Navigating Leadership with Youth

You use your leadership skills when you influence and guide others.  A great leader motivates and inspires their team to accomplish good things.  You develop your leadership skills as you use them.

Leadership is something that you can only learn by doing.  You will use leadership skills when you teach in an out-of-school time program or when you lead a team in the workplace.

This video focuses on developing leadership skills that will help you teach and that will also help you lead in other settings.  Your first time being in charge can be intimidating.  Remember that you learn leadership as you go.  You shouldn’t expect to be an expert the first time you step up to teach, but you should keep practicing and always do your best to be a good leader for the youth you are teaching.

As you watch the video, think about:

• Who has inspired you to lead? What leadership skills did you see in them?
• What is your vision that inspires you to take on this role?

Remember these key points about being a leader.

1. A leader has a vision for what the group is supposed to do and motivates others to move forward.  When you are leading an activity, this means you have a learning objective and strategies to help move the group toward your learning objective.
2. A good leader is prepared with the skills to help others mediate conflict.  It is normal for conflicts to emerge.  You can help children develop the skills to work effectively with others.
3. An effective leader cares about people and fosters positive relationships within their team. Children recognize when you really care about them and value spending time with them.

Developing these three strategies will help you teach in out-of-school time programs and be an effective leader with any type of group, but this is just a first step in becoming a good leader.  Keep learning about leadership and using your skills to motivate and guide others in a variety of settings.  Learning and practicing will help you continue to develop as a leader.

Now that you’ve watched the video, apply what you’ve learned.

• Ask your supervisor or mentor about leadership skills they think are important.
• The next time you step in front of a group, be intentional about being a leader and practice these skills.