and we have morechallenges that surface every
day, especially post-COVID right, the needs, the resources
(04:47):
required are just.
They seem almost endless, andwe're doing so much with so
little, and so there is a greatpotential for us on campus to
really be able to become aperson of leadership on campus,
to be able to not only servestudents well but to guide our
(05:09):
teachers and our campus staffand best ways of approaching and
reaching students who arestruggling, who have challenges,
who need that little bit ofextra support.
However, the way that wetraditionally look at leadership
on campus may not be the mostappropriate manner in which we
(05:34):
can lead as school counselors.
We have a unique skill set.
On the surface it looks verybasic and, like you know, it's
kind of no big deal, andprobably to us it doesn't feel
that way because you know we seethe world as we perceive it.
We know we have these skillsinnately in us and so we just
assume everyone else does, butfriends they don't, and leading
(06:00):
committees laying down the law,giving rubrics and evaluations.
That's not the kind ofleadership that we're suited for
.
In this article, the authorspropose five social-emotional
leadership dispositions, andthrough these expressions of our
(06:23):
identity they say that we canreally effectively lead campuses
towards realizing greatersuccesses for students.
Usually, it's about beingauthentic in the way that you
work, about talking the talk butwalking the walk, and I love a
quote that the authors includedfrom an article that they
(06:46):
referenced, which described anauthentic leader.
So listen to this definitionand see if this resonates with
you, because if you aren't therenow, I would almost bet money
that this is what you aspire tobe.
They say that authentic leadersare those individuals who are
(07:07):
deeply aware of how they thinkand behave and are perceived by
others as being aware of theirown and others' values and moral
perspective, knowledge andstrengths, aware of the context
in which they operate, and whoare confident, hopeful,
optimistic, resilient and highon moral character.
(07:29):
That is a tall order, isn't itman?
Oh man, I know that I wouldaspire to be a leader like that.
I don't know that I always hitthe mark and all those criteria,
but I try real hard andhopefully it's the same for you.
But what they're telling us isthat this kind of authenticity
(07:51):
translates into greaterinfluence as a leader on your
campus.
And so, since we already embodya lot of these qualities, it
should be just kind of ahop-skip and a jump for us to
really assert ourselves asleaders on our campus.
(08:12):
So, basically, the 10,000-footview of this social-emotional
leadership framework involvesseveral components.
Number one is integrating SELconcepts into our daily work,
being solidarity with thoseconcepts, like I said, not only
talking the talk but walking thewalk, being a living example of
(08:36):
the things that we're teachingto students, that we're
conveying to staff and reallyjust being on our A-game and
being the best possiblecounseling person that we can be
, encouraging and encourager onour campus, again of everyone,
encouraging our students, ourstaff, our administrators, our
(08:57):
parents.
Being that voice of hope, thatpoint of optimism for folks is
so important because we can seetheir innate worth, we can look
into the future a little bit andsee the potential of these
folks standing in front of us.
That's a really important thingto have going on on campus and
(09:20):
really reflecting that growthmindset, helping students build
confidence through competenceand, again, I would say for our
teachers as well in modelingthings like classroom management
, walking them through tieredinterventions, whatever the case
, may be really encouraging thatidea of the growth mindset.
(09:42):
So that's first, integratingthose SEL concepts into our
daily work.
Second, promoting a schoolculture where SEL is infused
into every single thing that wedo.
This supports teachers withstudent relationships.
It helps them build healthier,more optimistic, more solid
(10:04):
relationships between the two ofthem and also helps teachers
with their own stress management, and I don't know one teacher
on the face of the earth rightnow that couldn't stand to feel
a little bit better about theirstress levels, right?
So as we infuse SEL into ourclassrooms and our hallways,
(10:26):
once this becomes the culturalnorm on your campus, not only is
it going to make changes, butit's going to frame you as a
change maker and a leader.
Thank you.
What we're looking at doing isintegrating these ideas into the
hallways, into the cafeterias,into the classrooms, so that
(10:50):
it's a culture on your campus.
I guess what I'm trying to sayis that the core of your work on
your campus isn't your lessons,and if the bulk of your
influence is coming from yourlessons, you might want to
reassess when the time is right,because the bulk of the change
(11:12):
and the leadership that you'reasserting on campus should be
coming through your influence.
This brings up an interestingconversation that we had in our
School for School CounselorsMastermind consultation chat not
too long ago and the point wasbrought up and I think it was a
great one that if you could handoff your Tier 1 or Tier 2
(11:34):
programming to, for instance, aPE coach, a shop teacher or a
history teacher and they couldteach that lesson as well or as
effectively as you could, areyou really acting as a school
counselor?
