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School Counselor Candidate; Fall 2021

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors 

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors 

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Waco, Texas

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A Teacher’s Lesson on Leadership | Beth Wolfe | TEDxMarshallUniversity

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Center for Parent Information & Resources 

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Center for Parent Information & Resources 

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A helpful tool to share with parents.

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial. Motivational interviewing is a form of therapy that creates a safe, non-judgmental environment for teens to establish their own goals and values and see how changing unhealthy behaviors can benefit them in the long run.

This series of articles comes from the Child Mind Institute, with most available in English and Spanish. Why might teens be resistant to therapy and how can parents and others to help them get the treatment they need? The articles explain how motivational interviewing can help teens gain the self-confidence to make important behavioral changes. To read more about motivational interviewing, and to connect with the articles in both English and Spanish, please visit CPIR's abstract.

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Center for Parent Information and Resources | Your Central Hub for Parent Centers Serving Families of Children With Disabilities

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial.

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Addressing Mental Health in School Crisis Prevention & Response 

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Addressing Mental Health in School Crisis Prevention & Response 

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addressing mental health in school crisis prevention and response(1)

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What is Emotional Intelligence?

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The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a journal. Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

Hold yourself accountable. If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being calm. The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.

How can you improve your motivation?

Re-examine why you're doing your job. It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way. And make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing. For more on this, see our article on Goal Setting.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.

If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.

How can you improve your empathy?

Respond to feelings. You ask your assistant to work late - again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social Skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: they set an example with their own behavior.

So, how can you build social skills?

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership - Learning How to Be More Aware

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Relating to others is vital in today's workplace. Learn how to build your emotional intelligence (EI) with this article.

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How Emotional Intelligence plays a role in leadership.

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Anyone trying to come up to speed on emotional intelligence would have a pretty easy time of it since the concept is remarkably recent, and its application to business newer still. The term was coined in 1990 in a research paper by two psychology professors, John D. Mayer of UNH and Peter Salovey of Yale. Some years later, Mayer defined it in HBR this way:

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How Emotional Intelligence Became a Key Leadership Skill

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A reading list to bring you up to speed.

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The Global Emotional Intelligence Test uses 40 questions which are derived from, the Global instrument, which contains 158 items. These are based on Goleman's four quadrant Emotional Intelligence Competency Model (2002). Click EI Capability Assessment here for more details. Short EI quizzes such as this are meant to be fun, and to give you a guide to which EI areas you are doing well in and those which perhaps you need to focus on for development.

This Test, is a forced-choice psychological test which requires you to choose Instructions for the FREE EI Test one statement in each pair of statements that describes you best. For each pair of statements, select the statement that best applies to you. Do not over-analyse the questions, or try to think of "exceptions to the rule." Be spontaneous and choose the statement that comes closest to the way you are.

Occasionally there will be questions that ask you to make a close call between two choices. This is because the Test is trying to distinguish between specific areas. If a question is very close and you can't decide which statement applies to you best, you can come back to it after you have completed the other questions.

The Test usually takes about 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the test, click on the Score Test button, and wait for the computer to generate an EI profile of your scores. If you have answered honestly and accurately, your scores will reflect your capability level within each of the EI quadrants.

We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the results of this Test - only that it can help you begin your journey of self-development!

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Emotional Intelligence Test - Global Leadership Foundation

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Free emotional intelligence test developed by Global Leadership Foundation

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A transactional leader is someone who values order and structure. They are likely to command military operations, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organized way. Transactional leaders are not a good fit for places where creativity and innovative ideas are valued.

Transactional leadership is most often compared to transformational leadership. Transactional leadership depends on self-motivated people who work well in a structured, directed environment. By contrast, transformational leadership seeks to motivate and inspire workers, choosing to influence rather than direct others.

Read more about transactional leadership:

Transactional leadership focuses on results, conforms to the existing structure of an organization and measures success according to that organization's system of rewards and penalties. Transactional leaders have formal authority and positions of responsibility in an organization. This type of leader is responsible for maintaining routine by managing individual performance and facilitating group performance.

This type of leader sets the criteria for their workers according to previously defined requirements. Performance reviews are the most common way to judge employee performance. Transactional, or managerial, leaders work best with employees who know their jobs and are motivated by the reward-penalty system. The status quo of an organization is maintained through transactional leadership.

