“Help Students Improve Leadership Skills” Notes

Theses are the notes from the YouLead Labs session led by Stuart Hall (@IAmStuartHall) at the Orange Conference 2019 as he talks about helping students develop and improve their leadership skills.

What have we learned that we need to unlearn? (Alvin Toffler)

Number 1 piece of advice from graduated students to youth leaders was to “prepare us better”.

Are we preparing the next generation better?

Gen Z (who is Generation Z):

• Lonely
• WiFi enabled (they are constantly online)
• Multiracial
• Sexually fluid
• Post Christian (means they don’t care what God or the Bible says)
• Self-directed
• Under-protected parents
• Disappearance of childhood
• Growing older younger
• Pornography

Are you prorating students to lead that world?

Today’s typical hs graduate will change occupations 7 times in their lifetime…not jobs, occupations.

We live in a “gig” economy – full of side hustle

If you are causation by 2045 you will be the minority

Gen Z is basically a spiritual blank slate

Most American youth ministries are preparing students to live in a world that doesn’t exist.

Everything is spiritual so everything you talk about in youth ministry is important.

What are their gifts and passions?

The entity with the monopoly on purpose should help high school students to discover their purpose.

Leadership begins with you but leadership isn’t about you. Teens need to understand this.

Your strength is for service not status.

Where are teens leading people that are following them?

A leader worth following is going somewhere worth going.

We cannot make a teen a leader. We don’t have that power. But we can help a teenager make themselves a leader worth following.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

1 John 2:6 – live our lives as Jesus did.

Influence us built by inspiration + perspiration + information + preparation + motivation + consistency + relationships

Every high school student needs

• An example to follow
• Questions to answer
• Fuel to burn
• Problems to solve
• Tension to test

Integrity – choosing to be defined by what is true

If you invest in the being I stead of the doing

Humility – choosing first to go last

How do you help students choose humility?

Excellence – choosing to create a better future by going the extra mile.

Grit – choosing passion over distraction.

Courage – choose love over fear.

Even though you may be scare you keep rolling.

Who are the alpha wolves? The pack chooses the leader!

Who changes the energy in the room? Positive energy is like a muscle.

Who wants to be a leader? Want to is a must, but want to is also tricky.

Who has incredible potential? “Influence is built in a thousand invisible mornings”

Who exhibits emotional intelligence? Empathy, justice. Others turn to them for help and advice.

What do you think?  How do you help students develop leadership skills?  Share them below or on social media using #ymsidekick when you share.

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