Ouch, that's going to make someof you feel a little annoyed
and perhaps angry, but I thinkit's a point worth considering.
(11:56):
If you could hand your lessonsoff, if your Tier 1 and Tier 2
are the bulk of what you'redoing in the day, you're going
to have a really hard timemaking a case for advocacy.
So instead, we really need tobe looking toward opportunities
to lean into this influence onour campus and really make some
(12:19):
big impressions.
That way, where we are shapingthe culture of our campuses, we
are equipping everyone we comeacross with the confidence and
the knowledge and the skill setsto be able to achieve their
goals.
We know that good SEL programsimprove social skills and
(12:41):
emotional skills.
We know that they catalyzepositive school attitudes,
positive behaviors and overallgains in academic achievement.
We know that they promote asupportive environment for
students when they're at school.
And we know that they influenceteachers' behaviors.
(13:02):
They influence classroomclimates and help to reduce
professional burnout foreveryone that works at your
school.
There was an interesting pointbrought up in this article that
said, teachers who are able toregulate their emotions, either
inhibiting or expressing whenand how it's most appropriate,
(13:22):
tend to exhibit stronger andmore learning focused
relationships with students.
That's super important, right.
We want our teachers to be ableto modulate themselves somewhat
and to be able to chooseappropriate reactions at the
appropriate times.
If you're like me, you've seensome evidence of some not so
(13:44):
appropriate reactions at someinappropriate times, and that is
human nature, right, we're notexpecting everyone to be perfect
all the time.
Sometimes we get frustrated, weget overwhelmed, we get angry
or upset, and a lot of that isoften driven by our extreme
desire to see students succeed.
(14:04):
But at the same time, the morewe can promote those healthy
responses for our staff, thebetter off everyone's going to
be.
So this social-emotionalleadership framework that's
proposed by this article leanson three criteria.
I'm going to paraphrase themaccording to my own
(14:26):
understanding of them, so myapologies to the authors if it
doesn't sound exactly right.
Number one is working withregulated emotions.
On the surface, that one justsounds to me like well, I mean,
you know, duh, of course.
Of course we have to regulateour emotions.
All professionals have to dothat.
(14:47):
So what's the news?
But I think it is a lot harderfor folks than we realize.
I think, particularly in thecurrent educational climate,
it's extremely difficult forfolks to work with regulated
emotions, and so this is a primeopportunity for us to model
(15:07):
that, to really be someone thatothers would like to emulate.
With respect to that, justbeing able to be on top of our
own thoughts, feelings andconcerns and be able to express
them appropriately is a really,really good stepping stone.
Second, they recommend empathyas a rule.
(15:30):
Again, this one to us probablyfeels like, well, I mean, that's
a no-brainer.
But think about how oftenyou've been part of
conversations in the teacher'slounge or in the hallway or, you
know, right before a bigmeeting is supposed to start,
and how many of thoseconversations seem like they
(15:53):
lack empathy.
They may lack empathy for thestudents.
Often I hear conversations thatlack empathy for the parent and
for the home environment.
We're very quick to judge, weare very quick to say they
should be, they shouldn't be.
Why do they do that?
I don't understand.
Why don't they call me back?
(16:13):
Why don't they come up here?
All of those things.
If you don't hear, empathy is arule, and so this is a great
opportunity for us to assertsome influence.
And third, wise discernment anddecision making.
If you're familiar with theidea of the wise mind, the
(16:36):
emotion mind and the reasonablemind, dialectical behavior
therapy says we possess each ofthese three minds in us.
The emotion mind is kind oflike our child.
It's led by our feelings, it'svery impulsive.
Our reasonable mind is like ourprofessor.
It's driven by facts and logicand objective thinking all the
(16:59):
time, and then, somewhere in themiddle, where those two come
together, is our wise mind, andthat's where we're able to do
our best decision making.
That's where we're able toreally think things through and
make some really logicaldecisions based on facts, but
also based on emotion andempathy.
(17:21):
And so, within thesocial-emotional leadership
framework, the authors areproposing these three criteria
Regulated emotions, empathy is arule, and wise discernment and
decision making.
When we can do this, when we canexpress social and emotional
(17:41):
skills, we actually increaseworkplace motivation for
everyone around us and we exactsome positive changes in our
school climate.
That's pretty exciting.
Think about your favoriteprincipal or favorite boss or
leader in your lifetime.