Differences between transactional leadership and other leadership styles

Transactional leaders differ from charismatic and transformational leaders in both structure and method. Charismatic leadership emphasizes influencing a group or organization to make the world a better place. In transactional leadership, the emphasis is on managing the performance of the individual and determining how well he or she performs in a structured environment.

The difference between transactional leadership and transformational leadership is also quite large. Simply put, transactional is a "telling" leadership style, and transformational is a "selling" style. While the transactional approach features positive and negative reinforcement, transformational leadership emphasizes motivation and inspiration. Transactional leaders are reactive; transformational leaders are proactive. Transactional leadership appeals to the self-interest of individuals, while the transformational style prioritizes group progress.

History of the transactional leadership theory

Max Weber, a 20th-century German sociologist, made an extensive study of leadership styles and divided them into three categories: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal, or bureaucratic. In 1947, Weber was the first to describe rational-legal leadership - the style that would come to be known as transactional leadership - as "the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge."

Transactional leadership theory is based on the idea that managers give employees something they want in exchange for getting something they want. It posits that workers are not self-motivated and require structure, instruction and monitoring in order to complete tasks correctly and on time.

The transactional leadership style was widely used after World War II in the United States. This was a time when the government concentrated on rebuilding and required a high level of structure to maintain national stability.

Political scientist James McGregor Burns was one of the most prominent authors to advance Weber's theories. In his 1978 book "Leadership," Burns argued that both transactional and transformational leaders must be moral and have a higher purpose. In Burns's model, transactional leaders espouse honesty, fairness, responsibility, and honoring commitments.

In the 1980s and 90s, researchers including Bernard M. Bass, Jane Howell and Bruce Avolio defined the dimensions of transactional leadership:

Contingent reward, the process of setting expectations and rewarding workers for meeting them

Passive management by exception, where a manager does not interfere with workflow unless an issue arises

Active management by exception, in which managers anticipate problems, monitor progress and issue corrective measures

Many current leadership theorists agree that principals of transactional and transformational leadership can be combined for ideal outcomes for both management and the workforce.

The transactional model is likely to succeed in a crisis or in projects that require linear and specific processes. This model is also useful for big corporations, such as Hewlett-Packard, a company known for its extensive use of management by exception.

Many high-level members of the military, CEOs of large international companies, and NFL coaches are known to be transactional leaders. Transactional leadership also works well in policing agencies and first responder organizations. Here are four examples of transactional leaders.

Norman Schwarzkopf

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was born in 1934 and graduated from West Point. He went to Vietnam as an advisor to the South Vietnamese army. During that war, he was wounded twice and awarded three Silver Star medals. In 1978, he became a brigadier general; he attained a four-star ranking in 1988. General Schwarzkopf was commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces in Operation Desert Storm, responsible for tens of thousands of troops in Iraq and Kuwait. He used the rules and regulations of the military to coordinate operations on several continents.

Vince Lombardi

Born in 1913, Vince Lombardi is best known as the coach for the Green Bay Packers. He signed a five-year contract with Green Bay in 1959. Under his leadership, the team never had a losing session. Over the course of his career, he led the team to a 98-30-4 record and five championships. The Super Bowl trophy is named after him. He used to run the Packers through the same plays in practice over and over again. The team's opponents knew the plays Lombardi would run, but the team was so well trained that many teams had trouble defending against them.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates was born in Seattle in 1955. In his early teens, he met Paul Allen at the Lakeside School, where they both developed computer programs as a hobby. When Gates went to Harvard, Allen went to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston. In 1975, they started Microsoft, and by 1978, the company had grossed $2.5 million, when Gates was 23. In 1985, Microsoft launched Windows. Bill Gates is now one of the richest people in the world. As a transactional leader, he used to visit new product teams and ask difficult questions until he was satisfied that the teams were on track and understood the goal.

Howard Schultz

Howard Schultz was born in 1953 and grew up in the Brooklyn housing projects. He escaped the projects with a football scholarship from Northern Michigan University. After college, he started selling coffee makers to companies that included the Starbucks Coffee Tea and Spice Company, which originally sold coffee beans rather than made-to-order drinks. He was hired by the company in 1982. In 1984, Schultz opened the first Starbucks coffeehouse based on the concept of an Italian espresso bar.

Schultz wanted to grow Starbucks, but the owners wanted to stay small. Schultz left and opened his own company in 1985. With the help of investors in 1987, he bought Starbucks and merged the two companies. By 2006, Schultz was ranked 394 on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest people in America. As a transactional leader, he was responsible for the vision and implementation of the Starbucks model.

