The Student Leadership Challenge

Facilitation and Activity Guide

James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, Beth High, Gary M. Morgan

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118602584
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Student Life

This book gives educators the flexible, modularized building blocks for teaching students how to apply Kouzes and Posner's Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. The guide includes language, guidance, and activities for teaching each Practice and its associated leadership behaviors, as well as tips for coaching students through their leadership development. It also includes direction on using the Student Leadership Practices Inventory, advice for working with students using the Student Workbook and Personal Leadership Journal, and curriculum suggestions for different educational contexts.

Module 1

Introduction

At the heart of The Student Leadership Challenge is a core philosophy fundamental to understanding and accepting this approach to student leadership development. Some of these concepts emerged from the original research. Others were added over time as they became apparent in the ongoing Leadership Challenge studies conducted for more than thirty years. All of them together define our philosophy about developing student leadership.

FRAMING THE STUDENT LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE CORE PHILOSOPHY FOR YOUR STUDENTS

We have found that students commonly associate the notion of leadership with a position of authority or power. As you explore the core Leadership Challenge philosophy, your opportunity is to raise students’ awareness of their own assumptions and challenge them. It is important to confront this fictional view of leadership so that young people will open themselves up to the concept of leadership (rather than of leaders) and look more to the behaviors and actions that ordinary people engage in when they are leading. Anchored from these perspectives, young people can be challenged to think about a time when they made a difference and to think about what they did (actions, behaviors, attitudes) that was central to the positive outcome. Take a look at their data, and you’ll see how closely they resemble what The Leadership Challenge research has found among people—from all age groups, fields, functions, and countries—when asked to describe a time when they were at their personal best as leaders.

We highly recommend using the personal-best leadership experience activity later in this module. Students’ connection to their own experience—the data they know to be true—provides a foundation from which to explore these concepts. Referring back to their own story throughout the discussion of the core concepts can help validate and ground them.

Creating the opportunity to discuss these core concepts is key to a successful Student Leadership Challenge program of any kind. It establishes the perspective we believe allows for the liberation of the leader within each student.

The Student Leadership Challenge philosophy has eight elements.

1. Leadership Is Everyone’s Business

Leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic young people. It is not a gene or an inheritance. The theory that only a select few can lead others to greatness is just plain wrong. Leadership is not a position or rank, but a responsibility one chooses to embrace throughout one’s life.

Consider asking your students:

• Do you believe everyone has the potential to be a leader? If not, why not?
• Do you think everyone should consider themselves as potential leaders? What difference would it make if everyone believed they could be a leader?

One question that frequently comes up from students is this: “If everyone is a leader, then how can everyone be a leader at once? Shouldn’t there just be one leader?”

We believe that everyone can be a leader, but that people will make a choice about when they step up to lead based on the values they hold. Typically there is only one positional leader at a time, but this doesn’t prevent others from taking a leadership role within their area of influence. For example, a student might not be the president of his fraternity or her sorority but certainly can choose to demonstrate leadership behaviors on the committees and groups that are part of that larger organization. They may not be an officer in student government or the captain of a team, but they can take the initiative to start a campaign that will improve the quality of student life. There are also many facets of people’s lives. One’s position as head of an organization is not the only place to act as a leader. People can lead in many different ways in their homes and in their communities.

Consider asking your students:

• If you are not in a leadership position, is it possible for you to act as a leader? What opportunities can you name outside of any position of leadership you hold?
• Do you need to be the leader all the time or in every situation or setting? Why or why not?

2. Leadership Is Learned

Leadership is a process that ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others. It is an identifiable set of skills and abilities that is available to everyone.

Consider asking your students:

• Who is a leader you admire? Do you think you could learn to inspire others as much as he or she inspired you?
• How would you learn to do that?
• What obstacles do you see that would keep you from learning to be a great leader?

3. Leadership Is a Relationship

At the heart of leadership is the ability to connect with others, understand their hopes and dreams, and engage them in pulling together for a shared dream of the future. Leaders understand that every relationship contributes to their ability to be successful.

Consider asking your students:

• Does a leader need to have a relationship with everyone in the group? Are some group members more important than others?
• How do you build and sustain relationships?

4. Leadership Development Is Self-Development

Engineers have computers, painters have brushes and paints, physicians have medicine. Leaders have only themselves: that is their instrument. Committing to liberating the leader within is a personal commitment, a journey that begins with an exploration of the territory within.

Consider asking your students:

• What does self-development mean to you?
• How do you learn about yourself?

5. Learning to Lead Is an Ongoing Process

Learning to lead is a journey, not a single event or destination. Students may occupy many leadership roles throughout their lives. Each will deepen his or her understanding of what it takes to engage others, what it takes to inspire others to make extraordinary things happen. The context in which they lead will change, and with each change comes deeper learning. The best leaders are the best learners.

Consider asking your students:

• Do you have something you want to be really good at? How will you do that?
• [If you had students do the personal-best leadership experience later in this module] What will it take to repeat your success and create a next personal-best leadership experience?

6. Leadership Requires Deliberate Practice

Excellence in anything—whether it’s music, sports, or academics—requires deliberate practice. Leadership is no exception. Students need to devote time every day to becoming the best leader they can be.

Consider asking your students:

• How can you practice leadership if you’re not the one in charge?
• Do you spend time practicing something now? What does it take to get you to do that practice? Can you apply that to being a better leader?

7. Leadership Is an Aspiration and a Choice

Leaders have countless chances to make a difference. If a person aspires to lead and is willing to do the work, he or she can lead. It is a deeply personal choice and a lifetime commitment.

Consider asking your students:

• What kind of leader do you aspire to be? Can you define it in words that don’t reflect holding a particular leadership position?
• What choices do you need to make to become a better leader?

8. Leadership Makes a Difference

All leadership is based on one fundamental assumption: a leader matters. We know from The Leadership Challenge research that every leader can make a profound difference in the lives of their constituents. To do that, those leaders have to believe in themselves and their capacity to have a positive influence on others. And we also know that to those who are following a leader, that leader is the most important leader to them at that moment. It’s not some other leader. It’s that leader, at that moment.

That is the individual whom group members will most likely go to for examples of how to tackle challenging goals, respond to difficult situations, handle crises, or deal with setbacks. We say a little more about this in the final section of this guide, “Onward!”

Consider asking your students:

• Do you believe you make a difference? To whom? If yes, why do you believe you make a difference?
• How can you make a difference to the group you are part of right now?

ORIGINS OF THE MODEL

The research to discover what exemplary leaders actually do when they are at their personal best began by collecting thousands of stories from ordinary people, from students to executives in all types of organizations around the globe—the experiences they recalled when asked to think of a peak leadership experience, about what they did when they were at their personal best as a leader. The collection effort continues, and the stories continue to offer compelling examples of what leaders do when making extraordinary things happen. We encourage anyone who plans to explore The ...