To be effective, a student government needs a deep bench of leaders who are willing to take on responsibility and help coordinate different projects. Many student governments struggle because they only have a small group of students who are taking on real responsibility. Those student leaders tend to end up overburdened and burned out, and those student governments often struggle from year to year because they don’t have new students who are ready to replace the graduating leaders.
Student governments that constantly develop new leaders are able to tackle more projects, keep their members motivated, and keep their organization vibrant from year to year.
Here are some tips for developing your student government members into leaders:
- Create opportunities for people to take on leadership. In order to develop leaders, first you need to have leadership roles for people to take on. Brainstorm a list of all of the leadership roles that people could take on for your student government’s projects, and be on the lookout for students who can fill those roles. For example, when organizing a big event, some possible roles might be: Media Coordinator, Materials Coordinator, Logistics Coordinator, Publicity Coordinator, Class Announcements Coordinator, Coalition Coordinator, etc.
- Ask everyone to take on more leadership. Literally, everyone. It’s okay to keep your eye out for rising stars, but you should work to see the leadership potential in everyone. Not everyone will say “yes” to taking on more leadership, but you’ll never know until you ask.
- Teach skills. As a student government leader, you need a set of skills to succeed, including public speaking, running meetings, and managing volunteers. When you first got involved with SGA, you probably weren’t as good at those skills as you are now. One of the best things you can do to develop up-and-coming leaders is to train them in the skills they’ll need. Always look for chances to teach people how to do the things you do.
- Give feedback. Along with training, feedback helps your members get better at what they do. And it builds their confidence, by letting them know what they did well and what they can improve for next time. Anytime someone completes a leadership role, make sure to take time to give them feedback.
- Know people’s motivations. Know why they got involved, what they want to get out of their experience, and what they’re most excited about. That will help you know which leadership roles will motivate them and fit their skills.
- Challenge people. Ask people to take on more and more. You should offer students responsibility and opportunity beyond what they might even aspire to. The sheer act of asking people to take on more and more will inspire confidence in them. If you’re afraid that offering more responsibility will scare them off, don’t be – usually the worst that will happen is that they’ll say no.