Transactional leadership quotes

Norman Schwarzkopf: "When placed in command, take charge."

Vince Lombardi: "The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand."

Bill Gates: "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."

Howard Schultz: "Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising."

Here are some of the characteristics of transactional leaders:

Focused on short-term goals

Favor structured policies and procedures

Thrive on following rules and doing things correctly

Revel in efficiency

Very left-brained

Tend to be inflexible

Opposed to change

Transactional leadership works well in organizations where structure is important. Transactional leadership is not the right fit for organizations where initiative is encouraged:

Transactional leadership pros:

Rewards those who are motivated by self-interest to follow instructions

Provides an unambiguous structure for large organizations, systems requiring repetitive tasks and infinitely reproducible environments

Achieves short-term goals quickly

Rewards and penalties are clearly defined for workers

Transactional leadership cons:

Rewards the worker on a practical level only, such as money or perks

Creativity is limited since the goals and objectives are already set

Does not reward personal initiative

There is definitely a place for transactional leadership in the world today. One of its best uses is in multinational corporations where not all of the workers speak the same language. Once the structure and the requirements are learned, it is easy for workers to complete tasks successfully. This works because transactional leadership is simple to learn and does not require extensive training. The transactional approach is easy to understand and apply across much of an organization.

The military, policing organizations, and first responders use this style of leadership so that all areas of the organization are consistent. It is also easier to apply in a crisis situation, where everyone must know exactly what is required of them and how a task is to be done under pressure.

To many people, money and perks are a powerful motivator. Many people need a job to pay the bills. They have other obligations and distractions and would just as soon know exactly how to do their job in order to keep it and reap the rewards.

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What is Transactional Leadership? Structure Leads to Results

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A transactional leader is someone who values order and structure. They are likely to command military operations, manage large corporations, or lead international projects that require rules and regulations to complete objectives on time or move people and supplies in an organized way.

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This article explains the Fiedler Contingency Model or Fiedler Model, developed by Fred Fiedler in a practical way. After reading you will understand the basics of this powerful contingency theory of leadership.

What is the Fiedler's contingency model of leadership?

In the 1960s, Fred Fiedler carried out research on the relationship (contingency) between the effectiveness of the leadership style and the situation. This relationship became to be known as the Fiedler contingency model. With the Fiedler Contingency Model, Fred Fiedler was the precursor of Hershey and Blanchard's situational leadership model.

Fiedler Contingency Model factors

According to Fred Fiedler effectiveness and leadership depend on a number of factors including the situations and the personal characteristics of the leader. Fiedler distinguished the following three factors:

1. Make up of the group

It is not just the nature and the atmosphere within the group, but also the relationship between the leader and the group that determine the leadership style. Fred Fiedler speaks of an interaction: when the leader fully trusts his employees; they will adopt a loyal and cooperative attitude. Vice versa, a leader will trust his employees when they prove themselves in favour of the company. This group dynamics may also have a negative impact as a result of which the leader is forced to be authoritarian and his employees have to work less independently. If the nature of the group is characterized by conflicts and competitive urges, the leader will be forced to run a tight ship.

2. Nature of the task

The leadership style of the leader depends on the nature of the task. Clear tasks that employees can perform routinely require less supervision than tasks that have to be adjusted and explained time and again.

3. Power of the leader

The formal power of the leader is determined by his hierarchical position on the one hand and by his knowledge and competences on the other. However, the personal authority he more or less radiates naturally will be decisive for his interaction with his employees and therefore also decisive for the situation.

Fiedler Contingency Model : Leadership style

By combining and merging these three situational factors, Fred Fiedler arrives at several efficient leadership styles in which (depending on the situation) both task orientation as people orientation can be effective:

Given that personality (task-orientation and people-orientation) is reasonably stable, the Fiedler contingency model suggests that the situation should be adapted to such an extent that it suits the leader. The Fiedler Contingency Model refers to this as job engineering. Furthermore, training of groups is seen as a method to improve the nature of the relationship within the group.

Critique on the Fiedler contingency model

Throughout the years the Fiedler Contingency Model has also been criticized. For instance, the Fiedler Contingency Model would have little or no flexibility. Fred Fiedler assumed that a natural leadership style of a leader is a fixed given and that this is related to his personality characteristics. He thought that his natural leadership style would therefore be the most effective. What he did not take into account is the fact that a leader does not always have to give in to his natural leadership style and that he can abandon this. Consequently, he can manage on task-orientation or people-orientation.