They probably demonstratedthese types of emotional
(18:06):
intelligence, right.
Or if you've worked for someonewho doesn't have that kind of
emotional intelligence, oh mygoodness.
It makes life very difficult,doesn't it?
Where you're not motivated togo to work, you don't feel like
there's a positive climate, youfeel like you're walking on
eggshells or looking over yourshoulder all the blessed time.
(18:30):
I worked for a principal likethat once and it was one of the
most difficult times in myprofessional life.
I get it, it's tough.
So what we want to do is try tobe the example, be the light on
our campuses, to be able toconvey this type of emotional
(18:51):
intelligence, so that others cansee us, model it, they can
learn from us and perhapsemulate it in their classrooms.
So there are five skill setswithin this framework.
If we can master these fiveskill sets, we're going to be
well on our way to building ourleadership potential and
(19:12):
influence on our campus.
Number one is self-awareness.
This is our ability toself-reflect so that we can
understand how we conceptualizeour work and what we experience
in the here and now.
So we're going to have to beable to accurately identify our
(19:33):
own emotions.
We have to maintain an accurateself-perception, including
where we have work to dopersonally, where we have room
to improve.
That's part of having anaccurate self-perception.
We have to be able to identifyour personal strengths as well.
We have to maintain a healthyself-confidence and
(19:55):
self-efficacy.
We've got to have strongself-awareness.
Second, we have to be able toself-manage.
That means we've got to be ableto control our impulses, manage
our stress, exerciseself-discipline and maintain
motivation for ourselves.
(20:17):
That leads into ourorganizational skills and
creating goals.
This is kind of, to me, theaction part of self-awareness.
These are the things that we dowithin our self-awareness to be
productive, to be positive andto elicit change.
(20:37):
We can develop these andstrengthen these by doing
certain things throughout ourday, things like
self-observation.
You're just taking a minute toreally think critically about
ourselves.
What are we doing in thatmoment?
Why are we doing it?
What do we hope to achieve,what went right or what went
(20:58):
wrong, specifying our goals,being very intentional about our
days, weeks, months, semesters,using queuing strategies to
move us toward our goals.
We've been talking a lot aboutthat in our School for School
Counselors Mastermind.
We have a data cohort thatmeets once a month and we're
(21:20):
talking about the implementationand interpretation of our
campus data.
One of the things we're talkingabout a lot is how we're
queuing ourselves towards beingresponsible with that data and
for utilizing it in the correctways.
Alright, so we have ourself-reflection, our
(21:42):
self-management.
Then we need social awareness.
Social awareness is yourability to take in other
people's perspectives,understand and express empathy,
maintain an awareness and anappreciation of diversity and
form respect for others.
That comes straight from thearticle.
Here's where I say just call meMr Rogers.
(22:06):
We're back to our Carl Rogershere our unconditional positive
regard, empathetic understanding.
You know that is the keycomponent for therapeutic change
in counseling, right?
But it can also be a keycomponent for positive change on
your school campus.
(22:28):
How often do we feel exasperatedor we lose patience with our
staff members that just seem tonot get it.
Have you ever been there?
You feel like you've tried toexplain the student's position,
what their needs are, how theteacher can accommodate, maybe
how to be more trauma-informedand they're just not getting it,
(22:52):
they're not implementing it,they're not demonstrating any
understanding of what you'retrying to tell them at all.
We get frustrated, right.
Sometimes we get upset, we getannoyed, irritated, and even if
we don't directly express thosefeelings, they're likely to come
through when we communicateanyway.
(23:12):
So unconditional positiveregard for our co-workers is
going to be a key component here, and I can tell you, I love
everybody that works on myschool campus, but I do get
frustrated sometimes.
This is an area that Ipersonally probably need to pay
a little bit more attention to.
Equity is crucial in developingwork environments where we can
(23:35):
all work together.
We can all come togethercollaboratively and
constructively to work towardspositive student outcomes, and
so we have got to be able tohave a social awareness.
Relationship skills are fourth.
The article says effectiveleaders are only as strong as
(23:58):
the relationships betweenthemselves and their personnel.
Good news for us, becausecreating great relationships is
what we are all about.
Right, I can't tell you howmany probably hundreds of Get
the Job participants I've workedwith over the past years that
(24:19):
when I ask them, what broughtyou into school counseling,
what's your passion, what do youlove about this job, I always,
without skipping a beat, say Ilove building relationships with
students, and as we talk theygo on to really further outline
how they love buildingrelationships on their campus as
a whole.
