Montrose Girls Build Leadership Habits
11/12/2025
At Montrose, leadership opportunities are built into the daily experience of student life. Not only are girls given opportunities to initiate their own clubs, lead sports teams and star in creative performances, but they’re also given direct leadership training through our nationally recognized Character & Leadership program, the LifeCompass Institute (LCI).
The LCI is a lab school community of practice at Montrose School. LCI offers practical wisdom for parents and educators to help girls become the best version of themselves. Founded in 2017 by Director Emerita Karen Bohlin, currently leader of Practical Wisdom for Agile Leadership, LCI serves as a resource to educators and school leaders around the globe.
Building on this legacy of leadership is our newest program, the Leadership Summit series, a LifeCompass certification course led by Director of Student Engagement & Leadership, Bridgid Coyle. The most recent summit focused on important leadership and executive functioning habits such as task management, communication strategies, and goal setting. They broke down tasks in an Eisenhower matrix and refined vague goals to be SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound).
“Whether you’re in a leadership position for your club or sports team or class project, the qualities that make a great team leader start with helping others succeed, communicating well, and building a diverse team of different skills and perspectives,” said Mrs. Coyle as she led the group in a series of team building games.
One game involved solving puzzles and finding the missing pieces spread across different group tables. Only, there was a catch — the oldest member of the group couldn’t speak, and the youngest couldn’t use their left hand.
“This challenges the trend that the most experienced person in the room tends to be the most vocal and is the most likely to take charge,” Mrs. Coyle debriefed after the exercise. “And it challenges the tendency of the least experienced person in the group to show the most energy and action. It encourages the team to really communicate and work together better. Inclusion and collaboration aren’t zero-sum: your success often depends on helping others succeed.”
The Leadership Summit is attended by students across all grade levels, which gives them an unique opportunity to work with and get to know girls of different ages and experiences.
“Diversity is important when you’re building your team. It’s great to have people who can do things that other people can’t do,” Coyle added. “It goes against the social inclination to build a team of likeminded people who get along well because they are all so similar.”
The Leadership Summit series is open to all students and will meet again in Spring of 2026. We are proud of our girls as they continue to step into positions of leadership and challenge themselves to be the best they can be. It’s a joy to watch our students grow in confidence, develop their leadership gifts, and discover their noble purpose.