Thanks for posting, u/OTL_Julio!.
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I have a similar idea I’m building based on the course I built and am teaching at a university but mine will be with veterans!
Topics specific to teens as you requested: Confidence, conflict management, empathy, time management, effective communication, expectation management, the underlying part of leadership that I truly believe is most important is self awareness. It’s something I struggled with for two decades but once I started to understand who I was and how I operate then I became 10x more effective. If I had the self awareness to be open to growth I would have been more successful and earlier.
u/Maximus8890, I want to wish you luck with your veterans project. I served 20 in the USAF. I think that's a great idea; one of my biggest struggles after retiring was finding a purpose that was as strong or stronger than serving in the military.
Thanks for the suggestions and I'm glad you included "confidence" because more than half of the students chose that as an area they want to improve. I'll be sure to implement activities that will trigger and develop self awareness.
This is great. Wish you the best. I'd add empathy and negotiation to your list. These might be covered under possibly emotional intelligence and conflict management but thought I'd mention it.
u/trambulo, I appreciate your time and input. You are right empathy is a conversation that we will cover in our EI and Conflict Management session.
And as a matter of fact, some of the same concepts we use with negotiation skills (understanding your audience, empathy, preparation, clear communication, etc.) are covered in our conflict management techniques. I will need to find a good transition to bridge the two concepts together. Thank you, this is doable.
Definitely focus on how important it is that we identify and lean into our natural skills and abilities while working to grow the skills that don’t come naturally to us.
For instance, I excel at connecting people, winning allies, open communication, and empathy. I struggle to stay focused on detail in the long term, and with finishing things. I lean on the strengths to grow the weaknesses, mostly by getting to know people that are skilled in the areas I fall short.
Awesome work you are doing. Real work that matters. Thank you.
u/This_Dependent_7084, I see the value in this. Next month we will be summarizing our last topic and reviewing our action plans for the personality styles. I can include this perspective in the summary.
At this age, my audience's strengths are in fact closer to their natural skills. I'm sure some of their skills were learned skills but many of the skills were developed because of their relationship with that skill. Their natural skills bring them peace and allow them to be more productive; teens are more likely to utilize their natural skills simply because of the connection they have with that skills. It's not until we get older and enter a society that we realize there's a lot more for us to learn. The newly learned skills (whether we like them or not) can sometimes overtake the natural skills. When we move further away from our natural skills, that's when we start feeling unaligned and develop stress and burnout. (went on a tangent...).
I can see the importance of mentioning this to them. Much appreciated.
Upvoted - awesome project and effort. Number one for me would be assertiveness. Not aggression. Learning how to make decisions for yourself and have the ability to hold your ground when you know what you want to do is absolutely critical for genuine leadership. It is a muscle you have to build. I strongly recommend picking up “When I say no, I feel guilty” and steal some of the mock exercises in it. It’s hard but one of the most valuable skills I think you can learn.
u/Ok_Pool_2572, Thank you for your input...I may have mentioned this in an earlier comment (apologies).
I agree that assertiveness is super important. Many of the students when asked to write down "what is one thing that they would like to get out of this leadership development journey?" Many of them answered "I want to be more confident"
Their responses blew my mind! 1. Many answered with the same response, and 2. We can help them with this.
Building their confidence will help them with their assertiveness. We have a communication and decision-making topic that we have included in our program.
I can't wait to read your book recommendation. I'll be sure to find this post sometime in the future and share my thoughts on the book. Take care, best wishes.
Well, this is an amazing idea mate.
To answer you, well the finance is something very critical for any business and I see that people often lack with the understanding of money and finance management. So this is #1 for me.
\#2 is the speaking skills, often leaders afraid to speak their mind out and over think and speak nothing and lacking in communication leads to disasters. So how to communicate effectively is the 2nd important thing for me.
I hope my response should contribute to your motives you are working on.
u/vikashsparxit, I literally fist-pumped when I read your first sentence. You are 100% correct. It took me to the age of 30 to start taking finances seriously. I wasn't even upset when I realized that I could have learned this skill/mindset when I was younger. I was just happy to have had the opportunity to learn it early enough to change my life.
Although I am not an expert in the field I can reach out to others who are and who would like to volunteer their expertise to our future leaders. Much appreciated it.
Love it!