(24:40):
So these ideas of congruence,unconditional positive regard,
empathy are going to be thecornerstone off of which
everything else is built.
And you know, I'll take a minuteand say here I saw this part of
our work as kind of superfluouswhen I got started.
(25:03):
If I'm being completely honest,now that I'm more seasoned and
experienced, I understand itsimportance.
But back then I was reallyintent on the execution of
things.
I had been trained in nationalmodels, I knew about the
different components ofcomprehensive school counseling
(25:24):
programs and I knew aboutpercentages and use of time and
all those things.
And so I walked in with amindset of execute, execute,
execute.
And I think I neglected for alittle while building these
relationships.
I didn't really see thepotential in them as directly as
(25:45):
I probably should have, and Iregret that.
But also I think that's justpart of learning, isn't it?
It's just part of being new andgreen and then getting better
and better, and through theyears you learn and grow and you
come to understand things thatyou didn't understand at first.
So we've talked throughself-awareness, self-management,
(26:07):
social awareness andrelationship skills.
Our last component isresponsible decision making, and
you know what we're coming upto for this one, don't you?
Data-driven, school counseling,a continuous process of
evaluation, continuousreflection.
(26:30):
Where is my time?
Where is it gone?
What kinds of effects am Igetting from that?
Am I seeing the payoff?
Are they achieving the intendedeffects with students?
Those are all very, veryimportant questions to be asking
ourselves continuously.
And then we also need to belooking at our ethical
responsibilities.
Are we following our ethicalguidelines?
(26:53):
Are we really striving towardthe best of the most ethical
intentions?
Those are important questionsto be asking ourselves all the
time.
Goodness gracious, I'm here totell you now.
We have unpacked so much aboutthis social, emotional
leadership framework and we'renot done.
(27:15):
There is so much more to come.
I think I might do kind of abonus episode here, coming up
just in a few days, because Ireally want you to get the full
scope of what this leadershipframework is all about.
I want you to understand whatcan you try to do to develop
(27:38):
this kind of leadership presenceon campus.
So far we've talked about thecomponents of your work and your
demeanor, your attitudes, yourmindsets and the way that you
counsel, not only in individualcounseling, group counseling,
but how you build that influenceon campus, how you really make
(28:00):
folks sit up and take notice ofthe way you're doing business
and understand that there mightbe a better or different way
that they can approach their ownwork with those same concepts
in mind.
By utilizing your skills ofself-awareness, self-management,
social awareness, relationshipskills and responsible decision
(28:22):
making, you can positionyourself in a way that allows
your leadership to really takehold on campus.
But there are a few more thingsthat we need to think about as
we walk toward that goal, soI'll be back in the next episode
with some more specific ideasof what those things might be.
All right, so keep listening.
(28:44):
I'll be back soon with anotherepisode, but in the meantime, I
hope you have the best well, Idon't know, not week best couple
of days ever.
Take care, and I'll be backsoon.
Hello school counselor, welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm Steph Johnson, your host,glad to be back here with you
for another week of SchoolCounseling Awesomeness.
I love to get together with youeach and every week to, you
know, talk about some thingsthat don't usually get talked
about in our corners of theworld, and this week will be no
(00:24):
exception.
Our topic this week is going tobe a little touchy, and the
reason it's going to be touchyis that you may or may not be in
a position to implement this,so I want to provide our topic
this week with the caveat, andthat is if you don't feel like
(00:45):
you're up to this, don't feellike you have to do it now.
File it away, put it in yourback pocket, save it for a
better time when you can fullyimplement with presence of mind.
You'll see what I'm talkingabout as we get into this, but
first, before we jump into allthat, as always, I want to share
(01:07):
our newest review for thepodcast from one of our amazing
listeners.
This review comes from Janer'sE and it is titled my number one
school counselor podcast.
It goes on to say the schoolfor school counselors podcast is
my go to for professionalpodcasts.
(01:28):
Let me stop right there.
That one sentence blew my mind.
I don't know if you guysrealize the extent to which that
knocks my socks off.
I never, ever, imagined that wewould be putting out something
that would get praise like that.
So thank you.
All ready for this review, letme go ahead and finish it,
(01:51):
though, because I want to giveit its due diligence.
The school for schoolcounselors podcast is my go to
for professional podcasts.
Steph Johnson and her team doan amazing job in providing
school counselors all around theworld with authentic research
based topics that we need toknow about, and some I didn't
(02:12):
even know I needed.
Thank you, team at school forschool counselors, for keeping
me company on my commute to andfrom work and inspiring me to be
the best counselor I can be.