It's Your Turn

What do you think? Is the Fiedler Contingency Model in today's modern companies? Do you recognize the practical explanation or do you have more additions? What are your success factors for good situational leadership?

Share your experience and knowledge in the comments box below.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our Free Newsletter for the latest posts on models and methods. You can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
More information

1. Fiedler, F. (1987). New Approaches to Leadership, Cognitive Resources and Organizational Performance. John Wiley and Sons.

2. Fiedler, F. (1971). Reviews studies of the contingency model of leadership effectiveness. Journal: Psychological Bulletin, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 128-148.

3. Fiedler, F. (1964). A contingency model of leadership effectiveness. Advances in experimental social psychology, 1, 149-190.

4. Strube, M. J., & Garcia, J. E. (1981). A meta-analytic investigation of Fiedler's contingency model of leadership effectiveness. Psychological Bulletin, 90(2), 307.

5. Vecchio, R. P. (1977). An empirical examination of the validity of Fiedler's model of leadership effectiveness. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 19(1), 180-206.

How to cite this article:
Mulder, P. (2013). Fiedler Contingency Model. Retrieved [insert date] from toolshero: https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/fiedler-contingency-model/

Add a link to this page on your website:
<a href="https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/fiedler-contingency-model/">toolshero: Fiedler Contingency Model</a>

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What is Fiedler Contingency Model? Theory of leadership | toolshero

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This article explains the Fiedler Contingency Model or Fiedler Model, developed by Fred Fiedler in a practical way. After reading you will understand the basics of this powerful contingency theory of leadership. In the 1960s, Fred Fiedler carried out research on the relationship (contingency) between the effectiveness of the leadership style and the situation.

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Helpful book on Leadership Theory, unable to link here due to ASU regulations.

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Powerful book on Transformational Leadership, unable to link here due to ASU regulations.

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Preparing Health and Human Service Practitioners in the Age of Innovation and Diversity.
Unable to share link due to ASU regulations.

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Why Do Some People Become Great Leaders?

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Why do certain people become great leaders? Leadership theories seek to answer this question and usually fit into one of eight basic types.

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Many of history's most effective leaders are labeled charismatic. Yet there is a great deal of controversy about whether charisma is made or born, and if charismatic leaders are actually effective. A while back, I was interviewed as part of a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of the most frequently asked questions about charismatic leadership were part of that interview.
Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Winston Churchill were known as dynamic, charismatic and inspirational leaders. What particular traits or qualities did someone like MLK possess that allowed him to lead and inspire so many people?
Charismatic leaders are essentially very skilled communicators - individuals who are verbally eloquent, but also able to communicate to followers on a deep, emotional level. They are able to articulate a compelling or captivating vision, and to arouse strong emotions in followers.
Is charisma something that you are born with - you either have it or you don't? Do you think most leaders, politicians, and inspirational figures have charisma, and is it that quality which makes them stand out?
Charisma is really a process - an interaction between the qualities of the charismatic leader, the followers and their needs and identification with the leader, and the situation that calls out for a charismatic leader, such as a need for change or a crisis. But when it comes to the charismatic qualities of leaders, the emphasis is on how they communicate to followers and whether they are able to gain followers' trust, and influence and persuade them to follow.

Most politicians, particularly on the national scene, have developed their ability to communicate effectively - to make speeches, "work the room" with potential donors and supporters, etc. So many seasoned politicians have a lot of "personal charisma."
What are the important characteristics every leader should possess?
A model that I think represents the very best leaders, and research bears this out, is transformational leadership. You can think of transformational leadership as going beyond charisma, because two of the components of transformational leadership deal with charisma. They are:

Idealized Influence, or the leader's ability to be a positive (and moral) role model for followers. The transformational leader also "walks the talk," and is on the "front line" working with followers (think MLK Jr.), or leaders who sacrifice along with their followers. In business, the charismatic/transformational leader sometimes serves as the "face" of the company or the movement (think Steve Jobs).

Inspirational Motivation is the second quality, and it is what charismatic leaders are noted for - the ability to inspire and motivate followers to perform at high levels, and to be committed to the organization or the cause.

The other two elements of transformational leadership are Intellectual Stimulation - challenging followers to be creative and think outside of the box - and Individualized Consideration, or being responsive to the feelings and developmental needs of followers.

