School Counselors play a HUGE role in fostering independence, leadership, and responsibility for kids at school. The 7 Habits of Happy Kids and The Leader in Me help create this within the culture of the school. It becomes embedded and the students begin to react positively to the expectations and the evolving culture. Read to find out how to change school culture by investing in leadership with habits  It all starts with a flame…. a flame in yourself. Then you ignite another staff member’s fire and it spreads! Adults start seeing change and want it for themselves. Then the kids start to notice and you give up some of your responsibilities to let them take part. The foundation starts with you and the power to use the 7 Habits in your own life.

What are the 7 Habits?

The seven habits come from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The habits were also translated into child language in the book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids. These are habits that every human being can begin placing into their own lives to promote positive change.

For our school and community, the days of teaching one character word at a time are over! The Leader in Me encompasses all aspects of character and incorporates them within the habits. This is not another program to pitch to your staff… instead, this is a way of living!

The best way to start is to learn them yourself and apply them to your own life.

• Habit 1: Be Proactive
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit 3: Put First Things First
• Habit 4: Think Win-Win
• Habit 5: Seek to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Habit 6: Synergize
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
• BONUS Habit 8: Find Your Voice

Why Do We Use the 7 Habits?

From my personal story, I work in a low-income school district where the majority of my students were not being taught leadership skills and how to be independently responsible for themselves. They were in a rut of blaming others and expecting others to solve their problems.

This is not what I wanted for my students… I KNOW they can do better and develop a different mindset. They just needed someone else to see their potential and light a fire.

Our school is a part of a County Wide Initiative to promote character education and the focus has become the leadership. Using character words was a great way to teach character education… but we needed more. We needed to stretch the words of respect, responsibility, and citizenship and go deeper into the HOW. In order to build kids up with the tools to be responsible and to act as a good citizen. This is why The Leader in Me fit so well with us and our beliefs about kids.

First of all, it starts with you! If you live it… they will see change and want it too!

The process of incorporating this at school has been slow, over the last three years. Sometimes, we get really excited about something new and jump right in, without giving it time to build and sink in. So, with this process, we have done things the complete opposite because we really believe in it.

How Do I Use The 7 Habits at School?

We started out by having a book study with The Leader in Me book. Our school bought the book for every staff member in our building and began reading it as a team and working through the book study workbook. We talked about a couple of chapters at a time in faculty meetings and began using the language and habits personally. I loved hearing what teachers and administrators had to say about changing the culture of our school. It was a big eye opener to know that we all actually wanted the same thing… even the teachers who are not usually on board! By the end of the book study, I did a survey with our staff and we had 100% buy-in!

Then the next year, I started using the 7 Habits of Happy Kids in my classroom counseling lessons. I go into the classrooms every other week, so one week we would do a focus lesson, like bullying, and the next week we would do a habit lesson. We also switched out the character words at our assemblies, instead to talk about the habits. This way, we were able to introduce them slowly and take time to develop the language for our kids.

After that, the following year, we kept building on what we started. We found ways at school, that kids could become leaders because EVERYONE HAS GREATNESS! The teachers set up individual Class Jobs and we developed School-Wide jobs so they can begin to take part in the everyday processes of school and build pride in knowing they are important and can contribute.

Keeping The Motivation for Change

This year, we are continuing with what I mentioned above and adding a more detailed leadership notebook. The students are becoming so responsible with themselves, that it’s time they focus on tracking their attendance and academic work. Each grade level has its own type of leadership notebook and the students are responsible for tracking their daily attendance and their testing scores in reading and math. This process can become very overwhelming for teachers and students, so again, we are taking this very slow!

I will list some resources I have made, in case you want to take a peek!

• Habit Bundle (Class Jobs, Leadership Application, Parent Newsletters)
• Leadership Data Notebook
• School-Wide Jobs

Like I said before, the Leader in Me is not a program or a new thing to pitch to your staff members. It is a way of living and knowing that everyone has greatness within themselves. It’s all about setting kids and people up for success and giving them the right tools to work with. We are not throwing out character words, we are just looking at them differently and taking it a step further. I talked about a ton of things we have started at my school. But there are many schools out there who are incorporating this a little differently and doing even more than what we have started. It really gets exciting to see how far we have come and think about where we are going in the future!

Ways to Get Involved and Continue Learning?

I explained ways that we are incorporating this for our students. However, there are other schools who are official Leader in Me Schools. One way to get involved is to go to a Leader in Me Symposium. We were able to take six staff members last year to a 2-Day Symposium and it was AMAZING! Talk about getting on fire! We were pumped to come back to school and make leaders!

Another way is to talk to a Franklin Covey Rep for your area. We have been working with our rep over the last few years and he has been such a great help. As I said before, we are not an official school…. YET. But, they have been so kind as to help us out and get us in the right direction because they believe in kids too!

The best advice I can give you to start is to read The Leader in Me, research the habits and start using them in your own life. Then you can start igniting fires and doing a book study with your staff.

This is amazing stuff… be prepared to see amazing change within your school!

We are always looking for new ways for students to lead and use these habits. Please let me know what you are doing at your school and how you promote leadership!

Ohh, I almost forgot! Another FREEBIE for you! During our monthly student-led assemblies, we announce Habit Leaders. These are students who go above and beyond to be a leader and set an example for others. We wanted it to be a genuine award, so I created a rubric that could also be used for behavior goals. Just click below and it’s yours! Enjoy!

Click Here for Rubric