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10 Key Questions Student Leaders Must Answer At The Beginning Of The Year

It's the start of the school year and everyone is excited (not necessarily about homework).

As a student leader, it's time to get going. Time to make things happen. Time to move from the season of anticipation to the season of implementation.

To help you determine how ready you are, I want to share 10 questions that need your attention and an answer RIGHT NOW.

1. Do you know what you're supposed to be doing?
Hopefully you already have your plan in place. You know your job description. You've got a vision for what you want to accomplish. You are moving forward.

2. Who's on your team?
What?!? You don't have a team yet? Well...get out there and get some people together to be on your team. Invest in them. Give them meaningful and significant tasks. Help them grow and develop under your leadership.

3. What are your goals?
If you aren't aiming for something, then you'll probably hit nothing. Write your goals down for the year. Put them on a post-it note and stick it to your bathroom mirror or computer monitor. Tell everyone about your goals.

4. What are your priorities?
You have to decide what is most important. If you only react to the urgent things in your life, you'll never have enough time to do what really matters. Set your priorities and incorporate them into your calendar.

5. How will you keep growing?
Hopefully you won't be the same person at the end of the year that you are now. You will have grown, learned some things, developed and matured in your perspectives. That doesn't just happen automatically. You need to plan for your growth. What will you read? Who will you talk to? What will you listen to?

6. What's your organization strategy?
You need ONE calendar and you need to put everything on it. Then you need to look at it on a regular (if not DAILY) basis. You need a place for your ideas, your notes, and your stuff. When things get crazy and hectic and stressful, you need a system that you can rely on.

7. Where do you anticipate your first hurdle will be?
A student leadership year never goes smoothly. If it did, then we wouldn't need student leaders. There will always be something that needs to be fixed, changed, cleaned up, solved, resolved, explained, redone, done right, or done away with. If you can see it coming, you'll be better prepared for it.

8. Who can you talk to?
You must have someone that you can share your heart, your hurts, and your hopes with. You need someone to be an objective sounding board for your ideas and your predicaments.

9. What kind of attitude will you have?
You get to choose your attitude. Every time. Decide today to have a positive attitude no matter what your circumstances bring your way. Your attitude is contagious. Positive gives birth to positive. Negative attitudes spread like wildfires.

10. Who will you add value to today?
Everyday is chance to come alongside others and equip them, encourage them, and help them succeed. If you help others be their best, then you will discover that you have more opportunities to be your best. The best student leaders make the people around them better.

Take a moment (or moments) to answer these questions with REAL answers. Don't just think about these questions...act on them and implement your answers. At the start of a new year, these questions will guide you in establishing your leadership.

Flickr Credit: CellPhoneSusie

The Leadership Challenge Blog

When students ask me what the best book on leadership is that they should read, I immediately reply with: You have to read The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. That's my #1...everytime.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is The Leadership Challenge Blog (LeaderTalk).

Some of the more recent posts include:

• Are your mirror neurons and ocillators functioning properly?
• Are You Being Managed or Lead?
• Beth High's Podcast from The Leadership Challenge Forum 2008
• Michelle Obama on Values
• Dave Roberts and Charles St. John's Western Union Podcast
• Are you bothered by the Millennial sterotypes?
• Gold Medals and Role Models

Check it out. It's another superb leadership resource for you to keep learning so you can keep leading.

The 35 Ways Overview

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the recent series, "35 Ways To Put the STUD In Student Leader." I thought it might be helpful to simply list out each of the 35 ideas that I offered in the series. If you want to read more about a certain item on the list, then click back through the series.

