How to discover and improve your student leadership skills

BY DANTE MUNNIS

At an early age, parents and teachers can determine whenever a kid has leadership skills. It plays a vital role in developing a successful career and it oftentimes takes over someone’s technical skills. This certain type of skill is important for students to learn because it can build confidence and authority within themselves and their peers.

However, not everyone is born a leader. To some, being a follower is enough for them to survive the cutthroat professional world. But developing this certain skill is important for student’s future. These are traits of a good leader:

  1. Good leaders are also good followers

As quoted from Aristotle, every good leader starts with being a great follower. Leaders delegate tasks to their followers, they lead a certain community, and they are sure of themselves. But before they become great leaders, it all started with them following basic rules, such as school regulations or wearing the proper dress code in school.

Being a leader means abiding by the rules and being a leader a leader in school means listening to your group mates and classmates. Without this, a good leader is nothing when he or she has no one to lead.

  1. Good leaders have initiative

This means having the mindset to not wait for other people to give the task, especially if the student knows he or she can handle them and finish properly. Sometimes, taking initiative correlates to going beyond what is expected of him or her.  In every environment, taking initiative or simply by being proactive can be developed to great leadership skills because taking more responsibility means you have the right mindset when you started setting the goal.

  1. Good leaders are critical thinkers

Great leaders have the ability to anticipate problems even before it occurs. As students, there are different challenges that come in their way with school, personal activities, and school work. Leaders know how to manage expectations, and they especially know how to get the job done, well, and on time.

Apart from this, students who are proven to be leaders know when the opportunity arises and when to take advantage of such opportunity.

  1. Good leaders are effective listeners

Leaders understand that to lead a classroom, they must know how to listen. If a leader does not possess listening skills, they will not receive the feedback from their peers. They would not know what others think and how to resolve them.

Communication skill is essential for leaders to hone and develop. It can be through verbal, emotional, body language, or hand gestures.

  1. Good leaders are great motivators

Leaders must be able to positively inspire other people, through their work, influence, and personality. In every classroom, there are classmates who sometimes feel down because of different factors. In developing leadership skills, students must have the influence into leading them on the right path and direction. For example, if their peer has trouble with their academics, they can seek help to websites who offer their needs such as Pickwriters.com to help them get started.

  1. Good leaders are disciplined individuals

Leaders know how to execute the goals they set for themselves. For example, if a student has a clear vision or great ideas, they will not become a product if they do not have the proper discipline. For example, a group work is due the following week. During your meeting with them, you start formulating ideas that are interesting and creative, but others think they are too risky. As a leader, you should be disciplined enough to know your boundaries and limitations. You should also consider how the plan will benefit not just you, but your teammates as well.

Becoming a good leader means being self-disciplined, while ensuring others on the team are also disciplined.

  1. Good leaders are constantly learning

No one is perfect. As individuals who want to develop leader skills, they must understand that everything we do in life is a constant learning. Knowledge is power, and learning is never ending.

  1. Good leaders know how to delegate

Good leaders do not take all the responsibility all to themselves. They are able to delegate important task equally, while taking responsibility to handle the task he made for himself. Projection as a leader can come from different factors, such as:

  • Good leaders inform the team that everything is divided equally
  • Good leaders empower the people they work with
  • Good leaders are ready to handle the task, if a person is having a hard time with it
  • Good leaders are involved with all the development in a certain task
  • Good leaders know they are responsible for the outcome of a project or task

In addition, delegating tasks does not mean they will sit there, looking pretty. They delegate the task to help them lead themselves.

  1. Good leaders handle conflicts well

Even in school, good leaders know how to handle different kinds of people, even when they are troublesome or not. They handle conflicts in an orderly manner and they find solutions to resolve them accordingly.

This means leaders have the ability to see the positivity in a negative place. They are honest and frank. While this trait of a leader requires a lot of courage and command because pointing out the mistakes of someone can sometimes be taken differently. As a leader, they must understand that there are always two sides in every story.

Importance of student leadership

As students, challenges and struggles always come in front of us. As we learn in and outside the school, we take these challenges to help us become better people in the future.  Developing leadership skills is important for every student because this skill can take them to different places, both in their professional and personal endeavors. The bottom line is, leaders are important in our society. Whether you start your own company or work for a company in the future, this special type of skill will be helpful and are beneficial for you.

BIO: Dante Munnis is a blogger and idea maker from Stockholm who is interested in self-development, web-related topics and success issues.

 

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