Working with students throughout the duration of the school year can be extremely rewarding as well as very difficult at times. I think my biggest frustration year in and year out is dealing with those student leaders who over the course of the year fade off into obscurity. Their commitment decreases over time and by the end of the year, I am left wondering how they even got into the program in the first place.
Here is one way I try to proactively prevent this scenario from happening:
HEART. CONNECT. TRUST. FOLLOW.
“Good leadership begins with authenticity. When you are yourself, people can connect with your heart. When they connect with you, they are able to trust you. And when they trust you, they will follow you. Let me say it this in reverse so you get the full impact. People will NOT follow leaders they do no trust. People don’t trust leaders they can’t connect with, and people can’t connect with leaders if they can’t find their heart.” -Dan Reiland
As an Activities Director is it important to find the HEART of every one of our students. It’s our job to find out what our students enjoy, their passion, their interest, and what motivates them! Once we know their heart, we can begin to CONNECT with them by showing interest, encouraging them, believing in them, and providing opportunities for them to flourish. As we show interest over an extended period of time, TRUST begins to build and students feel like a valuable member of your leadership team. Finally, students reach a point in their development that they will FOLLOW and completely commit themselves to you and more importantly the program.
So I challenge you to:
- Find their HEART
- Show interest to CONNECT
- Do this over a period of time to build TRUST
And if you do, they will FOLLOW your lead.
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Best of luck! We will be tackling this types of issues and much more this summer at our ONE DAY training on June 17th! See more: https://fourseasonsofasb.com/one-day-training/
4 Seasons of ASB 