Leadership Activities for High School Students

The school is a place where a child can learn much more than the structured courses included in the curriculum, provided the right training is given. There are many leadership ideas for high school students which can help develop their confidence and make them assertive. As self-awareness is the key to development, leadership activities help in self assessment and personality development. Developing these skills in children from the high school days is very important.

Various leadership activities for students can inculcate personal assessment, and help develop potential leadership skills along with a sense of responsibility and identifying their leadership style.

Defining the term leadership is a difficult thing to do. However, it could be described as the process by which one influences people in order to get them enlisted in an activity for achieving a particular objective.

The participants for this activity could be from a minimum of 4 to 20 at the most. It takes around 1 hour to complete this activity. The objective of conducting this leadership activity is to help the participants identify their development needs and work towards the path of personal development. The activity is started with a group discussion on self assessment followed by a questionnaire to be completed by the participants. The questions included in the questionnaire could be such that they test a person's behavior. One can prepare his own list of questions for the test (for example, which thing holds more importance to you, self-esteem or power). The questions may or may not be provided with multiple-choice options. The participants should be asked to work in pairs and carry out the assessment of their peers. This leadership activity enables the participants to identify their strengths and weaknesses. It is necessary for a leader to understand his strengths and weaknesses before thinking about leading a group or a team. The 'Learning to Lead' activity thus, proves to be the first step in the development of leadership in students.

The students are divided into groups of three in this activity. Objective of the activity is to enable the students to share their experiences and build rapport. A list of situations is provided to the students and they have to think of an experience similar to these situations. Here is a list of some of the situations provided to the participants:Something that generated a great deal of excitement. A pleasant surprise. A creative twist on a situation or issue. An 'Aha' moment. A clever improvisation. A really tough situation. A breakthrough insight or solution. A conflict resolved. An emotional situation. A blindside experience.

In this activity, the students are divided in teams and the same activity is assigned to each of these groups. The activities should be such that the success could be measurable. Selling a product like lemonade, car wash, etc., could be assigned to the groups. Once the tasks assigned to the teams are over, the successes and failures of these teams are discussed. The team leader thus, understands the right as well as wrong moves made by his team. Such assessments help the teams improve their performance during the next round of activities. To make the activity interesting, the best team leader could be chosen.

In this activity, students are provided with a list of commonly observed behavior in people. On the basis of this information, students have to interpret the expression conveyed by means of the behavior. Here is the list of commonly observed behavior.
A person rolls his eyes after saying or hearing something. A person plays with the change in his pocket while communicating. A person refuses to make eye contact while he is speaking. A person stands with folded arms while speaking. A person talks to others while invading their personal space. A person squirms or rocks while he is speaking. A person whispers to another person while in a group setting. A person turns his back on someone as the other person is entering the group. A person looks towards the ground or slumps his shoulders while speaking. A person shakes his fist or points finger at another person.

It is important to actively participate in leadership activities in order to realize one's potential towards becoming a good leader.