Transformational leaders are charismatic, but they are also noted for leading high-performing groups and teams and developing followers' leadership capacity as much as for helping the group or organization to change and innovate.
What are some behaviors or traits that might derail a leader/politician's career or stand in their path to success?
The biggest thing that can derail a leader is arrogance, and a lack of concern or responsiveness to followers and constituents. We have seen politicians' and CEOs' arrogance - thinking they are above the law and committing ethical violations lead to their demise. Also, a leader needs to succeed more often than not, and to learn from mistakes and setbacks.
Are leaders born or made?
This isn't something that requires my opinion, because the question has been well researched. Twin studies by Richard Arvey and his colleagues have estimated that leadership is about two-thirds "made" and one-third "born." This makes sense, though, if we see much of leadership as a set of learned skills and competencies - the ability to communicate, to strategize, to problem solve, etc. These take time to develop.

This question would have broad implications for leadership, for if it were all (or mostly) born, then our efforts should be directed toward identifying and selecting leaders, and we would be wasting our time on leader development programs. But, the research suggests that putting resources into leader development makes sense, and recent meta-analyses of these programs suggest that, in general, they work and lead to positive gains.
Follow me on Twitter

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What Is Charisma and Charismatic Leadership?

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Many of history's most effective leaders are labeled charismatic. Yet there is a great deal of controversy about whether charisma is made or born, and if charismatic leaders are actually effective. A while back, I was interviewed as part of a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Impact of Leadership Style of Teacher on Students

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Impact of Leadership Style of Teacher on Students

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"If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

When Nathan and I started TeamGantt, we decided to buck tradition and take a different approach. As leaders of the company, we care more about being part of the team and setting people up for success than making sure everyone knows who's boss.

That's why servant leadership is our go-to leadership style.

Let's take a closer look at what servant leadership is and the 10 characteristics that define a servant leader.

What is servant leadership?

Servant leadership is a management style that prioritizes the team's growth and well-being over the organization's or leader's own ambitions. Unlike traditional leaders, a servant leader focuses on coaching and developing individuals, not just achieving the goals of the organization.

Servant leadership traces its origins to Robert Greenleaf. In his 1970 essay "The Servant as a Leader," he described servant leadership like this:

"The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first."

A lot of companies look at employees as cogs in a wheel who exist solely to help the organization advance its goals. Leaders act as taskmasters who dole out authority and don't care how work gets done, as long as it's delivered on time. Servant leadership flips the typical leadership script by putting people ahead of power.

10 key principles of servant leadership

So what does it take to be a servant leader? Servant leaders share a common set of core characteristics. Follow these 10 principles to put servant leadership to work with your team.

1. Listening

Listening is at the heart of servant leadership. If a team member's talking, give them your full focus and attention-no interruption allowed! It's a simple way to make your team feel valued so they know you care.

2. Empathy

A lot goes into empathy, but when it comes to servant leadership, it basically comes down to getting to know your team. Find out what makes them tick, and learn their strengths and weaknesses. That way you can let your team members shine and maybe even help them turn their weaknesses into strengths.

3. Healing

Some team members may come to you from a previous job that had a really toxic work environment-and you have the privilege to help them heal.

Don't worry: It's not as hard as it sounds. Healing is as simple as creating a healthy work environment that has work-life balance built in. It's also about giving people the tools they need to succeed so they feel like a valued member of the team.

4. Self-awareness

I've already mentioned the importance of understanding your team's strengths and weaknesses. But it's just as important to do a little self-reflection of your own.

Take inventory of your own strengths and weaknesses, and figure out how you fit into the overall team. Then use yourself in ways that benefit the team and the company. Recognizing your own limitations can help you see opportunities to leverage your team's strengths more clearly.

5. Persuasion

Slick sales tactics may come to mind when you think of persuasion. But that's not what we're talking about here.

Servant leaders use persuasion to build consensus and get buy-in from their team. That way everyone feels like they have a stake in the team's success.

6. Conceptualization

You've got to know where you're going as a leader and a company. After all, how else will you carve a positive path for your team?

TeamGantt enables you to keep the big picture in mind without losing focus on the day-to-day. For example, the Project Health Report makes it easy to see how all your projects are tracking, while Workloads enables you to keep a finger on the pulse of your team.

7. Foresight

Another key characteristic of servant leadership is taking the knowledge you've learned in the past and applying it to the future so you and your team can continue to grow.

Project post-mortems or retrospectives are a great tool for figuring out what worked-and what didn't-so you can fine-tune your process with each project. You can also use TeamGantt's baselines feature to compare your original plan to your actual timeline and pinpoint opportunities to improve.

