I’ve had the privilege of working with a handful of teenagers lately — an hour at a time filled with leadership training and team building. My creative juices get flowing when I have this opportunity; my whole being comes alive when I get to work with them. Instead of dry lecturing, I’ve adapted my teaching to using games and interactive activities to teach them these skills. It is quite amazing what kinds of lessons one can learn through group games!
One of the games is called “the human knot.” The kids stand in a circle and hold hands with two different people across from each other. This always gets interesting when the hormones start kicking in. It is inspiring to see the youth working together to the point where they end up in a circle holding hands with the ones on either side of them.
Another game we’ve tried is the “listening game.” Two teens sit across from each other. One of the teens is given a topic to talk about for one minute. The other person listens to them speaking and then retells what they heard. Then the roles reverse and the first person now listens and the other one speaks. There are always those in the crowd who offer their own thoughts or two bits on what to say or what they heard. Listening is definitely a skill we could all work on, I believe.
Another fun game is to separate into teams, then give a subject for the teams to use to write a poem about. It is quite satisfying to see the kids working on creating a poem together, when for the most part; they wouldn’t enjoy doing that task on their own! I have seen the quieter ones become stronger leaders as their confidence is built, too.
Did you know that we are all made to be leaders? Leadership traits come easy to some. For others, it may take awhile to hone their skills, although we all can lead in some way or another.
Take a family for instance. The parents of a family are generally the leaders — sometimes, good. Sometimes, not so good. It would go well with them if they would instigate leadership skills in their children and give them opportunity to lead in some way. One activity I would like to do with my youth group sometime is give them an assignment to teach a skill they know. Little Sweet Pea did that only a few weeks ago when she taught her peers how to make an emergency paracord bracelet. It builds confidence and gives great experience to learn how to lead a group.
One of the best modern day teachers on leadership, in my opinion, is Dr. Myles Munroe. Dr. Munroe was a pastor, best-selling author and motivational speaker. Unfortunately, he and his wife and daughter were killed in a private plane crash in 2014 while they were making an approach for landing at Grand Bahama International Airport. As far as I can understand through research, he has written over 200 books.
The one I’m reading right now is called “The Spirit of Leadership.” I think this should be required reading for every politician, pastor and principal. In it, Dr. Munroe spells out his definition of leadership: “Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by a passion, generated by a vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.”
Next week, I’ll touch on some of his teaching that has impacted my life. You may like to catch some of his teaching on YouTube this week!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
