Everyone has the potential to be a leader. While some individuals may have personality traits that make leadership feel more natural, it's a common misconception that leaders are born rather than made. In reality, leadership is a skill that can be taught, developed, and strengthened over time. True leaders are constantly learning new things and growing from their experiences. Teaching leadership skills in the classroom can help students develop confidence, a sense of responsibility, and the ability to work well with others.
How can you develop leadership skills in students?
Leadership skills are essential traits that students will carry with them throughout their academic and professional careers and can even benefit them in their personal lives. But how do you teach students to be leaders?
You can start by looking at examples, whether they’re leaders in your school or leaders in history. Have a discussion with your class. What qualities do they look for in a leader? Who is a leader they admire and why? What actions can they take to build leadership skills? Taking a moment to discuss with your class what leadership looks like to them ensures that everyone is on the same page and helps establish why it’s important to build these skills.
You should look into the leadership opportunities that already exist within your school. Extracurricular programs such as student government, athletics, theater, clubs, peer mentorship, and community service might already be teaching some of your students leadership skills.
You can also create new opportunities to develop skills within the classroom, most notably through group projects. You can either assign one leader to each group for the duration of that project (making sure to change leaders for each new project) or assign a different leader for each element of it. For example, there could be a research leader, a report leader, a visual presentation leader, and so on. Each leader would be responsible for guiding the rest of the group in establishing a concrete goal and delegating certain responsibilities.
Teaching leadership skills and qualities in the classroom
When teaching leadership skills, it can be helpful to take a look at key traits of leaders and identify ways to actively develop those traits in students. Below are 10 qualities leaderships should strive for and ways you can integrate them into your classroom.
1. Honesty
Honesty builds leadership by creating trust, which is the foundation of any strong team. When a leader is honest, people know they can rely on them to tell the truth, make fair decisions, and own up to mistakes.
Literature and history are great places to talk about honesty. You can select a particularly notable character or historical figure, and explore their life and the decisions they made. Discuss which of this person’s actions were honest and which weren’t. What were the outcomes of those actions? And more importantly, what we can we learn from that person’s experience as a leader?
2. Communicating
One trait great leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Winston Churchill, have in common is their ability to communicate ideas. Not only is strong communication important to motivate and encourage their team, but it is also necessary in order to work efficiently and effectively.
Classroom presentations are a great way to help students gain confidence in speaking to a group of students and sharing their ideas. Discussions and debates can also teach students how to express their opinions and ideas but be sure that every student has a chance to talk.
3. Listening
Listening helps leaders understand the needs, concerns, and ideas of their team. A good leader will take the time to actively listen to their team, giving them their full attention and asking thoughtful questions to ensure that they accurately understand their concerns and ideas.
Debates are a fantastic way to teach listening, because it requires students to carefully hear opposing viewpoints before responding. For younger kids, you can have them debate fun topics such as "which animal is the best" or "who is the best superhero." From these lighthearted debates, you could gradually work your way up to more serious questions, such as "whether it’s better to save your money or to spend it and enjoy the immediate results" or "whether you should step in to help someone in trouble or run to get an adult."
4. Encouraging
A leader should build up those around them. A leader who encourages their team is more likely to create a supportive environment, where individuals feel safe to express new ideas, take risks, and face challenges confidently.
One activity you can do to teach your students how to encourage others is to have your students make a list of the strengths and positive qualities they see in their classmates and provide time for those strengths to be communicated. Students could also list something they haven't practiced a lot and want to get better at and discuss (individually or as a small group) how they can improve.
5. Making goals
When leaders set clear goals, they create a sense of direction—not just for themselves, but for their team who looks to them for guidance. Goals help leaders learn how to prioritize, stay focused, and follow through, which are all key traits of a strong leader.
At the beginning of the year, you can guide your class in establishing classroom and individual goals. You can post common goals somewhere in the classroom and do periodic check-ins to see how the class is doing in terms of meeting those goals. You can do these check-ins with personal milestones as well.
6. Decision-making
Leaders have to make decisions, from deciding how they will approach a task to knowing how to delegate. Good leaders will not only carefully weigh their choices but will also involve their team in the decision-making process, creating a collaborative environment where everyone is heard.
You should provide opportunities for your students to have choices and make decisions (but make sure you pre-select and pre-approve any pitches). These choices can include setting classroom rules, deciding on lesson activities, setting free time activities, etc. It is important to guide your students in thoroughly evaluating each option before they make their decisions.
7. Thinking positively
People often look to their leaders for motivation and guidance, which is why good leaders should strive to be optimistic. They want to inspire those around them, instilling confidence and belief in their team that they can achieve the task before them, especially when faced with challenges.
One way you can help students think positively is by teaching them how to identify negative thoughts and reframe them into more constructive, empowering statements. For examples, when a student thinks “I can’t do this”, they can reframe it to “this is challenging, but I can keep trying and improve.”
8. Taking responsibility
Leadership and responsibility go hand in hand. When leaders are guiding others, it is up to them to make decisions, ensure that tasks are completed on time, and make sure that their team feels supported and heard.
You should give your students responsibilities such as assigning classroom jobs or setting goals they can have ownership over. You should also model responsibility in your class. When you make a mistake, own up to it. Discuss the personal empowerment of taking responsibility and how it can help you focus on what you have control over. Whenever possible, you should find a way to affirm or reward students for taking responsibility for their actions.
9. Hard work and perseverance
Hard work and perseverance build leadership by showing dedication, resilience, and a strong commitment to achieving goals. Leaders who push through challenges and keep going, even when things get tough, earn the respect and trust of others.
You can help your students learn how to work hard and be persistent by setting realistic goals and encourage your students when they get tired or face challenges. You could also discuss how they can learn from that experience.
10. Service
Service builds leadership by teaching empathy, humility, and the importance of putting others before yourself. When leaders focus on helping and supporting those around them, they earn the trust and respect of others through their actions.
When teaching students about service, you could start by discussing problems in the classroom, school, and community and bring them to your students’ attention. Then, you could encourage the class to brainstorm ideas for addressing those issues. To practice service on a more daily basis, you can also assign classroom jobs or roles to help students gain hands-on experience with serving their own classroom community.
Guiding the leaders of tomorrow
Good, effective leadership is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved upon. By following these qualities for teaching leadership skills, you can help prepare your students to be leaders that inspire and guide others in a positive direction.
This article was adapted from a blog post initially developed by the education technology company Classcraft, which was acquired by HMH in 2023. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
***
Find more lesson plans and classroom resources on Shaped.
Be the first to read the latest from Shaped.