There are those who believe that great leaders are born and not taught. Some believe that you can teach anyone to lead. Yet regardless of the tools a person has, leadership will only develop if a person decides to use his abilities and apply lessons learned. Teaching leadership can turn and inspire students to become better than they are.
Instructions
1. Preach what you practice. High school students are still impressionable, despite the assumption that they can be rebellious and independent. They still believe most of what they see and not what they hear. Whatever you teach them, especially when it comes to life lessons, you must embody the principles first. If you say leadership can be shown through volunteering with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, you should already be or have been in the program or a similar one.
2. Use technology and entertainment to your advantage. There are many popular current movies and DVDs that have great examples of leadership. "The Lord of The Rings" shows great examples of how a character influenced his friends to help by overcoming his own fears and completing his mission with the ring. "Remember The Titans" shows how great leaders put aside their differences and take responsibility for their actions. Watch some of these movies and use certain scenes as leadership talking points.
3. Use interactive exercises that allow students to explore leadership skills. There are many great leadership exercises (see Resources below) that give students situations that they must work through together to come up with their best solution. Most of those exercises aren't about the solution but about the process. Be careful to just facilitate the exercises and not interfere. Set time limits and make sure to come up with questions to ask before your students begin.
4. Emphasize that good leadership also involves good followership. This is a fact that can be left out in many leadership discussions. Good leaders know follow the examples of other leaders, thereby enhancing their own strengths. Following involves anticipating the needs of their leader, doing the right thing when he isn't looking and resolving conflict behind closed doors with proposed solutions instead of complaints.
5. Teach basic conflict resolution techniques. There are times when leaders will conflict with their followers or see conflict amongst their followers. Conflict resolution techniques, when properly used, can create trust from followers to their leaders even if the resolution isn't what the followers preferred.
Tags: believe that, come with, great examples, great leaders, resolution techniques