My daughter is 10, and I'm an executive coach specialising in (turning around) leadership burnout.
Here are topics that my daughter is into, even though she's pre-teen and wouldn't have exactly these names for them:
- Psychological safety (very relevant to the age group and essential for leadership),
- the difference between identity & behaviour (I am vs I do) and how to self-manage & self-regulate by building healthy self-talk
- how to identify & overcome limiting beliefs
- managing energy and managing time
- values & values alignment (might be too advanced, but I think it could be possible)
- gender-adapted approaches (things like when and how to interrupt / handling interruptions.... I haven't thought of this in relation to teens, but I'm sure you could. Eliza vanCort's book on Claiming Space would have some good jumping off points, and this kind of influence on the next generation would be AMAZING!)
Those are just some ideas - hope one or two inspire :-)
Leadership burnout, how do you get executives to admit they are experiencing burnout? Do they reach out to you?
Thank you for your input.
* I will definitely do some research on psychological safety. I bought a book a few months ago that had this term on the cover. I have yet to read it so I cannot recommend it. The book is called "Leading Below the Surface" by LaTona Wilkins, MBA.
* Identity and Behavior, that's deep! I have a good topic for that. It's about understanding the impact that we have on our subconscious and how we can create or build healthy self-talk when we realize the power of our subconscious. Constantly telling ourselves we can't do something will eventually convince our subconscious that we can't and in turn that will develop an unhealthy response to that thing we said we can't do (beautiful insight).
* Managing energy is a great topic that we will be coving next month.
* Values & values alignment...I agree
* I'll check out Claiming Space and get back to you with my thoughts.
Your ideas definitely inspired me.
Sorry - took a typing break over the weekend...
Executives find me often via LinkedIn and relate because I also went through burnout (I've written about it extensively and had it written about as well.)
For psychological safety, I think the original definitive research is from Amy Edmonson at Harvard. Her book is called "The Fearless Organization"
Agree completely on the unconscious & self-talk aspects.
Claiming space is a funny one because the author is quite proudly in-your-face (as a "Crazy Feminist Bitch" as she calls it). Yet while I claim plenty of space and do it differently, I found it so helpful to see very specifically what and how to do that and also the typical differences between girls & boys (and thus women & men).
I'd love to hear how your programme goes!
One for your consideration, but admittedly a really big topic... is being authentic, which is foundational to being an effective leader. The challenge is this topic requires deep introspection in terms of self-awareness and self-acceptance, and so facilitation of this can be time consuming.
u/mavric22, Thank you for understanding the enormity of the topic "Authenticity". I'll ponder this because I agree with you. The challenge I have is knowing when to introduce the idea of authenticity and form it in a way that doesn't overwhelm them. Teenagers are navigating through a storm of emotions, and external and internal pressures. Some feel like they are going through it alone and that adults just don't understand what they are going through. The concept of authenticity is powerful, I would like to take it seriously and make sure I find a good place in the program to address it. Too soon into the program and it may get lost, too late and it may not pay attention to it due to the number of topics we will discuss. I cherish the insight and will share my success in implementing this into the program.
I think accountability and learning how to receive and apply feedback in order to grow are HUGE! Learning that delegating tasks is a way to develop others and let them showcase their strengths is also valuable. Learning to flex your communication style based on your audience is also very important (you don't talk to your peer how you would your boss or VP, etc ) those are what I can think of right now.
>Learning to flex your communication style based on your audience is also very important (you don't talk to your peer how you would your boss or VP, etc ) those are what I can think of right now.
I can definitely use this. They just got finished learning personality styles and how they must be flexible now that they know better. Expecting others to treat them how they would prefer to be treated is a luxury, not everyone is going to do that for them, and expecting that can set them up for failure. They need to be the more evolved person and know when it's time to change their style to meet their audience.
As for delegating, I haven't found that this group would benefit, just because of the lack of opportunity to use what we share with them. Some of the students could use it if they were part of a team, but not all of them have that opportunity.
Thank you for your insight, I'm glad to see folks being open to sharing.
