Having been around teens in education and ministry these last fifteen years, I have observed a few things that make for effective leadership in the world of teenagers. Here are a few:
1. Respect - This seems to arise often when teens speak of their elected leaders or team captains. I would rank this as the most important quality teens look for in other leaders and mentors in their lives. People in general deep down inside desire to be respected. When people, particularly teens, respect EVERYONE with no strings attached, they find themselves surrounded with support and loyalty. Learn to respect EVERYONE.
2. Humility - While respect is the number one desired quality in teen leaders, in contrast, teens despise a leader who is arrogant. This quality applies for all leaders. As soon as leaders become arrogant or prideful in any manner, they start losing sight of those who have helped them become successful in the positions they hold. In other words, keeping a balance between confidence and humility helps a motivated leader keep his or her feet on the ground.
3. Energy - I often get the impression watching student sections at high school events that teens are waiting for someone to exercise some leadership to demonstrate energy and spirit. Often I find people desire a leader to have a high level of energy. Why? Energy is cyclical. If a leader has energy and shows enthusiasm, this energy motivates others.
Aspire to be a leader that others are motivated to follow. What other qualities do teens look for a leader to possess?
I agree that those qualities are really important for teens.
ReplyDeleteBut also I think one of the important things is will to learn and change themselves and the world. Every leader should be open to learn something new, get some new experience. And also he/she should be ready to make a difference. Make this world better.
And also good thing to do as a leader is:
To achieve his/her goals not by cheating or breaking rules but by being honest and decent person and by following his/her own core values.
i think these are CRUCIAL! being a marching band drum major, i discovered, everyone is looking at you. if you don't have a "happy face" or you don't have energy.. the band won't either. which hinders our practicing quality and performance quality. if everyone had energy and respect. the group would work so well together!!!
ReplyDeleteI think all of these are really important :) I also think that your own morals and stuff really come into play also. This goes into trust, you can't trust someone who lies all the time, or who has double standards etc. Leaders need to be fair and honest to earn respect along with the things mentioned in the blog.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that all three things are helpful to be a successful leader as a teen. They do need to learn how to respect everyone. With the humility teens will learn to keep balanced through their life. Energy is a powerful thing for a leader because that energy helps motivate others.
ReplyDeleteThese tree characteristics are necessary to become a good leader. But I think what Ellen said is really good to and important. You can have all these tree things but when you become a leader you can change. That is when moral comes into game, and you need to prove all of your abilities. And for the energy, it is essential. You can have respect and humility but without energy, you are doomed to failure.
ReplyDeleteThese points above are the most important i agree. A good teen leader also has to be passionate about life in general. They must have to mentality that they want to make every day better than the previous. They have to have a strong will in them, or be a figther. Every leader has criticism that comes towards them, but they have to take the criticism into account and continue to be a leader. They can't let one downfall distract them from being a leader.
ReplyDeleteI think all these are great qualities in a leader but a leader also needs to relalize their mistakes and know they are only human. Admiting your mistakes helps allow people to identify with you. Teens like to know and feel like someones been there before and knows what they are going through. If you allow others to identify with you then they are going to naturaly make you a leader.
ReplyDeleteA leader must also accept criticism well. They must know that someone is always aganist what the say and to be able to over come criticism will show not only teens but adults as well that you are a good leader.
A good leader at any age must be able to listen. If you don't listen how will you know when they want to go and how will you know if you still even have them.
Well, surely all of these things are important for the leader. But are they the only things that leader needs? Ok, RESPECT, the leader should respect others, that' totally true. However, some people understand respect as being agree with others, which means that they DO NOT hurt other people's feelings, which is a kind of respect. A truly leader will see the difference between respect and being agree. A truly leader will respect another opinion, but will never give up with his own idea to "show" his respect, it's a kind of the leader's skill to say "NO" respectfully. The whole part of humility is all the things that I'm totally agree with. When you are leading, you should never put yourself high above your followers, but also you should never tell your followers that it's really hard for you to lead or that they are more experienced than you or you are helpless and hopeless. As for ENERGY, I have a comment. Do you really think that all energetic people are leaders? But all leaders are energetic people))) It happens so, because leaders actually know in what thing they should put the energy, other people are waisting it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with these three. I think megan had a good point about leadership is that the people that your leading will be a reflection of you, how you act and so on.
ReplyDeletei agree all these are important but i do think the order may vary. i almost think humility is more important that respect. the only reason i say that is because if humility is your main goal respect is just going to come because basically the principle of humility is not focusing on self and in the process of that respect will be apparent
ReplyDelete