1. Play to your strengths.
2. Listen.
3. Do few things really well.
4. Don't miss deadlines.
5. Keep people in the loop on how things are going.
6. Take time to think.
7. Prepare like you're going to perform.
8. Keep learning.
9. Make people feel special in the first 32 seconds you talk to them.
10. End conflict quickly.
11. Give credit to others.
12. Help someone else be successful. Help someone win.
13. Solve a problem no one wants to solve.
14. Mentor someone else.
15. Keep your promises.
16. Set your personal expectations higher.
17. Possess a positive, abundance mentality.
18. Get involved in making the world a better place.
19. Be present.
20. Keep short accounts.
21. See situations from a variety of perspectives.
22. Laugh.
23. Handwritten Thank You Notes.
24. Be a storyteller.
25. Do a little extra.
26. Find the best in other people.
27. Admit your mistakes and learn from them.
28. Make sure people feel the ABC's: Accepted, Belong, & Cared for.
29. Leave the position better than you found it.
30. Show respect to adults, mentors, advisors, administrators, and teachers.
31. Keep your cool. Be consistent.
32. Leave well.
33. Be a team player. Create high team morale.
34. Make your people feel more important than your projects.
35. Raise up potential leaders. Reproduce yourself.

My hope is that you'll be a great student leader. The best way that I've discovered for students to do that is by helping everyone around you be great as well. Pour your life into others and you'll be amazed at how much you receive in return.

Flickr credit: hugovk

The iMac Moral Dilemma

I have a moral dilemma. I have two brand new iMacs.

Let me tell you what happened.

I ordered a new iMac for our school's yearbook office. iMacs are beautiful computers at an extremely reasonable price. I ordered ONE iMac. It came yesterday - much to the excitement of our yearbook editor.

Then another one arrived today.

I received a call from our campus post office this morning. "You got another package just like the one you got yesterday." So I went down there, saw the box, and wondered why I now had another iMac.

When I looked at the packing slip on the side of the box, it confirmed what I thought - Apple had accidently sent me an extra iMac.

At this point, I had a decision to make.

I started telling the people I work with that I now had an iMac in my possession that was probably unaccounted for at Apple HQ. That's when the bidding began.

After about 20 minutes, I decided to call Apple. I knew I had to do the right thing. I just wanted to hear what they had to say.

When I got a customer service agent on the phone, he apologized to me for Apple's mistake and said the following:

"We admit that it was our mistake in sending you an extra iMac. We would appreciate it if you would return it to us, but you are under no obligation to do so."

That response didn't help me. "You mean, I can keep this iMac, even though you know about it now, and Apple won't charge me for it?" I asked. "No sir. It's our mistake. We'd like it back, but it's up to you."

Now...doing the right thing just got a little muddier. Apple put the choice on me.

I told my co-workers about the conversation. They all had a good time sharing what they would do or what they thought I should do (we talked about how it is easier to make a moral choice for someone else, but much harder when your name is on the box). One of my office mates said, "Just think of all the good you could do if you kept the iMac? You could donate it to someone." I responded with, "What happens if the iMac were to get "stolen" between now and the time I return it?" It's funny how easy it is to come up with a good answer on both sides of the situation.

What would you do?

So here's where I stand at the moment. Apple is going to email me some return shipping labels. The iMac sits unopened in my office. I plan on putting the shipping labels on it, taking it back down to the campus post office and leaving it there.

Somebody at Apple HQ is probably getting their behind chewed out because of this oversight. I hope that this return makes things right for them. I am actually impressed with Apple's response. They didn't demand it back. They only asked for it back. They relied on my sense of character and honesty to simply return something that I didn't pay for. They admitted their mistake and apologized (even though I could have had a free iMac from their mistake) for making me have to take the time to mail it back. Good job Apple!

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no hero in this thing. I mulled over keeping it all afternoon. Apple even said I could. But it wouldn't be right. Nobody would know...but I'd know. It's interesting how much this situation tested my character. I could use an iMac, but I'd rather go about it the right way.

Lead Yourself First - Creating Targets To Measure Your Growth

My friend, Rosa Say, has created an outstanding list of Twelve Rules of Self-Leadership. I have carried the list around with me ever since I first read it. It is helpful, concise, and a powerful reminder of what needs to happen when the person you are leading is YOU.

Rosa has dedicated the month of August to talk about self-leadership on her Managing With Aloha site. Today's post was SOOO GOOD that I needed to pass it on to you here. It's one thing to say that you are going to lead yourself effectively. It's another thing to create tangible, measurable markers that prove that you truly are growing in this area.

I trust the following will encourage and motivate you in your leadership journey.

