How do the people who are on your team feel after an event?
Do they feel like they just pulled off "their" event?
Or did they simply help you pull off "your" event?
There's a difference.
As a student leader, you will have people that will be working in cooperation with your leadership. You may have recruited them or they were assigned to work with you. Either way, they're on your team and they're ready to work...
...for themselves.
That's right. They need to work for themselves, not for you.
Does that sound selfish?
Keep reading...
The most effective student leaders are focused on people more than tasks. There's a difference between finding people to help you accomplish a task and using tasks as a way to develop people. The best way to distinguish between the two is simple:
OWNERSHIP
If the people who are on your team own the event as theirs, they'll put forth a much greater effort. That's because the project, the assignment, the task at hand is THEIRS...not yours.
In fact, there's even greater motivation to be successful when they see the event as OURS and work for the benefit of the entire team.
If all they see is YOUR event, then everytime you tell them to do something it will kind of sound like you're bossing them around. They'll start to notice who gets the most praise and who gets the least. They'll only do what's required and not add their own creativity and resourcefulness to the task at hand. Basically, they'll do enough to get by.
Because it's not THEIR event, it's YOURS. And YOU'RE the boss.
Boss leadership doesn't work very well or work very long. You must find ways to give ownership to your team. You must pass on responsibility and empower your followers to make their work their own.
You'll know you've arrived when you can stand back at the end of an event and everyone says, "Look what WE did!"
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