In this episode of Counselor Chat, we’re diving into a fun and insightful activity that can be a game-changer for your next faculty meeting or even for use with students—The Leadership Compass.

This activity helps individuals identify their leadership style based on four compass directions: North, South, East, and West. Whether you’re a “take charge” North, a “big picture” East, a “detail-oriented” West, or a “relationship-building” South, this exercise fosters a deeper understanding of how each style contributes to effective teamwork.

You’ll learn how to use this tool to boost collaboration, appreciate the diversity of leadership approaches, and build stronger connections with your colleagues.

Key Takeaways:

• The Fable of the Blind Men and the Elephant: A powerful story to illustrate the importance of understanding different perspectives.
• Leadership Compass Breakdown:
• North: Action-oriented, loves to get things done.
• East: Big picture thinkers who work with the end in mind.
• West: Detail-focused and question everything to ensure clarity.
• South: Relationship-focused and ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
• How to Use the Leadership Compass: Tips for facilitating the activity with faculty and students, including creating a visual compass in your room.
• The Power of Diverse Leadership Styles: Why you need all four directions on your team for true collaboration and success.

Links Mentioned:

The Leadership Compass Activity

Grab the Show Notes: Counselingessentials.org/podcast

Join Perks Counseling Club Membership and get the lessons, small group and individual counseling materials you need. Join now and get your first month free when you sign up for 3 months!

Connect with Carol:

• TpT Store
• Counseling Essentials Website
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Elementary School Counselor Exchange Facebook Group
• Caught In The Middle School Counselors Facebook Group
• High School Counselor Connection Facebook Group

Mentioned in this episode:

Perks Membership

Carol: You're listening to the counselor chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy. I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students. If you're looking for a little inspiration to help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place because we're better together. Ready to chat? Let's dive in.

Carol: Hi, everyone. It's Carol here. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat. I'm glad that you're here with me this week, and I am really kind of excited to talk about this week's topic because I know a lot of you have been asking, hey, what's something that I can do that's kind of like a turnkey activity that I could do with our faculty members because I was tasked with providing some PD at an upcoming faculty meeting. I'm not sure if you have to provide PD or not, but I have an activity for you today that I think you can use with lots of different age ranges, from our elementary kiddos all the way up to adults. And it's something that I did relatively recently myself. And boy, I'll tell you, I learned a lot. And the other thing that I can tell you is if you really have a great activity, you learn so much from that. I think this is a goodie. So if you are tasked with providing some PD, I hope you give this week's episode a listen. Before we really dive into it, though, I just want to share a little story that I often use with my students. Usually use it when we're talking about perspectives. And it's all. It's an old fable. You might have heard it, but this lesson, it's really. It's timeless. It's about the three blind men and the elephant. It goes like this. Three blind men encounter an elephant for the very first time. But each of the men touches a different part of the elephant. One feels the trunk, another the leg, and the third the tail. And when each of those men are asked to describe the elephant, each man gives a very vastly different description. The one who touched the trunk believes the elephant is like a snake. The one who felt the leg says it feels like a tree, and the one who grabbed the tail insists that it's like a rope. Now, these men argue because they're each convinced that their perspective is really the correct one. But what they fail to realize is that they all hold part of the truth. And with that, I want you to think about that for a minute because I'm going to transition to the activity that I really want to share today. And it's called the leadership compass. So the leadership compass is really, it's based on idea that there are four main types of leadership styles, each represented by a direction of the compass. So if you are working with your faculty, you're going to tell them that we're going to talk about leadership styles and our own leadership styles. And I want you to think of. Think of a compass. You might even make little signs for north, south, east and west and paste them on each side of the room. And then you're going to do this. You are going to give a quick little rundown of each of the compass points and kind of tell them what it is each one represents and then have them go to each either north, south, east or west. It's also probably important to note to them that they might feel like they can be in any given one of these directions at any one time, but they really have to choose the one that most resonates with them. So for north, and as we go through this, my friends, I want you to think of where you fall. So north, if you're north, you take charge. You run the daily operation. You have a list of things to do, and you need to get started and get them done. You get assignments in early. You don't have to ask questions to begin your work or assignment. You drive the work and you get it done. For the east, you're kind of like the big picture person, the frame that needs to be filled in. You need to see the final product and will work with the end in mind. You believe in working backwards, by understanding, by design. And you don't get the project started until you're really clear about what the final product is going to look like. If you're in the west, you really ask the hard questions. You live by inquiry. You challenge us to identify the details. You don't have to start a project until you're really clear about the details. You also make the picture more complete. You engage in thoughtful discourse, and you're really, you're really the thinker of all the whys or the what ifs or how. And in the south, you take in all the information, you slow us down, and you make sure that everyone has a voice and is heard. You make sure to include everyone. And you make sure that the human side is nurtured. You take care of us and bring up the affective domain. You are really all about making sure the emotional side of our work is heard and make sure that all are included. So think about where you would go on the compass. Would you be north? The person that's taking charge, the one that jumps into things, the one that gets all the assignments done. Are you going to the east? Are you the big picture thinker? Are you the west? The one that's asking all the questions to make sure you're clear about the details? Or you were in the southeast, where you're including everyone and making sure everyone has a voice. So with this, it's really neat to see which direction people really lean towards. And sometimes the people that you think are going to go in one direction totally surprise you and go into a different one. And it's also really neat to see people say, no, you're over there. No, no, you should be over here. I really see you more as this type of a leader. But when we really look at our strengths, we can really understand how we can contribute best to the team. And like our blind men and the elephant, it really helps to understand the perspectives of everyone who might be just giving a little piece of the picture instead of the big picture. Because you really need in a team somebody who's a north, someone who's a south, someone who's an east, and someone who's a west. Now, if you can't figure it out, I'm a north. I am truly a north person, but I have a co counselor who is more of the east. So we complement each other really, really well. But it's really neat to see how your different leadership styles can all work together, because in a school, we all have different strengths and we all contribute to the team. We're all working to best serve our students. And if you've listened to some of the other more recent episodes, you really have probably heard me say over and over that we can't really work in isolation. We have to work as part of a team. So, my friends, if you are tasked with running a faculty meeting, I think this is a really great activity to do with them. It also lets them see where you fit in to the team as well. One of the things, the big benefits I think of this activity is not only helping individuals really understand their own leadership style, it really also fosters appreciation for the different approaches within the team. It really does lead to more effective collaboration and a stronger sense of community among the staff. So if you need to fill a good 15 minutes or so this is it. I will drop the link to this activity because you can find it online in various places in the show notes. I'll show you what we use, and it has some discussion questions and things that you can use with your faculty as well. So if you have a really great idea for an activity for your faculty members, I would love to hear it, because I'm always looking for a good activity, because if I can't even use it with the faculty, I'll use it with kids. And there's a lot of activities that I've used with kids that I love working with adults, so this is just one of them. But anyway, this once again was called the leadership compass, and I hope it was something fun that you think, hmm, this might be something that I could use one day. Anyway, we're gonna keep coming at you each week with some more activities and ideas, and because my goal is to help you have the best year. Yeah, I'm really on a mission to do that, and that's just by Sharon. And we're going to have some guests on pretty soon that will also help with the mission of having you have the best year yet. Anyway, until next time, I hope you have a great week. Bye for now.

Carol: Thanks for listening to today's episode of counselor chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and@counselingessentials.org podcast. Be sure to hit, follow, or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Want to connect? Send me a DM on Facebook or instagramounselingessentials. Until next time. Can't wait till we chat.

Carol: Bye for now.