administrator--counselor team, The

Recently, I was asked to give a brief presentation at a graduate level class for school counselors on my view of the proper relationship between counselors and high school administrators.The appropriateness of the term relationship is striking. My view is that it is definitely a relationship, the health and vitality of which can have a profound influence on the effectiveness of guidance and administrative services. I am the house three principal at Orchard Park High School (NY), a "house plan" high school. My office adjoins the offices of my counselors, Ann and Jon, in a suite.Three such house systems manage the needs of the 1,800 students at Orchard Park High School, about 600 of which are assigned to each house.We are not a true house plan school: we maintain the system primarily for student management. Students take classes together regardless of their house affiliations. Nevertheless, each house staff definitely thinks of itself as a team.

Trusting

Webster's dictionary defines team as "a group of people working or playing together, especially as one side in a contest." Increasingly, school personnel across the United States feel as if they are in a contest. But administrators need to think in terms of building a trusting team. Posing the adjective "trusting" as an acronym for each of eight definitions of how the team should function, we can get an idea of how the administrator-counselor relationship can work to the benefit of not only our students, but also ourselves.

Teaming

Counselors and administrators cannot operate separately anymore. We are married in a tight, necessary partnership representing contiguous services for our students. As in a good marriage, we need to think of ourselves as both individuals and a single unit. Our positions may have evolved from strikingly different origins, but at present, we are practically indispensable to each other. Ann and Jon are not merely colleagues who share my office suite space. We are partners. They are always part of my thinking. I keep them constantly in mind.

Realism

We can't please all of the people all of the time, and failure to solve a problem doesn't indicate an absence of good faith. Counselors and administrators, especially when they are hunkered down in their separate intellectual camps, can find it easy and convenient to blame one another when clients get angry or when problems linger despite our efforts. At such times, we need to recognize that things can go wrong and that we need to support one another. Administration is not an exact science. We make judgment calls. A good first move, once we know we have made a mistake, is to admit it and forgive one another and ourselves. Ann, Jon and I do not define our relationship by keeping score of who has made the least or the most blunders. We succeed or fail as a team, and we congratulate or console one another accordingly.

Understanding

We must assume the role of learner and ask questions, take interest, develop our senses and our instincts about what our colleagues are doing or trying to do. There is so much we can learn from one another if we ask for explanations, listen, and take a genuine interest in our colleagues' work. I have been repeatedly and pleasantly surprised that what I learn from Ann and Jon can be employed in my work as well. For example, Ann introduced me to a brief therapy technique of conferencing with students that I have found effective. Forging collaborative relationships is instrumental in promoting mutual understanding.

Sensitivity

Administrators understand the importance of sharing information that keeps the boss from getting ambushed, surprised or broadsided. It is easy for us to expect the loyal "for-yourinformation" message from a counselor before an angry parent phone call or an extravagant special request descends upon us. Principals need and expect counselors to sense what we really need to know. What administrators do not always sense is that counselors will be better able to do their jobs if administrators reciprocate. There are things counselors need to know too. Perhaps even more than teachers, counselors need to know what is coming up in policy and practice. I try to share with Ann and Jon administrative data that I sometimes take for granted, such as enrollment projections, legal developments, building and space plans, budget and curriculum considerations, and evolving district policy. And because they share with me what I need to know about what is happening with their students and the students' families, I have confidence that I will have few surprises and that I will be able to prepare to respond to issues with specificity.

Talking

Teaching and telling one another interesting things related to administrators' work refers not only to our specific work with students but also to our own separate but often interrelated professional experiences, reading and study. Beyond that which we really need to know to do our jobs, there is much that is just plain interesting and stimulating about our professional and personal experiences. Conversations and copies of articles can be shared with equal effectiveness in sustaining our relationship and uniting us as a team. When we can share and take an interest in one another as individuals, it becomes that much more likely that we will be able to stand together amid the annoyances and crises that constitute our workdays. For Ann, Jon and me, being present for one another is something we know we can count on. In an environment where confrontation is the common order of business, a strong counseloradministrator relationship helps to make us feel equal to the challenge because we sense the strength of our team.

Student Interests

Looking out for the interests of the students is part of an administrator's job. When counselors and administrators do not agree, it is counterproductive for each to see his or her opinions and preferences as mutually exclusive-as if only one person could possibly be correct. Often, we are simply seeing the student and the issue differently. Rather than attempt to best one another in a debate or, worse, fall back on hierarchy of authority, educators are called upon to find some way of combining our different viewpoints so each of us is influenced by the others. In this approach, we significantly reduce the possibility of error by promoting the blended validity of mutual processing. What our new roles demand of us is entirely too important for either counselors or administrators to be working alone, inviting bias, opinion, and uncertainty to influence decision-making. We need to allow our opinions to be tempered by our colleagues. It is unnecessary, and it may be foolish, for us to attempt to work solo.