TO SELF-LEAD: Author your own Growth Plan.
Here are some of my suggestions, taken from my Twelve Rules of Self-Leadership. Add to it and author your own growing process into being a self-led leader. Our definition once more:

“Self-leadership is the growing process of arriving at your own choice, an arrival you will stand up for and articulate exceptionally well, feeling you are prepared to both defend it and inspire with it.”

Think, learn, grow.

3. Take initiative. Volunteer to be first. Be daring, bold, brave and fearless, willing to fall down, fail, and get up again for another round. Starting with vulnerability has this amazing way of making us stronger when all is done.

5. Learn to love ideas and experiments. Turn them into pilot programs that preface impulsive decisions. Everything was impossible until the first person did it.

6. Live in wonder. Wonder why, and prize “Why not?” as your favorite question. Be insatiably curious, and question everything.

9. Actively reject pessimism and be an optimist. Say you have zero tolerance for negativity and self-fulfilling prophecies of doubt, and mean it.

11. Be a lifelong learner, and be a fanatic about it. Surround yourself with mentors and people smarter than you. Seek to be continually inspired by something, learning what your triggers are.

Is there anything you want to add?

______________________________________________________________________________

Arrive.

1. Set goals for your life; not just for your job. What we think of as “meaning of life” goals affect your lifestyle outside of work too, and you get whole-life context, not just work-life, each feeding off the other.

4. Be humble and give away the credit. Going before others is only part of leading; you have to go with them too. Therefore, they’ve got to want you around!

8. Believe that beauty exists in everything and in everyone, and then go about finding it. You’ll be amazed how little you have to invent and much is waiting to be displayed.

12. Care for and about people. Compassion and empathy become you, and keep you ever-connected to your humanity. People will choose you to lead them.

Is there anything you want to add?

______________________________________________________________________________

Articulate. Stand tall.

2. Practice discretion constantly, and lead with the example of how your own good behavior does get great results. Otherwise, why should anyone follow you when you lead?

7. Honor your personal dignity. There are some things you don’t take liberty with no matter how innovative you are when you lead. For instance, to have integrity means to tell the truth. To be ethical is to do the right thing. These are not fuzzy concepts.

10. Champion change. As the saying goes, those who do what they’ve always done, will get what they’ve always gotten. The only things they do get more of are apathy, complacency, and boredom.

Is there anything you want to add?

Lead Yourself First is the first leadership capacity that I encourage students to carry in their Student Leadership Backpack. You cannot effectively lead others unless you first lead yourself.

Upon reading Rosa's post, I left the following comment:

I love this revision. I am going to print it out (with lots of white space as you've suggested) and get busy making it my own. The whole idea of adding value to other people depends on the idea that you have something to add. You can't give what you don't possess. I want to keep learning and leading myself so that I never come to the table emptyhanded!

35 Ways To Put The "STUD" In Student Leader [part five]

You made it!

Those are great words to hear aren't they?

When you finish a big project.
When you finish a long race.
When you finish a series of posts on student leadership.
When you finish a great student leadership year.

Here's a secret that ties this whole thing together. When you finish a GREAT student leadership year, you'll quickly realize that you couldn't have accomplished it ALL BY YOURSELF. You needed help. You needed other people. And what is true for you is true for those around you. They need someone, somebodys, anybodys - to come alongside them and help them reach their potential.

Each of the ideas in this series is provided as a way for you to BE THE PERSON who helps someone else have a GREAT year. When you do that, you increase your influence and impact on that person. That way, when they consider what kind of student leader you are, they'll say you're a STUD because of how much you helped them, encouraged them, served them, and made them better.

Think about it...If you are going to be a student leader, don't you want be a GREAT one?

Here's the last 7 ideas for you to put into practice...

29. Leave the position better than you found it.
As you serve in your position, you will make things easier or harder for the person who follows you in this position. If you take the time to create a new filing system to store old records, or develop a better relationship with another part of your organization, or keep track of all the phone numbers you needed throughout the year - that will be something the next person DOESN'T have to do. Look at it this way, if there's anything that is easy to do in your position at this point, it is probably because someone before you paid the price of hard work so you wouldn't have to. If you do this, next year's student leader will look back on your time with gratitude and good feelings.