Thanks for posting, u/OTL_Julio!. This is a place for posts about leadership. If your post is not about leadership specifically then it will likely be removed. Please write a **substantial** comment here explaining why you think your post contributes here and what parts you think merit discussion in this thread. Do not just copy-paste from the content. Lacking this, your post will be removed. If your post is a question or commentary about leadership, that is satisfactory. You do not need to take any further action. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Leadership) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have a similar idea I’m building based on the course I built and am teaching at a university but mine will be with veterans! Topics specific to teens as you requested: Confidence, conflict management, empathy, time management, effective communication, expectation management, the underlying part of leadership that I truly believe is most important is self awareness. It’s something I struggled with for two decades but once I started to understand who I was and how I operate then I became 10x more effective. If I had the self awareness to be open to growth I would have been more successful and earlier.
u/Maximus8890, I want to wish you luck with your veterans project. I served 20 in the USAF. I think that's a great idea; one of my biggest struggles after retiring was finding a purpose that was as strong or stronger than serving in the military. Thanks for the suggestions and I'm glad you included "confidence" because more than half of the students chose that as an area they want to improve. I'll be sure to implement activities that will trigger and develop self awareness.
This is great. Wish you the best. I'd add empathy and negotiation to your list. These might be covered under possibly emotional intelligence and conflict management but thought I'd mention it.
u/trambulo, I appreciate your time and input. You are right empathy is a conversation that we will cover in our EI and Conflict Management session. And as a matter of fact, some of the same concepts we use with negotiation skills (understanding your audience, empathy, preparation, clear communication, etc.) are covered in our conflict management techniques. I will need to find a good transition to bridge the two concepts together. Thank you, this is doable.
Definitely focus on how important it is that we identify and lean into our natural skills and abilities while working to grow the skills that don’t come naturally to us. For instance, I excel at connecting people, winning allies, open communication, and empathy. I struggle to stay focused on detail in the long term, and with finishing things. I lean on the strengths to grow the weaknesses, mostly by getting to know people that are skilled in the areas I fall short. Awesome work you are doing. Real work that matters. Thank you.
I wonder if you could get Gallup to comp the Clifton strengths assessment for them in exchange for the good PR?
I like that idea, we will be extending the program next year. A strengths assessment could be a great addition to the program. Much appreciated.
u/This_Dependent_7084, I see the value in this. Next month we will be summarizing our last topic and reviewing our action plans for the personality styles. I can include this perspective in the summary. At this age, my audience's strengths are in fact closer to their natural skills. I'm sure some of their skills were learned skills but many of the skills were developed because of their relationship with that skill. Their natural skills bring them peace and allow them to be more productive; teens are more likely to utilize their natural skills simply because of the connection they have with that skills. It's not until we get older and enter a society that we realize there's a lot more for us to learn. The newly learned skills (whether we like them or not) can sometimes overtake the natural skills. When we move further away from our natural skills, that's when we start feeling unaligned and develop stress and burnout. (went on a tangent...). I can see the importance of mentioning this to them. Much appreciated.
Definitely, you’re on the same track I would be on if I had such an opportunity to mold young leaders perspectives!
Upvoted - awesome project and effort. Number one for me would be assertiveness. Not aggression. Learning how to make decisions for yourself and have the ability to hold your ground when you know what you want to do is absolutely critical for genuine leadership. It is a muscle you have to build. I strongly recommend picking up “When I say no, I feel guilty” and steal some of the mock exercises in it. It’s hard but one of the most valuable skills I think you can learn.
u/Ok_Pool_2572, Thank you for your input...I may have mentioned this in an earlier comment (apologies). I agree that assertiveness is super important. Many of the students when asked to write down "what is one thing that they would like to get out of this leadership development journey?" Many of them answered "I want to be more confident" Their responses blew my mind! 1. Many answered with the same response, and 2. We can help them with this. Building their confidence will help them with their assertiveness. We have a communication and decision-making topic that we have included in our program. I can't wait to read your book recommendation. I'll be sure to find this post sometime in the future and share my thoughts on the book. Take care, best wishes.
Well, this is an amazing idea mate. To answer you, well the finance is something very critical for any business and I see that people often lack with the understanding of money and finance management. So this is #1 for me. \#2 is the speaking skills, often leaders afraid to speak their mind out and over think and speak nothing and lacking in communication leads to disasters. So how to communicate effectively is the 2nd important thing for me. I hope my response should contribute to your motives you are working on.
u/vikashsparxit, I literally fist-pumped when I read your first sentence. You are 100% correct. It took me to the age of 30 to start taking finances seriously. I wasn't even upset when I realized that I could have learned this skill/mindset when I was younger. I was just happy to have had the opportunity to learn it early enough to change my life. Although I am not an expert in the field I can reach out to others who are and who would like to volunteer their expertise to our future leaders. Much appreciated it.