Thank you so much, janer's E,for that review.
You have no idea how that'simpacted me and my team and just
(02:34):
keeps us going.
So, guys, if you haven'tsubmitted your review for the
podcast, I would love to hearyour thoughts on what we're
putting out into the world.
All right, so back on to ourtopic for this week.
We're going to be talking abouta leadership framework for
school counselors, and that'swhy I said that if this isn't
the right time for you, don'tstress about it.
(02:57):
Don't feel like, just becauseyou're listening to information
about it, that it means you needto run out and implement this
right away.
Some of you are not in theposition on your campuses to be
able to push toward a leadershipposition, yet there is still
misunderstanding about your role.
(03:18):
You're probably beingmisutilized somewhat on your
campus and you may have anadministrator that's not open to
these kinds of conversations orthese kinds of actions.
So if you're in a place likethat, don't let it discourage
you.
Keep listening for theinspiration, be thinking about
(03:38):
what this is going to look likewhen it's the right time and
then implement it when it feelsright.
You'll know when the time isright.
I promise you'll know.
This framework is not mine.
I did not develop it.
It was presented in an articlein the Professional School
Counseling Journal in 2018.
(04:00):
And its authors were Bowers,limburger, true Love and Brigham
.
They published quite a bit inthe school counseling world and
we're going to provide the linkto this article in the show
notes, as we always do.
But I just kind of wanted towalk through some of the ideas
in this article because I thinkthey're worth sharing.
(04:21):
For sure, when schools arebeing asked to do more and more
right, we're being asked toprovide more and more or
handling more and more concernsand issues with students and
their families, and we have morechallenges that surface every
day, especially post-COVID right, the needs, the resources
(04:47):
required are just.
They seem almost endless, andwe're doing so much with so
little, and so there is a greatpotential for us on campus to
really be able to become aperson of leadership on campus,
to be able to not only servestudents well but to guide our
(05:09):
teachers and our campus staffand best ways of approaching and
reaching students who arestruggling, who have challenges,
who need that little bit ofextra support.
However, the way that wetraditionally look at leadership
on campus may not be the mostappropriate manner in which we
(05:34):
can lead as school counselors.
We have a unique skill set.
On the surface it looks verybasic and, like you know, it's
kind of no big deal, andprobably to us it doesn't feel
that way because you know we seethe world as we perceive it.
We know we have these skillsinnately in us and so we just
assume everyone else does, butfriends they don't, and leading
(06:00):
committees laying down the law,giving rubrics and evaluations.
That's not the kind ofleadership that we're suited for
.
In this article, the authorspropose five social-emotional
leadership dispositions, andthrough these expressions of our
(06:23):
identity they say that we canreally effectively lead campuses
towards realizing greatersuccesses for students.
Usually, it's about beingauthentic in the way that you
work, about talking the talk butwalking the walk, and I love a
quote that the authors includedfrom an article that they
(06:46):
referenced, which described anauthentic leader.
So listen to this definitionand see if this resonates with
you, because if you aren't therenow, I would almost bet money
that this is what you aspire tobe.
They say that authentic leadersare those individuals who are
(07:07):
deeply aware of how they thinkand behave and are perceived by
others as being aware of theirown and others' values and moral
perspective, knowledge andstrengths, aware of the context
in which they operate, and whoare confident, hopeful,
optimistic, resilient and highon moral character.
(07:29):
That is a tall order, isn't itman?
Oh man, I know that I wouldaspire to be a leader like that.
I don't know that I always hitthe mark and all those criteria,
but I try real hard andhopefully it's the same for you.
But what they're telling us isthat this kind of authenticity
(07:51):
translates into greaterinfluence as a leader on your
campus.
And so, since we already embodya lot of these qualities, it
should be just kind of ahop-skip and a jump for us to
really assert ourselves asleaders on our campus.
(08:12):
So, basically, the 10,000-footview of this social-emotional
leadership framework involvesseveral components.
Number one is integrating SELconcepts into our daily work,
being solidarity with thoseconcepts, like I said, not only
talking the talk but walking thewalk, being a living example of
(08:36):
the things that we're teachingto students, that we're
conveying to staff and reallyjust being on our A-game and
being the best possiblecounseling person that we can be
, encouraging and encourager onour campus, again of everyone,
encouraging our students, ourstaff, our administrators, our
(08:57):
parents.
Being that voice of hope, thatpoint of optimism for folks is
so important because we can seetheir innate worth, we can look
into the future a little bit andsee the potential of these
folks standing in front of us.
