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Youth Leadership Through Team Leadership

When taking the leadership role in a youth organization, don't think of yourself as a director or head of anything, think of yourself as a team leader. The concept of team is natural for young people. Sports, scouting, cliques, neighborhood groups are all based on a team structure. Before you can participate in youth leadership, you have to begin as an equal member of the team.

Benefits of a Team

A team is a group of people with the same goals and a willingness to collaborate to achieve them. In a youth leadership role, you will see that most young people are able to work together to achieve a goal. They are closer to the age when they needed help to accomplish such goals as buttoning a shirt or wielding a fork.

Team members are committed to each other even beyond the needs of their mutual task. The challenge of youth leadership is to remember that the leader of the team is part of the team. He must be equal in more ways than he is superior. Each member of a team experiences the individual success and failure of every other member of the team. That includes the leader. Everyone on a team is a coach, a student, a performer, and a leader.

Growing a Team

The first task of youth leadership is turning a group into a team. You can start with enthusiasm for a project. Young people find that contagious. Whatever the project is that the team should accomplish, be excited about it. Clean that park! Raise that money! Learn that lesson! And be excited about leading. Act as a team and plan the project together. Don't present a plan ready-made or choose a small group of individuals as a planning committee. Plan the project, solve the problems, and discuss everything together.

Make the project meaningful and important. Young people thrive off of the emotion and the direction of it all. Youth leadership needs to help the team discover its importance as well as the importance of each team member.

Set the Rules

This is where youth leadership sets itself apart from the team. Young people feel more united if they are sharing the same expectations and rule. Let them know if a certain standard of attendance is expected and listen when individuals have a problem achieving it. It's important to stress that the team keeps its confidences. All secrets will be protected. Let them know that all mistakes will be dealt with in a constructive way and no member of the team will be allowed to mock or demean another. There is no greater calling than youth leadership. Live up to it by becoming the best team leader you can be.

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