This past week, I had the privilege and honor to be one of the speakers at the Sandusky Bay Conference Leadership Summit for Youth Leaders, along with my superintendent, Pat Adkins, and other experts from our region. We led sessions to help student-leaders understand that leadership is more than a title, taught them what sportsmanship really is, and offered alternatives and direction when adversity arrives.
The student-leaders were amazing! We really need to give young adults more praise and opportunity. I was incredibly impressed with their attentiveness, appreciation, ideas, and leadership. The students shared some poignant challenges: too much drama in their sport, unruly fans, unsupportive family, poor role models and more! They also shared solutions and ideas that made me leave with great hope that we are in good hands with these future leaders.
Too often, I believe, parents, teachers, coaches, advisors, and community leaders have expectations from students on leadership but rarely take the time to teach and train them on ways to deliver. Everybody values leadership, but they are hoping, or expecting, someone else to take care of it. That’s why I think a day like this Sandusky Bay Conference Leadership Summit for Youth Leaders is so important. The leaders of the SBC, like our awesome Athletic Director, Rick Dominick, believe leadership and sportsmanship are important enough to schedule it, plan it, and offer it to schools in our region. Kudos to all who accepted and participated. I believe over 400 students attended. The students now have a lot of great leadership tools to take back to their teams and district to not only apply in their lives, but to teach other.
What a great day! I wish that I could have attended the other sessions as well and learned from the other speakers.
One of the reasons I wrote my first book, Along Came a Leader, Click to Read More
was that I did not believe my students and new teachers and leaders were exposed to the type of leadership training I had as a youth. I collected all that was taught to me and put it in one place and made it easy to understand. I’m proud to see school districts like Fairview Heights and many others using
my book as their
district book study. I will be doing a video Q&A with them next month.
Each October I have the privilege to travel to schools and speak to students about leadership during October’s National Bullying Prevention Month, and some other events throughout the year. It is an honor to inspire and educate youth in the six tenets of leadership and give them the tools they yearn for and need.
Our district has provided many opportunities for leadership training. It starts as early as primary grades and is reinforced all the way through graduation. Our staff also participates and leads amazing leadership learning opportunities. I am proud that we make it a priority and schedule it. Still this is something we are growing to continually improve.
We can never learn enough about leadership, and it is always paramount that we work hard to actually apply what we learn. What we model becomes the standard. What we allow, we encourage to grow and spread. What we adjust and correct is admired most, because it is such a difficult thing to admit you made a mistake and correct it, but it is what you will be most admired for doing; this practice is so rare.
I am currently reading an excellent book on leadership a colleague, Joe Miller, loaned me, titled Trust and Inspire by Stephen M. R. Covey. I’m not very far into it, but I love what I am learning and working hard to put to use.
My point is this: While everyone may not share a leadership title, everyone leads. Leadership training is important for everyone at any age, and it must me prioritized and scheduled. The best leadership lessons are the ones put into action and modeled for others. Admitting and correcting our mistakes in leadership are not moments of shame, but rather moments of admiration.
Always forward,
Kelly
I am a professional speaker, and I would like to speak at your event.
Order Kelly’s books, Along Came a Leader and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library.
Educator, Author, Keynote Speaker
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