What resources do student leaders need to be successful?

Self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership. If student leaders can learn to be introspective early in their leadership journeys, they can invest in understanding their strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and the impact of their actions on others. Resources necessary for fostering self-awareness include access to psychological assessments (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Emotional Intelligence tests), mentoring programs, and reflective practices like journaling or meditation retreats. Students should also request access to resources to help facilitate values alignment, including workshops on ethical leadership, and values clarification exercises to ensure mutual understanding and alignment.

First, we must ask ourselves what type of leadership we want them to acquire. Later, after knowing the real needs, it is possible to develop and design a knowledge trail for this training. It is not possible to generalize in this way.

Genuine buy in and support from the educational institution is vital. It is easy to give students leadership roles, create an application process and have a ceremony where roles are handed out...but what will they actually be allowed to achieve? Yes they need training, having a mentor will help, recognition when they have achievements and some sort of budget would be nice but the institution has to believe in them and believe in the power of student leadership. They need to report regularly to SLT, to the LAB (or Governors)they need to have clear KPIs and most importantly a school that doesn't just say no. If you trust them enough to give them the role, trust them to make a difference and allow them to make positive change.

Un líder educativo debe tener a su disposición varios recursos, en gran medida pertenecer a una red de colaboradores para compartir sus inquietudes con otros lideres, recibir retroalimentación y también poder entregar su experiencia al servicio de otros con el fin de mejorar su propio hacer.

Leadership training is a valuable resource for student leaders who want to succeed in their roles and beyond. It helps them develop essential skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and decision-making. Leadership training also exposes them to different perspectives and challenges them to grow as individuals and as a group. By participating in leadership training, student leaders can enhance their confidence, motivation, and effectiveness in leading others and achieving their goals.

As this is an audience with skills in training, it is necessary to be very careful with mentoring and feedback, as this training will show its results in the future. Be more sincere and transparent in your attitudes, this is the best way.

You can provide someone with the best training available, how they implement that training may not always provide the best results. A solid mentor can provide that real-time feedback to help boost their confidence. Each student learns a little bit differently and again, a solid mentor would be able to recognize how to best reach the student based on their individual needs. This process will also set them up for success in the future as they will have the familiarity and confidence of what a positive mentoring relationship should look like. In future workplaces, they will be able to identify and seek out mentors, or become mentors themselves in the future.

Confidence Building: Positive feedback and encouragement from mentors can boost the confidence of student leaders, empowering them to take on new responsibilities and initiatives with assurance. Accountability: Regular feedback sessions with mentors help student leaders stay accountable for their actions and commitments, encouraging them to strive for excellence and fulfill their potential.

O líder precisa ser mentor, ao mesmo tempo em que precisa ter um mentor. Ele vai se munir de ferramentas para manter a equipe sempre próxima, de forma que todos entendam que fazem parte de um mesmo time, gerando pertencimento e gratid?o.

Encouraging networking and group work is not enough. It is necessary to teach them this, both how to network and work in groups in an empathetic way.

A part of networking and collaboration that we don't talk about enough is relationship building and management. Student leaders must learn to build relationships over time, creating authentic interactions. The basis is respect and kindness. And then you layer in simple interactions that are a mix of relevant (ask about the weekend) and meaningful (ask about someone's child who was sick). It's the little things like remembering where a teammate went on vacation, the name of a client's child, or a colleague's preferences for food. This is different from managing up, which is a combination of anticipating a manager's needs and understanding his/her preferences with work and communication.

I would separate networking and collaboration: networking is about your social capital, expanding the three handshakes' reach, empathy, ethics (and etiquette) and ability to listen. Collaboration is about delivering mutually beneficial results and is linked to shared responsibility. Both skills are very important, though historically universities teach collaboration much better than networking.

Recognize efforts, reward them when necessary, but don't overdo it. In real life they will not always be recognized and you must be emotionally prepared for this. It's part of the training.

I remember during my college days, award and recognition boosts student leaders morale and confidence. It pushes them to do better and also serves as an encouragement to future student leaders.

Todo reconhecimento e toda recompensa podem ser traduzidos em uma única palavra: honra. N?o é fácil liderar, nem mesmo manter a equipe sintonizada aos objetivos sem que haja um conflito. A cada sucesso obtido, a recompensa vem validar os trabalhos.

The toughest one! Lots of young leaders have great ideas that don't fly simply because they can't yet see the bigger picture or are not able to assess the scalability or resources needed mid/long-term. Being able to work with mentors from the real world, learn through experience is often the best possible school (combined with the academic content, of course, as long as it reflects modern reality rather than what was needed 5-7 years ago).

One upcoming skill that I would add here is SDG literacy - we see more and more young professionals talking about value alignment when they look for their first jobs; we also see more companies talking about not just ESG reporting, but a more comprehensive ability to see bigger picture and bring Sustainable Development Goals into daily action. SDG & AI literacy are two key skills for anybody interested in succeeding in the job market of tomorrow.

I have found, particularly in hiring, that one skill often lacking is critical thinking. We need to create environments for our future leaders that invite all voices to be heard, develop intellectual resilience (rather than intellectual fragility which takes things personally, shuts down, overreacts to language and contrary ideas, etc.), and encourage taking thinking risks.

Never forget that your leadership style will influence, whether giving advice or showing in practice how to act. Give them the opportunity to learn about other styles.

Successful student leaders are characterized by their ability to be self-aware, align their actions with their core values, create psychologically safe environments, exhibit entrepreneurial spirit, develop coherent leadership philosophies, and remain authentic. I encourage the student leaders I work with to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset that encourages innovation, resilience, and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Resources that support entrepreneurial skills include access to startup incubators, mentorship from entrepreneurial leaders, workshops on innovation and risk management, and platforms for testing new ideas.

A missing piece to leadership of any kind is failure. Rushing in to save student leaders from mistakes and failure does them a great disservice. A great student mentor will provide feedback, guidance, and advice but will allow student leaders to make their own choices even if it leads to failure or mistakes. Then there is opportunity for the mentor to reflect with the student so that they can grow and learn from those failures and mistakes. Often we unconsciously communicate to our student leaders that they must be perfect, must be successful, must not fail! That is an unhealthy mentality for anyone but especially for our student leaders. So don’t save them from failure when the stakes are small, they will be better leaders for it!