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As an educator yourself, teaching your students how to be great leaders is important to bring out their potential in making positive changes for the community and their futures.
It is not just honing their leadership skills but also their abilities to inspire and work with other people.
In this article, we will explore some methods that you can implement to empower your students to be student leaders.
Encourage Them To Volunteer For Leadership Positions
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Since leadership positions are required in every class, you can encourage them to step up and volunteer themselves.
It doesn’t even have to be a huge responsibility of a role such as the class chairperson; they could also just volunteer to be the subject representative too.
You could also get them to take up leadership positions in their extracurricular activities outside of classes.
For normal classes, it’s best to set up a rotating schedule so everyone has an equal chance to volunteer to take up a role as they get more motivated by their classmates.
Provide Examples
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Bring up good examples of people who are good leaders. They could be famous people in real life or even fictional characters.
Ask them to also think of someone in their life that they know is an awesome leader, such as maybe a friend of theirs.
It’s way easier for them to understand and follow how leaders think and act if they have some sort of reference to learn from.
You could organise an activity in your class for this, like assigning them to find an example of a good leader and explain to the class what makes them good leaders.
Offer Leadership Training Lessons and Workshops
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While there are many ways to teach leadership skills to your students, getting dedicated time outside of their usual schedules spent on leadership training and workshops will be the most effective.
There are a variety of them that are offered online as well as offline, such as LinkedIn Learning.
These programmes will usually focus on teaching them leadership skills, such as conflict resolution and getting them to practise and cultivate those skills.
They will help students in their future endeavours and when they need to handle leadership challenges.
Recognise and Celebrate Leadership Efforts
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It’s important that you acknowledge and celebrate regularly when your students put in the effort to lead.
This positive reinforcement and celebration boosts their confidence and motivates them to continue, as well as encouraging their peers to do so.
Organise More Group Activities
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Incorporate more group and collaborative activities into your lessons!
Your students will be encouraged to work as a team and listen to different ideas and perspectives in order to achieve their goals.
This promotes inclusivity and motivates all members of each group to contribute and lead in their own way.
Conclusion
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Anyone can be a leader. But not everyone can be a good leader. Some learn it naturally, and some just need to take more time to improve and practise their skills.
As an educator, you need to be keen on providing them with sufficient support to improve themselves and be better leaders.
Your students will be better equipped to tackle challenges and shape a brighter future.
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