That's a really important thingto have going on on campus and
(09:20):
really reflecting that growthmindset, helping students build
confidence through competenceand, again, I would say for our
teachers as well in modelingthings like classroom management
, walking them through tieredinterventions, whatever the case
, may be really encouraging thatidea of the growth mindset.
(09:42):
So that's first, integratingthose SEL concepts into our
daily work.
Second, promoting a schoolculture where SEL is infused
into every single thing that wedo.
This supports teachers withstudent relationships.
It helps them build healthier,more optimistic, more solid
(10:04):
relationships between the two ofthem and also helps teachers
with their own stress management, and I don't know one teacher
on the face of the earth rightnow that couldn't stand to feel
a little bit better about theirstress levels, right?
So as we infuse SEL into ourclassrooms and our hallways,
(10:26):
once this becomes the culturalnorm on your campus, not only is
it going to make changes, butit's going to frame you as a
change maker and a leader.
Thank you.
What we're looking at doing isintegrating these ideas into the
hallways, into the cafeterias,into the classrooms, so that
(10:50):
it's a culture on your campus.
I guess what I'm trying to sayis that the core of your work on
your campus isn't your lessons,and if the bulk of your
influence is coming from yourlessons, you might want to
reassess when the time is right,because the bulk of the change
(11:12):
and the leadership that you'reasserting on campus should be
coming through your influence.
This brings up an interestingconversation that we had in our
School for School CounselorsMastermind consultation chat not
too long ago and the point wasbrought up and I think it was a
great one that if you could handoff your Tier 1 or Tier 2
(11:34):
programming to, for instance, aPE coach, a shop teacher or a
history teacher and they couldteach that lesson as well or as
effectively as you could, areyou really acting as a school
counselor?
Ouch, that's going to make someof you feel a little annoyed
and perhaps angry, but I thinkit's a point worth considering.
(11:56):
If you could hand your lessonsoff, if your Tier 1 and Tier 2
are the bulk of what you'redoing in the day, you're going
to have a really hard timemaking a case for advocacy.
So instead, we really need tobe looking toward opportunities
to lean into this influence onour campus and really make some
(12:19):
big impressions.
That way, where we are shapingthe culture of our campuses, we
are equipping everyone we comeacross with the confidence and
the knowledge and the skill setsto be able to achieve their
goals.
We know that good SEL programsimprove social skills and
(12:41):
emotional skills.
We know that they catalyzepositive school attitudes,
positive behaviors and overallgains in academic achievement.
We know that they promote asupportive environment for
students when they're at school.
And we know that they influenceteachers' behaviors.
(13:02):
They influence classroomclimates and help to reduce
professional burnout foreveryone that works at your
school.
There was an interesting pointbrought up in this article that
said, teachers who are able toregulate their emotions, either
inhibiting or expressing whenand how it's most appropriate,
(13:22):
tend to exhibit stronger andmore learning focused
relationships with students.
That's super important, right.
We want our teachers to be ableto modulate themselves somewhat
and to be able to chooseappropriate reactions at the
appropriate times.
If you're like me, you've seensome evidence of some not so
(13:44):
appropriate reactions at someinappropriate times, and that is
human nature, right, we're notexpecting everyone to be perfect
all the time.
Sometimes we get frustrated, weget overwhelmed, we get angry
or upset, and a lot of that isoften driven by our extreme
desire to see students succeed.
(14:04):
But at the same time, the morewe can promote those healthy
responses for our staff, thebetter off everyone's going to
be.
So this social-emotionalleadership framework that's
proposed by this article leanson three criteria.
I'm going to paraphrase themaccording to my own
(14:26):
understanding of them, so myapologies to the authors if it
doesn't sound exactly right.
Number one is working withregulated emotions.
On the surface, that one justsounds to me like well, I mean,
you know, duh, of course.
Of course we have to regulateour emotions.
All professionals have to dothat.
(14:47):
So what's the news?
But I think it is a lot harderfor folks than we realize.
I think, particularly in thecurrent educational climate,
it's extremely difficult forfolks to work with regulated
emotions, and so this is a primeopportunity for us to model
(15:07):
that, to really be someone thatothers would like to emulate.
With respect to that, justbeing able to be on top of our
own thoughts, feelings andconcerns and be able to express
them appropriately is a really,really good stepping stone.
Second, they recommend empathyas a rule.
(15:30):
Again, this one to us probablyfeels like, well, I mean, that's
a no-brainer.