30. Show respect to adults, mentors, advisors, administrators, and teachers.
You are in your position for one year. But the adults that you work with probably stay in their same position year in and year out. They've seen a lot of student leaders come and go. One of the ways that you can distinguish yourself above the others is by being respectful. This doesn't mean you have to agree with everything. But you understand that this is these people's JOBS. Whatever their motivation, they are in this position because they want to invest in the lives of students. They probably have a lot of experience. Don't be frustrated by their cynicism of your new idea. They've seen it before in one form or another. Listen to their hesitancy and show them why your version will work. If you come at it with an "us against them" mindset, you'll only make it difficult on yourself.

31. Keep your cool. Be consistent.
There will be a lot of things that you can get mad about during your student leader year. But responding in anger usually makes a situation more difficult. If you can stay calm and keep a level head in those tense moments, you'll be better equipped to RESPOND to the situation rather than REACT. When you burst out in anger, you take away any chance of getting a response out of the other people involved. If people know that you will be consistent in your emotions through a variety of circumstances (both good and bad), they will be more willing to hear what you have to say and respect your leadership. If you take them on an emotional rollercoaster ride every day, they'll always be looking for the quickest exit.

32. Leave well.
Every student leader leaves. Every student leadership year comes to an end. The question is how will you leave (and when)? When you leave well, you finish what you've started. You have done your best. You walk away with no regrets. When you leave well, people want to celebrate what you've done.

33. Be a team player. Create high team morale.
If you've read most of the 35 ideas I've listed for you, then you know that ONE is too small a number for greatness. What I mean is - you can't do anything significant by yourself. We need other people and other people need us. Your team depends on you and you must depend on your team. Allow your people to do what they need to do. Trust is the glue that holds any team together. Are you doing whatever it takes to make the members of your team better? Your team will be much more effective if they enjoy being a team. Morale is a great motivator. When success comes, point to your team. When failure happens, take it upon yourself to do better.

34. Make your people feel more important than your projects.
When you step into a student leadership position there will be certain tasks that you are required to do. If you do all of those tasks yourself, you will be doing the work of a student worker. If you get other people involved you will be moving in the direction of becoming a student leader. As a student leader, help your people feel special. They won't be as motivated by the idea of helping you get your work done. People are more important than tasks. Develop a relationship with them and show them how they are valued for more than just the work they do.

35. Raise up potential leaders. Reproduce yourself.
Do you want to create a legacy of positive leadership that will live on after you've gone? Then invest in others who have the capacity and potential to step into your position when you leave. Take the time to mentor someone. Take what you've learned from your experience and pass it on to someone else. Share your resources. Tell someone that you believe in them and can see their potential. Give them opportunities to lead under your direction and nurturing.

Now it's time to move into action. Don't just read this list of 35 ideas and nod your head. Get out there and prove to the world that you are a great student leader.

Did you miss the other parts of this list? Follow the links to read all 35.

35 Ways...Part One
35 Ways...Part Two
35 Ways...Part Three
35 Ways...Part Four

35 Ways To Put The "STUD" In Student Leader [part four]

Imagine you're standing in front of friends, family, and fellow students at the end of your student leadership year. You have been invited to speak on the accomplishments, the relationships, the successes and failures that you experienced.

As you step to the microphone what will you say? What memories will you point to? Whom will you mention and thank? What kind of student leadership year do you want to be able to talk about?

It's helpful to begin with the end in mind. You are starting to plan your speech at the beginning of your year. You are living out the things you'll be able to talk about at the end. So to help you prepare to give a great speech, you need to answer this question: If you are going to be a student leader, don't you want be a GREAT one?

Here's 7 more ideas to help you stand out as a student leader...

22. Laugh.
Why so serious? People enjoy being around someone who has a good sense of humor. It doesn't mean that you have to be a comedian. But it won't hurt you to laugh a little...or laugh a lot. In fact, the student leader's who can learn to laugh at their own mistakes and shortcomings are much more approachable and pleasant to be around. If you don't smile, people will think you're always mad or unfriendly. Did you know that laughing makes you healthier?

