When you consider the opportunity to serve in a student leadership position, you begin to imagine all of the things you could do in that position. You see yourself in it.

Now that you’ve been elected or selected, you need to take the next step. It’s time to decide. Out of all of those things you could do, what are you going to do?

The second priority is to set your vision.

Take a deep breath. Vision is not a scary word. In fact, it is as simple as painting a mental picture of an ideal future. Continue Reading…

If a student leader starts out well, it increases his or her chances of having a great year. There’s a lot to learn as we go along, but preparation on the front end will pay off big during the harder parts of the year.

This is the first in a series of posts called, Just Starting Out! 7 Priorities For New Student Leaders.

In this series, I want to focus on seven important actions a new student leader needs to take to start well. I’ve seen a lot of student leaders struggle right out of the gate because they didn’t take the time to establish themselves and make these priorities…a priority. At the beginning, they often wonder what types of things they should be working on. They know the tasks that go along with the position, but they want to know what actions go into becoming a leader. This series will offer seven ways to answer those types of questions.

The first priority is to learn your position.

It seems obvious doesn’t it? Continue Reading…

“Don’t ever question the value of volunteers. Noah’s Ark was built by volunteers; the Titanic was built by professionals.”
- Dave Gynn, Coleman Professional Services

If you’ve recently been selected to serve in a student leadership position… Congratulations!

Now it’s time to get to work. One of the chief characteristics of a student leader is the knack to get others involved. A student leader manages tasks and leads people. That means it’s time to put your team together. And that means – recruiting.

Recruiting is the process of attracting and inviting people to consider being involved with your organization or cause. You can’t do everything by yourself (otherwise you wouldn’t be leading!). You need to put a team together. Continue Reading…

Science has proven that the most effective responses to behavior, those that will make the most impact, are immediate and certain.

The opposite of that is true as well – people are confused by responses that are delayed and uncertain.

If you serve in some type of leadership capacity there are people who are waiting, watching, and wanting to hear your response.

Every day.

As a leader is confronted by the situations, the crisis, and the performances that surround him or her, there are typically four responses he or she can make… Continue Reading…

“When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” – Author Unknown

It’s hard to get any type of momentum going when you’re riding a dead horse.

Dead horses don’t move.

Dead Horse Point State Park is located near Moab, Utah

The term dead horse, is a metaphor for whatever project, system, or strategy you’re using to move you or your team forward. But it’s stopped working. At some point, the “horse” you were riding not only stopped…it died. You can try to keep moving with it, but now all you’re doing is dragging your dead horse instead of riding it. Continue Reading…

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Time and again, the greatest stumbling block to a leader’s success comes back to the leader. Self-leadership precedes successful leadership. People want to know that you can lead yourself well before they give you the chance to lead them well. It starts with you. It starts with me.

I sat down with my legal pad and started to jot down some of the areas I need to gauge, measure, and reflect on in my effort to lead myself well. A leader who leads him or herself well will invest time in self-evaluation. Continue Reading…

Yesterday I acknowledged a mistake I was making in my work to develop student leaders (post link: My Latest Leadership Development Mistake). Thank you to those who took the time to affirm me. I love the process of learning. In fact, the mistakes are a teaching tool for me. If I’m not making mistakes, I’m not pushing hard enough.

But mistakes aren’t all that helpful unless you learn from them. I’m trying to do that right now.

I knew early on, when you create a leadership development program, the best place to start is with the outcomes. This helps you identify what you want your students to know, do, and become throughout the process. As one wise professor taught me, “Plan backward, implement forward.”

Continue Reading…