Mindset of a Leader

Your data show that 17 boys account for almost half the absences in their grade. You work with the students, their parents and teachers to reduce the absenteeism. During an end-of-year meeting, your principal announces absenteeism decreased by one-third. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Make sure your principal knows about all the work you did.

• Make sure other faculty members know about all the work you did.

• Tell your principal it was a team effort and commend the teachers for their work.

• Just be happy the principal finally recognized your efforts.

Your principal announces each administrator and school counselor will be assigned an hour of cafeteria duty every day. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Compile data to explain how student outcomes would be affected and present an alternative plan.

• Perform the duty because the principal is the school leader.

• Arrange with the other school counselors that each of you will perform cafeteria duty once or twice a week but not daily.

• Continue in your regular schedule without performing the cafeteria duty.

In your middle school, all teachers are required to notify parents of students who are in danger of receiving a D or F for the grading period. You learn two of the teachers on your team don't ever notify the parents. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Send the notifications yourself because the parents need to know.

• Talk to the teachers to explain the importance of the notifications and offer to help.

• Talk to the team leader and administrators to make sure the teachers are held accountable.

• Do nothing because many teachers in the school do the same thing.

One of the school counselors in your school is asked to be the test coordinator every year, which she accepts eagerly because she enjoys doing it. She's good at it, but it's time-consuming. In fact, during parts of the year, she asks other school counselors to meet with her students so she has more time to prepare for the tests. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• She's a good leader who collaborates well with the teachers and performs an important service for the school.

• Her actions reflect an attitude that the tests are more important to her than the students are.

• She's not very good with students so it's probably better for her to be productive in ways that don't involve students.

• She's ineffective because she's being used and manipulated by the administration.

You stay at your office late every evening completing paperwork you couldn't do while you're with students all day. You have plans one afternoon, but the principal asks all school counselors to stay for an afternoon activity that day. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Carry on with your plans because you deserve to leave on time after all the nights you work late.

• Change your plans but stop staying late.

• Change your plans because they're not as important as your job.

• Explain your situation to the principal and ask whether you can miss the activity or leave early.

Your principal decides the school counselors should hold group counseling sessions the following week on any topic of their choice. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Complain that the principal doesn't have the right to micromanage your day.

• Explain to the principal that you don't have any data showing group counseling is the most appropriate intervention at that time.

• Explain to the principal that you don't have any data about student needs and which interventions would best meet those needs.

• Hold the groups enthusiastically because you've wanted to hold groups all year.

You plan a field trip to take a group of students to a local business to learn about careers, but the administrative assistant says she can't arrange a bus for you on the day you'd planned. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Ask the administrative assistant for other transportation options or other dates when the buses are available.

• Tell the administrative assistant she doesn't have the authority to refuse your request.

• Cancel the field trip because it would take too much time to reschedule.

• Go to the principal to explain that all the other arrangements have been made so you can't change the date.

A mother and father complain that no one notified them their son is failing a class and would not graduate. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Tell the parents it was the teacher's responsibility to notify you so you could notify them, but you didn't receive notification from the teacher.

• Tell the parents their son isn't graduating and there's nothing that could have been done even if they had been notified.

• Offer to explore options that would allow their son to graduate.

• Tell the parents they need to contact an administrator and their son's teacher.

Your principal asks for four volunteers to work on a program next year. Volunteers would attend training in another state during the summer at the district's expense. You're not interested in the program, but your sister lives in the city where the training will be held. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Decide not to volunteer for the program because you're not interested.

• Volunteer and stay a few extra days at your own expense to visit your sister.

• Volunteer for the program but don't stay extra days.

• Determine how many other faculty members want to participate in the program, and volunteer only if there are still spaces available.

You present ideas for a comprehensive school counseling program to your principal, who agrees to let you implement some of them. Some of the older school counselors in the school ask you to stop because they don't want to follow your ideas. Which of the following would be your response and why?

• Discontinue implementing your ideas so you can keep peace.

• Make sure your principal knows the other school counselors aren't supporting the school counseling program.

• Disregard your co-workers and proceed with your plans because you know your ideas would be beneficial to your students.

• Explain your ideas and offer to help the other school counselors implement them.