Leadership skills are critical for a student’s long term success, both academically, and afterwards in the workplace. Incorporating leadership training into a classroom is challenging especially for the teacher who has enormous pressure to improve academic performance for the students.

Teenage years are when individuals start caring greatly about their peers – about fitting in and belonging to a group. It is very common for teens to care about the groups they belong to and to want those groups to succeed. It is also relatively easy for teens to have real control over these groups. So where does the leadership training fit in? The trainer has a unique opportunity to help the teens in the group develop leadership skills. It is, in short, the perfect scenario. Teens who have a goal, an advisor available to teach them leadership skills that can help them achieve that goal, and an opportunity for them to actually use that knowledge.

Leadership skills, like most other skills, requires practice.

You can create opportunities for teens to exercise leadership at home and in the classroom, but it is challenging. However, teens can have real ownership over their own groups.

Teens with a goal + a trusted adult teaching skills to achieve that goal + the opportunity to use those skills = real learning.