Nurturing

It is certainly no exaggeration to assert that everyone needs a little counseling at times. Counselors and administrators can be egregiously unconscious of one another's needs. Administrators forget that a counselor's resources for helping manage the stress in others' lives are not inexhaustible. Counselors forget that the responsibilities and demands of the administrator's role often result in isolation and lack of access to much needed feedback. In one sense, nurture means "to promote the development of." I do not suggest that counselors and administrators do one another's jobs or fight one another's battles. This is about caring for our colleagues and fostering a sense of genuine appreciation. Even when we disagree about process or when we have critical comments that must be shared, we can do so with a demonstration of gratitude for the talents and abilities they bring to our partnership.

Giving the Benefit of the Doubt

Counselors and administrators must give one another the benefit of the doubt, always, until there is time to discuss the issue, and they must make time to discuss issues as soon as possible. Counselors and administrators frequently find themselves in the midst of emotionally charged situations, dealing with students and adults who are looking for relief and often want someone to blame. Practicing counselors hear their administrator verbally bashed as part of their daily routines. Administrators, too, understand only too well the complaints that are made routinely about counselors. Both know that it is simply not possible to please everyone and still maintain rules, policies, and one's own opinions on what is best. For those who must balance practical necessity and the moral high ground, the potential for conflict is high. It simply will not do for either administrators or school counselors to allow others to drive a wedge into our team and separate us. As in any close relationship, we need to talk through problems before jumping to the conclusion that what a third party has told us must be absolutely true.

In the relationship between administrator and school counselor, there is a place for disagreement and argument, and there may well be a basis even for anger, but these should not be the result of unexplored, unexplained literal acceptance of the criticisms of someone else. Relationships are destroyed, or at least damaged, this way, sometimes irreparably. Giving colleagues the benefit of the doubt is a choice to wait for clarification and to delay action until that clarification is forthcoming. It is a choice to put the relationship first. The failure to make this choice means we have ourselves to blame if our team effectiveness suffers.

Danger! Danger!

However effective counselors and administrators may be at building trusting teams, there are certain dangers that pose almost daily threats to our relationships. We are, by nature, prone to the influence of completion anxiety in both our paperwork and our people work. We count our effectiveness in terms of tasks completed, and we work with intensity to get things done. We worry about solutions and walk straight into the consequences of unintended oversight. We permit lapses in our listening and fail to read each other accurately. Consumed in our own issues and the need to process them until our theories receive a stamp of validity, we demand more attention than we give. We see time as fleeting and interruptions as wasteful of what is already in short supply.

Counselors and administrators bolt from conference to conference without making opportunities beforehand to plan or afterward to debrief. Somehow we expect our colleagues to intuit what needs to be done. But who hasn't sat in a meeting, wishing he or she had taken a few minutes to share views and preferences to gain an understanding of the others' positions? Too late, it's apparent that there is no known, agreed upon common team strategy. Or after the conference, we fail to spend a few minutes coming to closure and gaining a sense of where the team is and what the next best step might be. Next steps are left to separate, individual reflection, and another opportunity is lost.

The distance that can develop between administrators and counselors who go their different ways can give life to an "us versus them" adversarial fallacy. Like attorneys, doctors, and other solution-focused professionals, administrators and counselors are constantly constructing the hypothetical. We are always in need of a theory. Why is this student exhibiting depressive behaviors? Why is this family so apparently unwilling to come in for a conference? Although we may change our theories tomorrow on the basis of new evidence, we develop them today on the basis of what information we have. Without discussion or mutual benefit, counselors and administrators begin to act as individual theorists. Sadly, counselors and administrators often become adversaries from this sort of theorizing. Although adversity is a weakness when team members try to act individually, differing opinions can be a great strength when team members are committed to working as a team. The former relationship diverts our energy. The latter combines it, tempers it with the influence of opposing viewpoints, and permits us to find a synthesized theory of a problem.

The last danger I want to warn of is the loss of faith and the evaporation of belief that results when the players no longer believe in the team. Counselors and administrators risk this loss of faith when we are overwhelmed or feel inadequate, when we are emotionally unavailable, when we feel put upon and unfairly burdened, and when we are not appreciated. Is there an antidote? I think we can find it in the concepts of "process" and "team." In any situation, we can train ourselves to ask questions that direct us to these concepts. Given this challenge, who should serve on our team? Having formed a team, how should it respond to the challenge? If there is no process in policy or prior practice, what response seems most appropriate? Creating a team and a process means that we never think of handling a challenge alone or without a plan. For administrators and counselors this can be a comfortable relationship. We are natural partners, and we have the training and the sensitivity to compliment each other in approaching process. Even if we cannot always get our offices next to each other, we can still learn to think in terms of proximity of effort.

In my experience, this team and process connection makes coming to work a real pleasure. My counselors and I honestly feel that there is nothing the day can throw at us that we cannot handle. Our confidence and our support reside in our commitment to one another.

Donald C. Wesley is house three principal and administrator for guidance services at Orchard Park High School (NY). He earned his B.A. in English and M.A. in literature from the State University of NewYork at Fredonia and has taken doctoral courses at the State University of NewYork at Buffalo. He has written articles on education for several professional magazines and journals including Educational Leadership and Principal Leadership.

Copyright National Association of College Admissions Counselors Fall 2001
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