Hello everyone~

I will be holding a workshop(class) in an educational conference aimed at youth, I.E middle-high school students.
There are a variety of topics to help youth grow as individuals that schools don't necessarily teach.

The class is 55 minutes long and it'll be held this Saturday, I'll have two other younger folk to help me facilitate this.

It's called, "Leading out in your community".

Brief description: You will learn how to be a leader in your community by identifying the right resources in your county and making the right connections to better your cause for which you stand for. Learn how to lead a group, communicate with others, and learn most of the right and wrong characteristics of a leader.

My lay out.

- Introductions

- Explaining, "what is a leader?" (I'll verbally ask the question, if somebody defines it correctly, i'll confirm them and rephrase it in a better understanding)

- Explaining, "what does a leader do?" (I'll have more than one right answer, then i'll say what a leaders does)

- I'll have a venn_diagram on the board and ask the audience on examples of leaders in the world, then ask if they're a good leader, bad leader, or in between.
- Then I'll go over different types of leaders, i.e Bosses, presidents, any person with some sort of power.

-I'll present an activity, "Simon says" and ask for a volunteer to lead that. Once done with the game i'll ask the class, what kind of leader was Simon?

- I'll show a clip from the Power Puff Girls, and ask the audience what good and bad characteristics do these three girls have, and which one is the leader. Avoiding profanity from any outbursts of the class such as "she's a bitch", i'll simply confirm them and say okay, "she's assertive".

- I'll then give the class a paper filled with resources within the county that benefit them. and then go over, how to find resources in your community if you're from out of the area or go out of the area in the future.

*What I feel my presentation lacks
- A more solid idea of being a leader either in your school, or community. (What to actually do, how to make it happen, etc.)
- An activity that better represents a positive leader, rather than a boss.
- Giving more helpful tips for everyone.

I'm not looking for tips or advice towards teaching the audience. I'm looking for changes in my presentation.

Make some jokes.

LaVolpe024 wrote:

Make some jokes.

always works

ekopret8ks wrote:

*What I feel my presentation lacks
1. A more solid idea of being a leader either in your school, or community. (What to actually do, how to make it happen, etc.)
2. An activity that better represents a positive leader, rather than a boss.
3. Giving more helpful tips for everyone.

I'm not looking for tips or advice towards teaching the audience. I'm looking for changes in my presentation.

While I don't have the time to think of specific suggestions, I do have some thoughts off the top of my head that might help. Sorry if they don't turn out to be what you're looking for or if you've already thought of them:

1. Being a leader in one's school may be possible by joining the student council, an activity club or other equivalent. Being a leader in one's community may be possible by participating in a local initiative like the Neighbourhood Watch, an environmental group or the town council, if eligible.

Since it's highly unlikely that one will be given a leader position upon joining an established group, we can assume "being a leader" means displaying leader-like qualities that can help the chosen group and possibly result in one actually being granted leader status eventually. I expect you probably say so in your presentation, but a good way to start is to work towards making the group run more efficiently. To do that, one first needs to analyse the current state of the group:

- How well is it doing?
- Where is it already strong?
- Where is it having trouble, and why?
- What resources (time, people, money, equipment, more abstract stuff like a good reputation) are available to use in order to improve the group? Are they being used right? (e.g. Is money being wasted? Is time wasted in meetings that go nowhere? Are the people in charge of certain stuff more suited to other stuff?)
- Are there any critical resources the group is lacking? If so, how can one go about obtaining them?

Importantly, one should not try be a leader for its sake, but rather to have the opportunity to help as much people as possible with the additional power they're given. Power is not a privilege or prize; it is an acknowledgement of one's suitability to wield it effectively. Also, people are bound to react a bit negatively to a new guy barging in and commenting on everything.

Alternatively, one can be a leader right away by forming their own initiative, but that is pretty challenging by comparison.

2. One thing a positive leader should always be capable of is bringing out the most, and the best, out of the people working with them, which is equal parts insight and motivation. You could try making an activity where people should match characters to challenges depending on their traits. You could also present people with a quarrel between two people with different ideas and have them try to resolve it. If you can get away with it, you could even employ the dreaded power of ponies and show people the latter part of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "Winter Wrap Up", where a character's organisation skills are being displayed, as a source of discussion.

3. Helpful tips:
- Play to your strengths, and to the strengths of others. If you're losing the game, change the rules. Shift priorities or your project's scope. Know when to fold them, but also when to persevere. In short, be adaptable. This also means...if you find you're more effective at something that's NOT a leader, don't try to be one. (I know this may run counter to the intended purpose of your workshop, but we can't have a world of leaders. However, having some of a leader's traits is still valuable).
- Try to keep in mind that the people working under you are people, which means they'll eventually have their bad days. Instead of criticising or punishing them for being inefficient, try to support them. Most of the time, it's the leader's fault if one of their coworkers isn't performing very well: Did you train him well? Does he have the necessary resources? Maybe he's not suited to that position and you assigned him the wrong kind of tasks to perform?
- Even if someone turns out to be just plain bad at his job and you have to dismiss him from it, explain to him that he'd obviously be happier/better suited to something else, and that if he keeps doing what he is, he'll be unhappy and he'll damage the entire group, and everyone in it. If possible and willing, reassign him instead of letting him go entirely.

And yeah, like the guys above me said, the right dose of humour always helps. You could try showing them strips of the Pointy-Haired Boss from the Dilbert comic as a satire of an incompetent, prideful and cruel leader.

Also, this article might give you some ideas, and not necessarily about its title subject specifically.

Ok, that's all I can think of for now. I hope at least some of that is relevant to what you wanted. Good luck.

The user you are looking for was not found!

Fabi wrote:

The user you are looking for was not found!

Yeah I think Lady Gaga went MIA.

On-topic: Not much of a leader myself but what Sinistro said is pretty comprehensive there, for a start.

Gaga where are you, i miss you sooo much!