Leadership Training

For our leadership training presentation, we presented on Commitment #3 from the Student Leadership Challenge, which was Envisioning the Future. The two main ideas were ‘Imagine the Possibilities’ and ‘Find a Common Purpose’. 

The four main sub topics covered in imagining the possibilities were reflecting on your past, attending to the present, prospecting the future, and expressing your passion. We went over multiple real life examples of students utilizing these strategies. 

Reflecting on your past is the first step and it’s important because understanding the past helps to identify working themes, patterns, and beliefs. Leaders also have to attend to the present and be aware of what’s already going on around them. It’s important that good leaders spot trends and changes and have a clear view of the immediate situation of the group they are leading. From there, the next step is to prospect the future and always be on the lookout for emerging developments like new technologies and trends. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that visions take time to be realized, and what’s important is that you are pursuing meaningful change, how long it will take to make that change matters less. The last step is to express your passion, a leader’s enthusiasm and drive will spread to their teammates and help articulate a shared vision.  

For the second topic, find a common purpose, the three subjects from it were to listen deeply to others, make it a cause for commitment, and to look forward in times of rapid change.  

Listen deeply to others was the first step, explaining the importance of getting to know your teammates. This was crucial as it allowed the leaders to know what their members thought was important for the project. After this, make it a cause for commitment was presented after to showcase how people will only put effort into projects that they think is purposeful to themself. This is important for leaders to know as it will make sure that the members stay engaged and motivated with the project. The last subject that was presented was look forward in times of rapid change which was about the leader being able to plan for the future. 

Check out a quick reflection activity here: https://forms.gle/mBSCwhTKjfscKto59