23. Handwritten Thank You Notes.
This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to put the "stud" in student leader. Listen people, this works! When you notice someone doing something right - take a moment and jot them a HANDWRITTEN note. Not an email, not a typewritten letter, a quick note in your own scribbles. It is a gesture that has a HUGE impact on the person receiving it. I've seen notes that I've written posted on people's bulletin boards. They save these things. In this day and age, a handwritten thank you is so rare. People are amazed that you would take the extra time to actually write out your thank you. Write five of these a week and you'll outdistance yourself from everyone else.

24. Be a storyteller.
People have short attention spans...UNLESS...you are telling a good story. Don't believe me? Just go to your local movie theatre and watch all those young people with their bottoms plastered to a seat for two hours. That's because we all like to listen, engage, and think about a good story. If you want to get people's attention, tell a good story. If you want to make a point, tell a story that helps illustrate that point. Story is one of the most powerful communication tools we have at our disposal. So don't just tell 'em, let the story tell 'em. They'll remember your story a lot longer.

25. Do a little extra.
The path from ordinary to extraordinary is paved with little things. It doesn't take much to be the best. Look at some of the more popular sports in the Olympics. The difference between first and second place is often in the hundredth of seconds. But there is much more opportunity available to the one who takes home the GOLD. When you do something for someone else, find that little extra that you can add. Surprise people by doing a little more than is expected. If you think you're too busy, then maybe you should do less so you can do a little extra.

26. Find the best in other people.
People already know the worst about themselves. What we need is people who will come alongside others and help them realize their fullest potential. When you believe in people, it helps them to be their best. Even when you offer feedback to someone else that focuses on an area of improvement, you can still sandwich it in between some positive feedback. Catch people doing something right and acknowledge it.

27. Admit your mistakes and learn from them.
Your fellow students already know when you make a mistake. You only compound the negative impact of your mistake by trying to sweep it under the rug. When you come clean about it, you are able to move on more quickly. If you hide it, you carry it around with you and people begin to question your integrity. When you admit your mistakes, you help people see that you are more real. And when you are honest with yourself, you can learn the important lessons that come with the mistakes you make.

28. Make sure people feel the ABC's: Accepted, Belong, & Cared for.
Everyone wants to find their place in this world. If you, as a student leader, can be the person to instill the warm feelings and confidence that acceptance, belonging, and caring brings - you'll gain both their trust and loyalty. You can do this by providing a place for them to serve, by communicating their value to your team or organization, and by letting them know of their importance as a person. Don't simply focus on what they do, but who they are.

I know you can have a great student leadership year. Start implementing these ideas and you'll have a lot of wonderful experiences to talk about at the end.

The last part of this series is next. The final seven ideas will help you to end well as a student leader.

Did you miss any of the other posts in this series? Follow these links:
35 Ways...Part One
35 Ways...Part Two
35 Ways...Part Three

Leadership Lessons From Failure

The most recent edition of Leadership Wired, the mentoring resource from INJOY, contains a good reminder of the role that failure can play in one's success. Here's a few of the teaching points...
 

1. Failure is inevitable

Everyone, even the most decorated Olympian, knows the taste of failure. We all lose, fall short, or miss the bar during life.

2. Failure is a fork in the road

When we fail, we have several paths in front of us.

• We can blame our failures on others.
• We can identify with our setbacks to the extent that we view ourselves as failures.
• We can ignore or deny our failure.
• OR, we can embrace failure, learn from it, and use it as a springboard to get better.

Our response dictates where we end up on the path of leadership.

3. Failure is fruitful

Failure is the surest path to success. It tests, strengthens, and refines us. Passing through it qualifies us to lead.

Have you experienced any recent failures or setbacks? How will you respond? How will you learn from it and grow from it.

Flickr Credit: Mark Cunnington

Social Media - The Conversation Prism

Brian Solis, of PR 2.0 has redesigned a wonderful tool for us all to use. It's the Conversation Prism. Here's how he explains it.

The conversation map is a living, breathing representation of Social Media and will evolve as services and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.

If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?

Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you and this map will help you visualize the potential extent and pervasiveness of the online conversations that can impact and influence your business and brand.

