Two Leadership Experiences That Was Significant to Me as a Leader of a Youth Group

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Outline

Leadership qualities are important in that, they create a chance for the leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of any suggestion proposed to them by the members of the team they are leading. Research indicates that, ideas cannot flow without control in any organization. It is therefore important for a leader to have a heart that is good in order to deal compassionately and be fair with people. It is also important for a leader to be God-fearing in order to be guided by Holy Spirit therefore, avoiding hurting the feelings of others. Teamwork is also very important especially if it has undergone all the stages of development because it enables the leader even to delegate some of the roles to the subordinates with a high level of trust. The following is a brief of some of my personal experiences that have enabled discovery of areas of strength and weaknesses in regard to leadership.

Introduction

I was a very active member in our local church when the youth patron announced that the group was in dire need of a new leader. I was almost sure that I would be chosen since I was very active and could organize the rest of the members in the absence of our patron. Votes were cast and I emerged as the winner which to my surprise was unopposed and I immediately started to work as most of the projects were halfway while others were just proposals. I strongly believed that I could lead because those projects were very important hence worth the effort. One of the experiences was very successful where funds were needed to complete a building that was to be used as a hall for church meetings.

A successful leadership experience

According to (Dubinsky, 1995), leaders are supposed to be hardworking, getting actively involved in whatever they are leading other than just sitting back and waiting for things to happen. Therefore, I called upon youth group members and asked them to get into three different groups where I was not involved in choosing who is to get into what group. We then brainstormed to get tasks for each group with group 1 getting the task of raising funds by organizing a concert where they would charge all attendants of the concert. Group 2 was supposed to bake small cakes which would be sold to the congregation after church services all through the month while Group three would sell notebooks to the congregation before bible study services through that month. I also went ahead to give out some money to help prepare for the three tasks and since all group members were involved in decision making, they became very enthusiastic about project participation.

Group leaders delegated responsibilities to each member, for example in Group two, some were supposed to bake cakes while the rest would sell them and roles were interchanged until the exercise was over. This exercise was of great help to me as well as the youth members as it helped build skills of leadership in them. I also worked together with each group taking roles that motivated them since they felt like they werent under supervision but working together to achieve a main goal. For effective leadership it isnt appropriate to ask people to perform a task they cannot or wouldnt perform (Tead, 2003). All groups cooperated and were able to raise the amount set which even exceeded with an amount enough to buy chairs for that hall.

I learned a lot about leadership from this particular experience which included the value of faithfulness, respect as well as cooperation. I was able to show the youth group members that, there wasnt a task too menial to be performed by a leader; in turn they learned that there wasnt a task that wasnt important. Each group recognized the effort of the other in the accomplishment of the whole mission building respect among them. Leaders are supposed to acknowledge members of their teams and appreciation may be in form of an article with appreciation message on it, a verbal message telling how thankful one is for their cooperation, or even flowers. The amount or size of what is given for appreciation doesnt matter but the feeling by those appreciated is what is important as they feel of much value. (Bower, 2000)

An experience of failed leadership

Although we were able to collect a lot of money, there were problems with Group 1 which was organizing a concert as they did that at night allowing everybody inside the church compound provided one had paid. More and more people crowded in the compound and since I trusted them so much, I didnt follow them up in what they were doing. Therefore I did not notice that, they had let in drunkards who made a lot of noise interrupting what was going on which forced us to call police officers to control them leading to an embarrassment as this was not supposed to be happening in church. As the policemen were trying to get rid of the drunken gentlemen, some people found their way into the concert without being charged. (Tead, 2003).

Another area where I experienced failure was with Group 2 which had some of their members picking on their relatives as well as friends who were attending the services giving them free cakes which reduced the amount that would be collected from the sale of cakes. Members of the other groups were affected since they wouldnt access those cakes to give to their friends and relatives which deprived trust of Group 2 members as a whole though not all did that. Group 3 did a good job without any complain setting a good example to the rest of the groups. (Dubinsky, 1995).

I learned a great deal from the failures as I realized the need to make youth group members feel accountable for their every action good or bad. Absolute trust without a bit of follow up may make people being led feel so much in charge, sometimes diverting from the set goal like what was done by members of group 2.Such a lesson was so great as I became more careful on the subsequent tasks of leadership where I allowed them to take charge but to a certain level emphasizing on accountability just as an effective leader should do. (Tead, 2003)

References

Bower F. (2000): Personal Qualities of Effective Leadership: WB Saunders Co pp 45-48.

Dubinsky A. (1995): linkages between personal characteristics and dimensions of transformational leadership: Springer pp 37-42.

Tead O. (2003): The Art of Leadership: McGraw-Hill Education pp 29-34.

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Two Leadership Experiences That Was Significant to Me as a Leader of a Youth Group

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