But think about how oftenyou've been part of
conversations in the teacher'slounge or in the hallway or, you
know, right before a bigmeeting is supposed to start,
and how many of thoseconversations seem like they
(15:53):
lack empathy.
They may lack empathy for thestudents.
Often I hear conversations thatlack empathy for the parent and
for the home environment.
We're very quick to judge, weare very quick to say they
should be, they shouldn't be.
Why do they do that?
I don't understand.
Why don't they call me back?
(16:13):
Why don't they come up here?
All of those things.
If you don't hear, empathy is arule, and so this is a great
opportunity for us to assertsome influence.
And third, wise discernment anddecision making.
If you're familiar with theidea of the wise mind, the
(16:36):
emotion mind and the reasonablemind, dialectical behavior
therapy says we possess each ofthese three minds in us.
The emotion mind is kind oflike our child.
It's led by our feelings, it'svery impulsive.
Our reasonable mind is like ourprofessor.
It's driven by facts and logicand objective thinking all the
(16:59):
time, and then, somewhere in themiddle, where those two come
together, is our wise mind, andthat's where we're able to do
our best decision making.
That's where we're able toreally think things through and
make some really logicaldecisions based on facts, but
also based on emotion andempathy.
(17:21):
And so, within thesocial-emotional leadership
framework, the authors areproposing these three criteria
Regulated emotions, empathy is arule, and wise discernment and
decision making.
When we can do this, when we canexpress social and emotional
(17:41):
skills, we actually increaseworkplace motivation for
everyone around us and we exactsome positive changes in our
school climate.
That's pretty exciting.
Think about your favoriteprincipal or favorite boss or
leader in your lifetime.
They probably demonstratedthese types of emotional
(18:06):
intelligence, right.
Or if you've worked for someonewho doesn't have that kind of
emotional intelligence, oh mygoodness.
It makes life very difficult,doesn't it?
Where you're not motivated togo to work, you don't feel like
there's a positive climate, youfeel like you're walking on
eggshells or looking over yourshoulder all the blessed time.
(18:30):
I worked for a principal likethat once and it was one of the
most difficult times in myprofessional life.
I get it, it's tough.
So what we want to do is try tobe the example, be the light on
our campuses, to be able toconvey this type of emotional
(18:51):
intelligence, so that others cansee us, model it, they can
learn from us and perhapsemulate it in their classrooms.
So there are five skill setswithin this framework.
If we can master these fiveskill sets, we're going to be
well on our way to building ourleadership potential and
(19:12):
influence on our campus.
Number one is self-awareness.
This is our ability toself-reflect so that we can
understand how we conceptualizeour work and what we experience
in the here and now.
So we're going to have to beable to accurately identify our
(19:33):
own emotions.
We have to maintain an accurateself-perception, including
where we have work to dopersonally, where we have room
to improve.
That's part of having anaccurate self-perception.
We have to be able to identifyour personal strengths as well.
We have to maintain a healthyself-confidence and
(19:55):
self-efficacy.
We've got to have strongself-awareness.
Second, we have to be able toself-manage.
That means we've got to be ableto control our impulses, manage
our stress, exerciseself-discipline and maintain
motivation for ourselves.
(20:17):
That leads into ourorganizational skills and
creating goals.
This is kind of, to me, theaction part of self-awareness.
These are the things that we dowithin our self-awareness to be
productive, to be positive andto elicit change.
(20:37):
We can develop these andstrengthen these by doing
certain things throughout ourday, things like
self-observation.
You're just taking a minute toreally think critically about
ourselves.
What are we doing in thatmoment?
Why are we doing it?
What do we hope to achieve,what went right or what went
(20:58):
wrong, specifying our goals,being very intentional about our
days, weeks, months, semesters,using queuing strategies to
move us toward our goals.
We've been talking a lot aboutthat in our School for School
Counselors Mastermind.
We have a data cohort thatmeets once a month and we're
(21:20):
talking about the implementationand interpretation of our
campus data.
One of the things we're talkingabout a lot is how we're
queuing ourselves towards beingresponsible with that data and
for utilizing it in the correctways.
Alright, so we have ourself-reflection, our
(21:42):
self-management.
Then we need social awareness.
Social awareness is yourability to take in other
people's perspectives,understand and express empathy,
maintain an awareness and anappreciation of diversity and
form respect for others.
That comes straight from thearticle.
Here's where I say just call meMr Rogers.
(22:06):
We're back to our Carl Rogershere our unconditional positive
regard, empathetic understanding.
You know that is the keycomponent for therapeutic change
in counseling, right?
