The Leadership Project is a plan that incorporates both a teenager’s leadership style with designed action. The project also involves evaluating the needs of their community and searching for a way to meet that need through a project. There are two goals. The first is to develop necessary basic leadership skills and set goals for achieving them. The second, show them how to provide a meaningful benefit for the community.

This session is important because it helps students understand their place in the community and how they can contribute to its well-being.

It makes tangible all of the concepts that we’ve tackled so far in the Academic Life Coaching program.

It’s also extremely helpful for leadership projects to be small rather than unnecessarily huge in order to be useful. Oftentimes a small project, one they can complete in two or three weeks is perfect because it shows that they can take action toward achieving a goal and they can make a small difference. Small differences add up over time. The important lesson to take is the ability to form a habit of thinking from this leadership project point of view, and not just looking at leadership as having a position but rather having an idea of a certain outcome and influence on a situation.

How to Best Support Your Child

As a parent, you can help by supporting your child in a leadership project. Your child’s coach will have some specific recommendations for you on how you can best support the project. Sometimes it’s helpful for you to get involved in the beginning stages and help the project take flight. Sometimes it’s helpful to get involved with all ages or stand in awe as your child takes steps toward creating positive change in the community.

From the Academic Life Coaching Workbook

Whereas mission statements are overarching, a leadership project puts that overarching statement to use. Your leadership project is the intersection of your personal mission and what you want to provide your community.

A leadership project can be short, like helping plan a family vacation that includes meaningful time together, or long, like putting together a business or engaging in an internship. Along the way, your mission statement gives meaning and a frame to your leadership project, and your leadership project gives a tangible product of your mission statement. The two go hand-in-hand.

The first step is to look for what’s needed in your community and determine the impact you want to have on the lives of others.

What’s needed in your community?

If your life were thriving, what gift or service would you offer others?

If you were to accomplish your leadership project, what would be the benefit in the lives of others?

The second step is to revisit your mission statement and determine what project – it may be only a few weeks or it may span a few years – addresses that need in your community and aligns with your mission.

A brainstorm of possible projects:

Choose the top two choices and the next steps to make the project real.

Name of project:

Time frame:

Purpose: Why this, why now?

Break down the larger project into smaller segments.

1st Well-Formed Outcome:

2nd Well-Formed Outcome:

3rd Well-Formed Outcome:

Possible adjustments to make: