Over the past 12 years Character Builders has been running leadership programs through incursions, excursions and retreats. During this time we have identified a number of reasons why students will, and will not step up to serve the school in a leadership capacity. As a discussion point with your students and teachers here are some of the key reasons we have identified:

1. Fear of failure – Students fear that if they put themselves forward for a leadership position that their peers and potentially teachers will not endorse or support them in their quest for leadership. We have heard students repeatedly comment that they “don’t have a chance” so, “why try?”
2. Leading without the badge – In our experience we have found that once we highlight that students can lead regardless of a title or badge; it empowers students to focus on how they can serve rather than whether they were elected to serve. This always creates a higher level of buy in and removes the fear of failure
3. The process outweighs the prize – One of the most rewarding aspects of the programs that we run is to witness how those students who are not successful in obtaining a badge or a title still successfully lead and place their level of service above the fact that they did not receive an official position. What we have witnessed in this situation is that through the support of teachers and our staff we are able to highlight that the process far outweighs the prize
4. The stigma on segregation – Almost every cohort that we work with have an assumption that because of the diversity of their groups, they are not united and as a result cannot lead in a way in which they feel others will follow. This is simply not true. We have a very intentional practice to help teachers and students search for the things that are working in the cohort as opposed to the things that are not. We are turning the stigma on it’s head. Instead of seeing what is not working we are empowering students to see what is. We do this through engaging in meaningful experiences in all our offerings.

Schools can start to address these points with their students and encourage open and honest discussions. We are here to support your leadership initiatives and have successfully rolled our leadership programs in over 200 schools over the past 12 years. If you would like to know more and really want to boost the ownership and participation of your leaders in serving your community, please contact us to see how we can help.

Phone: 1300 205 101
Email: info@characterbuilders.com.au

Check out the Leadership Retreats that we can run offsite or at your school on our website.