See how baselines work in TeamGantt.
8. Stewardship

Stewardship is simply leading by example. It's your job to set the tone for your team, so don't ask people to do things you wouldn't do yourself.

At TeamGantt, I lead the development team. One way I put this into practice is by being the first person to sign up for 2:00 a.m. deployments. If something goes wrong, I'll take the heat. This goes a long way toward building trust-a must for any well-functioning team.

9. Commitment to the growth of people

If you want your team to grow, you've got to invest in people. One simple way we do this is by providing an annual conference budget so team members can develop the skills they need to thrive in their role.

We also conduct 360 performance reviews each year. As a leader, you can only see so much. A 360-degree review brings peer and even direct report feedback into the process so you have a more complete picture of performance and can identify meaningful opportunities for growth.
Watch this video to learn how we build unity and morale on our remote team.

10. Building community

Teams who trust each other work together to get more done. That's why it's important to cultivate relationships among your team.

As a fully remote team, we have to be extra-intentional about this. We bring the whole team together once a year for our annual team meetup, while smaller teams get together more often. We make sure to build in time for fun between business strategy so trust has room to grow. It's worth the investment!

Apply the servant leadership style to project management

Servant leaders know there's always more to learn-and we can help you out with that. The Art and Science of Project Leadership is an online video course that can help you embrace the servant leadership style as you grow your project management skills. Watch the classes anytime, from anywhere-and it's totally free!

I recommend starting with An Introduction to Project Leadership-not just because it's the first in the series-but because it lays the foundation for what it means to be a great project leader.

Lead the way!
Remember: You don't have to have a manager title or a team of direct reports to be a servant leader. If you lead projects in any way, you have the power of positive influence and can set your team and organization up for success.

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The 10 Principles of Servant Leadership | TeamGantt

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"If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams When Nathan and I started TeamGantt, we decided to buck tradition and take a different approach.

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In a span of mere weeks, companies and organizations around the globe are facing a slate of decisions they've never faced before. Brand-new work from home policies, the agonizing decision to stay open or close doors, how to balance care for people in an environment where working from home isn't possible, and, for some, how to scale up in the face of unprecedented demand.

As we navigate so much uncertainty, one thing is clear: how we react, what we decide and the communications we send will either build or erode trust. It won't be neutral.

The need to build trust in an organization isn't new, but current demands make it more pronounced. Trust defined is: a belief in someone or something. If I asked you to think about the person you trust the most, you could likely make a list of behaviors pretty quickly. Perhaps you would say: they listened, they had my back, they told the truth even when it was difficult, they showed up in a predictable way, they challenged me, they were transparent in their thoughts and actions, they were vulnerable, they admitted when they didn't know something, they gave the team credit instead of taking it all. Trust, after all is not a behavior in and of itself, but there are a whole host of behaviors that lead to the belief of trust.

If we grouped the behaviors described above, they would fall in four categories:

Competence: Doing something right.

Consistency: Doing things right over time.

Character: Doing the right thing.

Compassion: Doing the right thing for people.

Which begs the question, how do we start building or strengthening trust in the workplace with the current COVID-19 environment? Display behaviors in all four categories.
Compassion

Really listen.
Normally, we would suggest that you turn off technology to stay fully present. However, technology is the way you're probably communicating. Keep the video on so you can both listen and pick-up on nonverbal communication.

Connect with your people in a way that works for them.

For those that are more expressive, working from home might be particularly challenging. Make the effort to schedule even a 10-minute check-in.

For those who are less expressive, send an email or text to check-in.

Not sure which way is best? Just ask.

Send a hand-written note in the mail. They're rare and memorable.

Consider the difference between empathetic and non-empathetic responses:

Character

Be transparent with what you know and what you don't know. Even when the news is not good. Saying, "I don't know," builds more trust than attempting to talk around an answer.

Tell your team what your concerns are. This humanizes you as their leader.

Be willing to accept your mistakes. Share what you learned with your team and how you will do it different next time.

Competence

Identify trusted sources for information, both for your company and relative to COVID-19 procedures.

Ensure all team members know what the procedure is if they begin to feel symptoms.

Break-down work your team needs to accomplish into shorter milestones. Celebrate each accomplishment.

Consistency

Consider which of your team norms don't have to change, but rather evolve. If you have a regular Friday afternoon touch base to close out the week, maintain the same schedule and do so virtually.

Increase the amount you are communicating. Consider a daily (virtual if necessary) huddle to make sure each person is aligned to what needs to be accomplished and by when. Building trust and respect in a team can continue even while separated.