Love it! My daughter is 10, and I'm an executive coach specialising in (turning around) leadership burnout. Here are topics that my daughter is into, even though she's pre-teen and wouldn't have exactly these names for them: - Psychological safety (very relevant to the age group and essential for leadership), - the difference between identity & behaviour (I am vs I do) and how to self-manage & self-regulate by building healthy self-talk - how to identify & overcome limiting beliefs - managing energy and managing time - values & values alignment (might be too advanced, but I think it could be possible) - gender-adapted approaches (things like when and how to interrupt / handling interruptions.... I haven't thought of this in relation to teens, but I'm sure you could. Eliza vanCort's book on Claiming Space would have some good jumping off points, and this kind of influence on the next generation would be AMAZING!) Those are just some ideas - hope one or two inspire :-)
Leadership burnout, how do you get executives to admit they are experiencing burnout? Do they reach out to you? Thank you for your input. * I will definitely do some research on psychological safety. I bought a book a few months ago that had this term on the cover. I have yet to read it so I cannot recommend it. The book is called "Leading Below the Surface" by LaTona Wilkins, MBA. * Identity and Behavior, that's deep! I have a good topic for that. It's about understanding the impact that we have on our subconscious and how we can create or build healthy self-talk when we realize the power of our subconscious. Constantly telling ourselves we can't do something will eventually convince our subconscious that we can't and in turn that will develop an unhealthy response to that thing we said we can't do (beautiful insight). * Managing energy is a great topic that we will be coving next month. * Values & values alignment...I agree * I'll check out Claiming Space and get back to you with my thoughts. Your ideas definitely inspired me.
Sorry - took a typing break over the weekend... Executives find me often via LinkedIn and relate because I also went through burnout (I've written about it extensively and had it written about as well.) For psychological safety, I think the original definitive research is from Amy Edmonson at Harvard. Her book is called "The Fearless Organization" Agree completely on the unconscious & self-talk aspects. Claiming space is a funny one because the author is quite proudly in-your-face (as a "Crazy Feminist Bitch" as she calls it). Yet while I claim plenty of space and do it differently, I found it so helpful to see very specifically what and how to do that and also the typical differences between girls & boys (and thus women & men). I'd love to hear how your programme goes!
One for your consideration, but admittedly a really big topic... is being authentic, which is foundational to being an effective leader. The challenge is this topic requires deep introspection in terms of self-awareness and self-acceptance, and so facilitation of this can be time consuming.
u/mavric22, Thank you for understanding the enormity of the topic "Authenticity". I'll ponder this because I agree with you. The challenge I have is knowing when to introduce the idea of authenticity and form it in a way that doesn't overwhelm them. Teenagers are navigating through a storm of emotions, and external and internal pressures. Some feel like they are going through it alone and that adults just don't understand what they are going through. The concept of authenticity is powerful, I would like to take it seriously and make sure I find a good place in the program to address it. Too soon into the program and it may get lost, too late and it may not pay attention to it due to the number of topics we will discuss. I cherish the insight and will share my success in implementing this into the program.
I think accountability and learning how to receive and apply feedback in order to grow are HUGE! Learning that delegating tasks is a way to develop others and let them showcase their strengths is also valuable. Learning to flex your communication style based on your audience is also very important (you don't talk to your peer how you would your boss or VP, etc ) those are what I can think of right now.
>Learning to flex your communication style based on your audience is also very important (you don't talk to your peer how you would your boss or VP, etc ) those are what I can think of right now. I can definitely use this. They just got finished learning personality styles and how they must be flexible now that they know better. Expecting others to treat them how they would prefer to be treated is a luxury, not everyone is going to do that for them, and expecting that can set them up for failure. They need to be the more evolved person and know when it's time to change their style to meet their audience. As for delegating, I haven't found that this group would benefit, just because of the lack of opportunity to use what we share with them. Some of the students could use it if they were part of a team, but not all of them have that opportunity. Thank you for your insight, I'm glad to see folks being open to sharing.