Who Inspires You?
This activity aims to help students connect those they see as leaders and what skills make them leaders.
Discuss
You have more information about what skills a leader has and how leaders use those skills in different scenarios. Being a leader is not always about someone’s status, like their job, awards they’ve received, or how much money they make. Being a leader is how they work with others towards a common goal. Think of the people you know. These can be people in your everyday lives or someone famous. Take a moment to think about people you think are great leaders. Who are they? What qualities makes them a leader? Here are prompting questions to help the conversation:
[Note for Instructor: Students can work individually or together as a group to discuss and share their thoughts about the leader they chose. As students share their thoughts about each question, write down their thoughts on the board for all students to see.]
- What qualities make a good leader?
- What ways can a leader help their team?
- What do they do when they are in charge of a project?
- How do they handle disagreements with others?
- What is the most important quality for a leader to have? Why?
- How do they balance being friendly while being in charge?
Review
Now, take a moment to think about yourself. Using the Self-Evaluation Tool, complete the Leadership Section. As you consider those leadership skills and qualities, do you think you possess any of them? Are there skills you want to try and use? How can you build those skills?
Interactive Opportunity
Invite a leader from the school or community to answer the questions above or other questions from students. These leaders can be from the school, like a principal, guidance counselor, or school board member, or from the community, like a hiring manager, business leader, board member of a nonprofit, or from business development). The leader(s) could join in person, virtually, or even be a recording.
Extending the Conversation
Review
If you are interested in continuing to build your leadership skills, there is a tool called the OhioMeansJobs Rubric that can help you identify your leadership skill level. You can use this rubric to rate yourself or by asking someone else to rate you. Building and growing your leadership skills is a journey, use these results as a starting point to help you identify areas to grow.
Additionally, if you are a high school student and interested in gaining more leadership skills, consider the OhioMeansJobs Readiness Seal as a potential path towards graduation. Talk with your team, including your caregiver(s), IEP team, guidance counselor or others if you are interested.