While your team may not be able to take cues from your nonverbal communications as much anymore, they are certainly observing your tone, how messages are being communicated and where you display empathy. While we all flex to new ways of working, showing up as a consistent version of you allows your team to feel more secure as they navigate a considerable amount of change.

If you want to assess how you're doing in building trust in any of these areas, the simplest way is to ask. Request feedback from your team on what's going well and what could be going better. Listen. Implement the suggestions that make sense for your team. In doing so, you'll begin to build or strengthen the belief of trust within your team.

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Building Trust During COVID-19 * Chapman & Co.

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In a span of mere weeks, companies and organizations around the globe are facing a slate of decisions they've never faced before. Brand-new work from home policies, the agonizing decision to stay open or close doors, how to balance care for people in an environment where working from home isn't possible, and, for some, how to scale up in the face of unprecedented demand.

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Here is my personal leadership philosophy

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Today's school leaders face many challenges. In addition to advancing academic achievement, principals also attend to an increasing array of mental health challenges with which students are faced. At the same time, secondary school leaders are under pressure to ensure all students are set up for success in college and the workforce. Understandably, principals can feel overwhelmed by these enormous pressures. However, they might be missing an untapped resource in their buildings-school counselors.

School counselors are uniquely positioned to support students' academic achievement, social-emotional well-being, and postsecondary readiness and success. Multiple studies have shown that strong school counseling programs are linked to improvements in attendance, increased college-going rates, decreased discipline referrals, and other positive outcomes. However, in some parts of the country, school counselors struggle to meet students' diverse needs because of high caseloads, ambiguous job descriptions, outdated and low expectations, limited professional development, and sometimes a lack of support from school leaders who may not understand how the counselor role should be carried out.

While providing clearer and higher expectations for school counselors can go a long way, meeting the myriad challenges students face calls for a reenvisioning of the school counseling profession. School counselors could work more efficiently, and students could be served more effectively, if they embraced an approach to school counseling that author Mandy Savitz-Romer refers to as an "academic home" in her book Fulfilling the Promise: Reimagining School Counseling to Advance Student Success. In this approach, counselors work at the hub of student supports, connecting and coordinating services much as primary care physicians coordinate patient care in medical settings.

In this role, school counselors serve as the first point of contact for students, providing as much support as is feasible and referring students for specialized services when needed so they don't fall between the cracks. Specialized supports could include mental health counseling, legal support for immigration issues, or even individualized assistance with college essays. Most school counselors already work within a robust network that includes teachers, administrators, and community partners. In the "academic home" model, the counselor serves both as the first point of contact in a student support system and as the person who provides leadership to create alignment among the services provided by community partners that might otherwise become fragmented or inequitable.

Use the following strategies to be sure you're maximizing the impact that counselors can have on students' academic and social-​emotional development.

1. Protect School Counselors' Time With Students

Historically, there's been some confusion about school counselors' roles and where their priorities should lie. To support a comprehensive school counseling program, principals need to have a clear understanding of counselors' roles and how their time can best be utilized to support the school's mission.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) offers guidelines for appropriate counselor responsibilities. Principals looking to unlock their counselors' potential might begin by developing a clear, shared understanding of how counselors spend their time. Talk to your counselors about their duties and see if certain responsibilities could be distributed to other staff to allow for more time directly supporting students.

It might not seem revolutionary to suggest that school leaders formulate clear expectations for counselors' roles, but as the profession has evolved and counselors have found themselves adjusting their roles to meet changing societal needs, it's time for educational leaders to update their expectations, too. (For instance, when counselors are asked to carry out extensive noncounseling duties such as test administration, it compromises their ability to provide critical direct services, such as implementing a social skills lessons, meeting with a student struggling with gender identity, or reviewing attendance data and identifying appropriate interventions.)

2. Adopt Clear Mission and Vision Statements

School leaders know that mission and vision statements are an important factor in creating a school culture founded in core values. Most schools' mission statements emphasize key components of school counselors' purpose, namely promoting academic achievement and postsecondary readiness. It is important not to overlook that these are also primary goals of counseling offices. Therefore, principals should consider how a school's mission statement might reflect a commitment to supporting students' personal development as well as their academic and postsecondary development.

Many school counseling programs also offer their own mission statements to reflect their internal core values and purpose. Not only does this help situate the counseling program within the larger educational vision of the school, but it helps focus programming. When the goals of counselors are aligned with those of school leaders, it increases commitment and motivation to pursue that vision. Also, because students and families may not understand what school counseling today offers them, updating your mission statements can offer a clear message to outside stakeholders about how these professionals support students.