But it can also be a keycomponent for positive change on
your school campus.
(22:28):
How often do we feel exasperatedor we lose patience with our
staff members that just seem tonot get it.
Have you ever been there?
You feel like you've tried toexplain the student's position,
what their needs are, how theteacher can accommodate, maybe
how to be more trauma-informedand they're just not getting it,
(22:52):
they're not implementing it,they're not demonstrating any
understanding of what you'retrying to tell them at all.
We get frustrated, right.
Sometimes we get upset, we getannoyed, irritated, and even if
we don't directly express thosefeelings, they're likely to come
through when we communicateanyway.
(23:12):
So unconditional positiveregard for our co-workers is
going to be a key component here, and I can tell you, I love
everybody that works on myschool campus, but I do get
frustrated sometimes.
This is an area that Ipersonally probably need to pay
a little bit more attention to.
Equity is crucial in developingwork environments where we can
(23:35):
all work together.
We can all come togethercollaboratively and
constructively to work towardspositive student outcomes, and
so we have got to be able tohave a social awareness.
Relationship skills are fourth.
The article says effectiveleaders are only as strong as
(23:58):
the relationships betweenthemselves and their personnel.
Good news for us, becausecreating great relationships is
what we are all about.
Right, I can't tell you howmany probably hundreds of Get
the Job participants I've workedwith over the past years that
(24:19):
when I ask them, what broughtyou into school counseling,
what's your passion, what do youlove about this job, I always,
without skipping a beat, say Ilove building relationships with
students, and as we talk theygo on to really further outline
how they love buildingrelationships on their campus as
a whole.
(24:40):
So these ideas of congruence,unconditional positive regard,
empathy are going to be thecornerstone off of which
everything else is built.
And you know, I'll take a minuteand say here I saw this part of
our work as kind of superfluouswhen I got started.
(25:03):
If I'm being completely honest,now that I'm more seasoned and
experienced, I understand itsimportance.
But back then I was reallyintent on the execution of
things.
I had been trained in nationalmodels, I knew about the
different components ofcomprehensive school counseling
(25:24):
programs and I knew aboutpercentages and use of time and
all those things.
And so I walked in with amindset of execute, execute,
execute.
And I think I neglected for alittle while building these
relationships.
I didn't really see thepotential in them as directly as
(25:45):
I probably should have, and Iregret that.
But also I think that's justpart of learning, isn't it?
It's just part of being new andgreen and then getting better
and better, and through theyears you learn and grow and you
come to understand things thatyou didn't understand at first.
So we've talked throughself-awareness, self-management,
(26:07):
social awareness andrelationship skills.
Our last component isresponsible decision making, and
you know what we're coming upto for this one, don't you?
Data-driven, school counseling,a continuous process of
evaluation, continuousreflection.
(26:30):
Where is my time?
Where is it gone?
What kinds of effects am Igetting from that?
Am I seeing the payoff?
Are they achieving the intendedeffects with students?
Those are all very, veryimportant questions to be asking
ourselves continuously.
And then we also need to belooking at our ethical
responsibilities.
Are we following our ethicalguidelines?
(26:53):
Are we really striving towardthe best of the most ethical
intentions?
Those are important questionsto be asking ourselves all the
time.
Goodness gracious, I'm here totell you now.
We have unpacked so much aboutthis social, emotional
leadership framework and we'renot done.
(27:15):
There is so much more to come.
I think I might do kind of abonus episode here, coming up
just in a few days, because Ireally want you to get the full
scope of what this leadershipframework is all about.
I want you to understand whatcan you try to do to develop
(27:38):
this kind of leadership presenceon campus.
So far we've talked about thecomponents of your work and your
demeanor, your attitudes, yourmindsets and the way that you
counsel, not only in individualcounseling, group counseling,
but how you build that influenceon campus, how you really make
(28:00):
folks sit up and take notice ofthe way you're doing business
and understand that there mightbe a better or different way
that they can approach their ownwork with those same concepts
in mind.
By utilizing your skills ofself-awareness, self-management,
social awareness, relationshipskills and responsible decision
(28:22):
making, you can positionyourself in a way that allows
your leadership to really takehold on campus.
But there are a few more thingsthat we need to think about as
we walk toward that goal, soI'll be back in the next episode
with some more specific ideasof what those things might be.
All right, so keep listening.
(28:44):
I'll be back soon with anotherepisode, but in the meantime, I
hope you have the best well, Idon't know, not week best couple
of days ever.
Take care, and I'll be backsoon.
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