A few days ago, I presented my student leadership project titled Powering Your Passions. This presentation highlighted motivational leadership, team building, and leadership development skills. I wanted to find ways to help students “power” their success in leadership roles. This presentation provided tips to help students and professionals plan their goals, aspirations, and objectives in leadership positions. From running effective meetings, working in teams, and creating ideas, I wanted this presentation to help attendees strive for success. Along with the benefits of motivational speeches, quotes, and role models, I wanted to spread the message of “being your own hero” as a leader.
I want to share the highlights of my presentation to help student affairs professionals build leadership development programs that assist students. As a new professional, I believe leadership is one of the most important steps towards mentoring and assisting student leaders.
In my position, I am viewed as “The Leadership Guy”—the guy in charge of various organizations, positions, and student leadership development. “Powering Your Passions” is a phrase I’ve used during my own leadership development into a student affairs professional. When designing the layout for this event, topics such as self-care, personal motivation, and mentorship were addressed. Here are some of the sub-topics that I wanted to share about ways professionals can inspire students (and themselves) to turn on the power for success.
Understanding Your Power
It’s important to understand why your power for success matters. It is also important to understand how people like to learn and how they like to work with others. As a new professional, my role in working with students on their leadership development is based on these two models of leadership.
Understanding your leadership style helps with knowing yourself and the style of learning that works for you. Your personality connects to your leadership style. Having a Type A or B personality, Myers-Briggs results, and other personality traits connect into your leadership style. The same holds true for student leaders at different stages in their lives.
Understanding how others lead looked into ways to work with others in groups, teams, and committees. Even as a professional, this model of the presentation provided a variety of options to learn how to use the skills, talents, and thoughts of others to make a successful team.
What’s Your Power
During my presentation, I had students and professionals write one word, action, or hobby that gives them power. Rather than opening with a traditional icebreaker, I started with learning what leaders use as motivators to achieve goals. Members discussed the ways they stay motivated—running, music, dancing, and more. Other members talked about the people that kept them motivated—their family, friends, and relationships.
Making Your Power Shine
Finally, I shared these tips towards making their passions into powers for success.
– Let your long-term goals turn into short term success stories.
– Understand what works for YOU. Your style of leadership will be different from others, and that is fine if you’re happy with your progress and development.
– Learn what helps you de-stress, motivate others, and see your visions turn into achievements.
– Use your skills to turn setbacks into success stories.
At the end of the event, it was an honor to hear positive feedback from students and professionals about my first presentation as an SAPro. Additionally, I was thankful to have a new creative event to help motivate students to think inside and outside the box about their leadership development. My goal is to help students understand that leadership is a fluid skill that they can develop over time. We all have the ability and motivation to be effective leaders by just being ourselves.
Good luck to you all as you end this semester and best wishes moving forward to new goals and aspirations.
“Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen.”-Pete Carroll
> BONUS <
Podcast With Kathleen Kerr on Passion – A Dirty Word?