3. Provide School Counselors With Leadership Opportunities

Some of the most promising school counseling programs we have found place school counselors on the leadership team. More often than not, this decision reflects the school leaders' vision of school counselors as experts on their students and it highlights school counseling as instrumental to meeting schoolwide goals.

In September of 2018, NASSP hosted an informative roundtable exploring the principal/counselor relationship. "Our counselors provide what I like to call 'qualitative formative assessment' data on the culture and climate of the school. Simply put, they have and understand the pulse of the school," noted Tommy Welch, former principal of Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, GA, during the roundtable. "This information is vital when implementing a new initiative."

At TechBoston Academy in Dorchester, MA, the director of school counseling partnered with the school's special education director to launch an intervention team that included active participation of the principal. The team meets weekly to identify struggling students and connect them with the appropriate support programs or interventions, further ensuring that no student falls through the cracks. Because the school's principal attends each week, the team often sees their feedback turned into action-they spot changes they can make at their school to better serve all students. Positioning counselors to take on leadership roles enables them to launch new systems that serve the entire school community.

4. Invest in School Counselors' Professional Learning and Development

Just as professional development is critical for improving teachers' content knowledge and instructional practice, similar training for school counselors provides new learning opportunities. Indeed, students' needs are constantly evolving, and today, they depend on counselors to support them on issues ranging from homelessness and anxiety to managing admissions processes that are increasingly competitive and complex.

Our research shows that counselors say they don't always engage in professional learning opportunities due to financial constraints, lack of relevant opportunities, and sometimes, because of limited support from school leaders. Certainly, school leaders try to offer school-based professional learning that applies to the majority of the school staff. However, this may miss the mark for counselors. Fortunately, there is a range of virtual and in-person professional development associations that can offer support to counselors at a reasonable cost. Organizations such as ASCA and the Southern Regional Education Board offer webinars and online learning opportunities for counselors. School leaders should budget for counselors to attend these sessions, as they not only provide great learning opportunities, but they also enable counselors to network with colleagues-something that is often missing for counselors.

Mentoring programs across schools, especially for new counselors, ensure that counselors can consult on ethical issues or learn new ways of approaching a challenging issue. I have also seen school districts offer meaningful districtwide professional learning on topics for which there is a shared interest. Using professional learning communities, book clubs, or affinity groups, school counselors gain opportunities for networking and sharing best practices within role-alike groups. School and district leaders might also consider partnering with nearby school districts to share the cost of bringing in professional development providers.

5. Encourage School Counselors to Use Data-Driven Practices

Like teachers, school counselors have adopted the use of data-driven practices to improve student outcomes. The ASCA National Model states that school counselors should be proficient in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. As school counselors implement a comprehensive school counseling program, utilizing attendance, behavior, and academic data allows them to meet the diverse needs of all students. School climate data can drive schoolwide counseling initiatives, such as antibullying programs. Data can be used to provide financial aid workshops based on low rates of FAFSA applications the previous year. Additionally, school counselors can use data to support targeted student interventions by identifying students with multiple unexcused absences or who are not on track to graduate.

School leaders can support counselors' use of data by ensuring they have access to data reports on early warning indicators and academic milestones, or statewide data regarding wellness. Because some school counselors report feeling intimidated by the use of data, principals might also include them in schoolwide data inquiry teams, research-practice partnerships, and other opportunities where other school-based staff is engaging with data.

Moving Forward

Too often, graduate programs fail to prepare principals for their role in supporting school counselors; therefore, administrators must collaborate with their counseling staff to identify systems and supports they can implement to improve counselors' practice. In addition to implementing these strategies, principals might consider adopting biannual administrative conferences to discuss school responsibilities, updating school counselor job descriptions, or identifying goals for the year and outlining plans for the counseling department to meet those goals. With a national average of 482 students to every one counselor, principals may not be able to budget for additional staff. However, they can create conditions for current counselors to positively influence students' educational experiences.
Mandy Savitz-Romer, PhD, is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Laura Colletta is the former assistant director of College Counseling at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn, NY. Danielle Duarte is an education leadership doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Leadership for a Strong School Counseling Program: March 2020

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Today's school leaders face many challenges. In addition to advancing academic achievement, principals also attend to an increasing array of mental health challenges with which students are faced. At the same time, secondary school leaders are under pressure to ensure all students are set up for success in college and the workforce.