I think this is a great visual representation of all of the things that are possible with social networking services and websites.

Read the entire article here.
View a larger version of the Conversation Prism on Flickr.

35 Ways To Put The "STUD" In Student Leader [part three]

You can't force people to follow you. That's not leadership. That's dictatorship.

As a student leader, you have access to a lot of really cool and meaningful opportunities to fully express your influence and engage in an adventure with your peers. But that doesn't happen if you aren't relevant.

Here's the question...again...

If you are going to be a student leader, don't you want be a GREAT one?

So now I'm going to continue to feed you some fairly easy, but revolutionarily (I just made that word up) effective ways to raise your influence (and relevance) as a student leader.

15. Keep your promises.
One of the easiest things to do as a student leader is to make a promise. People are wary of a campaign promise because it never moves past the "making" phase. Keep your word. If you make a promise, then do the hard work to manage and follow through on that promise. One of the best ways to prove to people that they can trust you is to be trustworthy. At the core of trustworthiness is the ability to do what you've promised to do. If you don't think you can keep a promise, don't make it in the first place.

16. Set your personal expectations higher.
You'll quickly notice that everyone has certain expectations for you as a student leader. Expectations will come from people like your advisor, your team, your peers, your teachers, your coaches, your parents. Everyone has some idea of what you're capable of and how much you will accomplish (and how much you should accomplish for them). So here's the trick to getting around that: Don't worry about everyone else's expectations of you -- just set your personal expectations higher than everyone else's. That way, you won't have to worry about being labeled as mediocre, or average, or unreliable. You'll blow people away because you've set your own standard...and you set it higher.

17. Possess a positive, abundance mentality.
You are constantly going to bump into people who feel like there is never enough time, never enough resources, never enough capability present in the room. And since they feel that way, they are going to scramble to make sure they get what's theirs before everyone else does. But if you want to be a student leader who stands above the fray, keep your attitude positive and work from a sense of abundance. Be generous and optimistic. Don't try to guard your territory or keep everything you know a secret. Share your resources and help others succeed.

18. Get involved in making the world a better place.
Ultimately, you were given gifts, strengths, talents, abilities, smarts, skills...you get the idea...not to make yourself better - but so you can be actively engaged in bettering the world. The best student leaders find ways to get involved in their community, fight for social justice, and right the wrongs caused by poverty and inequality. And those experiences are then incorporated into the fabric of your leadership. And you know what they give you? Perspective. Compassion. Heart. People like to see that in their leaders.

19. Be present.
When other students are talking to you, look them in the eye and listen. When you're in a meeting, don't keep checking your email. Work hard at being as fully present wherever you are at. Notice what's going on around you. The world is full of people whose bodies are in the room but their mind is somewhere else. Take the headphones out of your ears when you walk across campus - they make you appear unapproachable. Make people feel like they are the center of your attention when you are with them. The best way to do that is to make them the center of your attention when you are with them.

20. Keep short accounts.
What I'm suggesting here is that you travel as lightly as possible. This means that you don't carry around the baggage of grudges, hard feelings, unresolved conflict, misunderstandings, anger, bitterness, and all of the stuff like that. It will eat you up inside. Do you want to be as effective as possible? Then learn to forgive people. When you forgive someone, it releases all of those things that I just listed that can tear away at your heart, mind, and soul. This means that there may be times that you need to forgive yourself as well. You have too much potential, too many great things you want to do to be carrying around that stuff with you. And when you forgive people, they'll be more willing to forgive you.

21. See situations from a variety of perspectives.
For all of the knowledge and wisdom and experience you have in you - yours is only ONE perspective. Two people can see the same thing and come away with two different stories. That's because you don't see the world as it is - you see the world as YOU are. When you need to make a decision seek out other people's perspectives. Change the way you are looking at something. You'll learn and your world will expand and you'll increase the odds of making a good decision. Don't surround yourself with people who think like you...you already know how you think. Find people that can offer you a whole new way of looking at the world. And your world will get a whole lot bigger.

Only 14 more to go. I've already got them written down. I can't wait to share them with you. If you missed the first 14, then follow the links below.

35 Ways...Part One
35 Ways...Part Two