Page Title

Identifying, Defining, Applying, Analyzing  & Synthesizing Leadership Opportunities with Adolescents

May 31, 2001

"The 'family' has traditionally been the place in which leadership skills are first introduced and taught.  Children first learn responsibility at home by cleaning their rooms, setting the table, taking out trash, etc.  However, during the twentieth century, this responsibility has increasingly fallen upon societal institutions and organizations as well (Wade, 1997).

  Leaders are developed.  It takes certain skills to become an effective leader and these skills can be taught, learned, and developed.  Realizing one's own leadership potential is often the result of a significant influence, or through participation in a meaningful even or activity.  Ohio 4-H Leadership Camp is an annual, ongoing, week-long even, which has been held for 53 consecutive years.  The purpose of Leadership Camp is to build and develop youth leaders through teaching leadership skills, creating opportunities for youth to exert and practice leadership in their own clubs and communities, as well as awakening the realization of the limitless potential for leadership, which each person possesses.

  The authors developed a leadership workshop, which was taught independently to two   different groups in the same setting.  It was first taught as an orientation workshop to Leadership Camp counselors and later in the week to Leadership Campers.  The purpose of this workshop was to obtain qualitative data regarding the perceptions of these two groups regarding their perceptions of leadership.  Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) was utilized as the theoretical framework for this inquiry.

  Demographics were self-reported.  With the exception of age, educational level and employment status, the demographic profiles of these two groups (counselors and campers) were similar.  The mean age of leadership counselors was 20.0 years, with the leadership campers being 16.6 years.  All of the leadership counselors were employed, as were 75.5% of the leadership campers.  While all of the leadership campers were high school students, the majority of leadership counselors were college students (two were high school seniors and one was a college graduate).  Other characteristics were as follows: 70% female, 97.2% white, 36.6% farm residence, 32.3% rural, non-farm residence, 87.8% live with both parents, 52.2% are from well-to-do families (with money left over after meeting expenses,) 38.2% from moderate income families (usually enough money left over after expenses with extra sometimes available,) 75.5% were employed with the most popular types of employment including farming (13.5%), sales (13.5%), food service (13%), child care (9%) and laborer (9%).

  Participants were asked to participate in four different activities, designed to stimulate their thought processes regarding leadership.  Individual, then group processes were employed for each activity.  Specific activities involved included developing a definition of leadership, identifying current and form leaders, identifying the characteristics, skills or personality traits of an effective leader, applying leadership principles to the camp situation, analyzing their abilities and qualifications as youth leaders and synthesizing leadership opportunities which could be performed when they return to their families, clubs and communities.

  The first activity was to define what is a leader as well as to identify five leaders and the characteristics, which make each of them leaders. The second activity had the participants identifying five characteristics, skills or personality traits of an effective leader.  Utilizing a nominal group process, each group voted and came up with a list of their top five traits.  Utilizing key words identified in the second activity, the entire group synthesized a definition of 'leadership' for the third activity.  For the fourth activity, a worksheet was distributed so each person could brainstorm ways in which to exert leadership in their families, clubs, community and at leadership camp.  The total time allowed for the workshop was one hour per group.

  Results were summarized and compared for both contemporary groups.  Campers expressed a greater understanding of leadership, leadership skills and leadership principles through participation in this workshop.  Campers were able to cite specific leadership opportunities in their lives, which could be acted upon in order to demonstrate their refined and developing leadership skills.

  Camp counselors tended to believe that leadership skills were learned by observation and following the example of effective leaders, while campers tended to believe that leadership skills were learned through active participation.  The camp counselors needed some clarification as they defined a leader by reflecting on adjectives to describe the individual.  However, the campers were able to see a leader in the eyes of how others perceived a leader.

  When comparing the definitions that both groups developed, campers thought it was important for leaders to listen to others and be a role model.  They also recognized a leader as one, which not only cares and understands oneself, but also cares about and understands others.  Conversely, camp counselors defined leadership utilizing three key words, 'communication, 'confidence,' and 'responsibility.' It is interesting to note that leadership counselors saw leadership as the ability to speak to groups with confidence and assume responsibility.

  Another interesting finding is the difference in the lists of effective leaders.  Campers tended to identify specific international, national and well-known personalities, and cited them as leaders through their active participation of helping and giving.  However, camp counselors tended to observe a broader range of people as leaders, beyond well-known international and national figures.  They also identified individuals who had made a personal impact or influence upon them, such as a teacher and former 4-H agent.  When identifying characteristics, which make them effective leaders, camp counselors focused on people involved in conflicts.  The words 'fought,' 'fight,' and 'doesn't take any bull' were all utilized.

  Both groups identified some similar key characteristics, which described leaders.  These included 'communicator' and 'responsible.'  However it was interesting to note in that the campers used some of their key words in describing their list of leaders.  As stated earlier, the camp counselors tended to identify a person whom they follow and observe and failed to actually cite the leaders based upon their key words.

  This activity may be effectively shared at subsequent camps, workshops or leadership activities as an orientation exercise, in order to acquaint participants to the needs and learning styles of their incoming campers or fellow participants.  This is a useful exercise in letting people look at how they view leaders and leadership.  Listing ways to become a more effective leader at the end of the activity creates the take home message by critiquing themselves as a leader (Culp & Kohlhagen, 2000, pp.50-59)."

  Reference:  Culp III, K. & Kohlhagen, B. (2000).  Identifying, defining, applying, analyzing  & synthesizing leadership opportunities with adolescents.  The Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(2).

  The Journal of Leadership Studies is available on loan from the OSU Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

  Leadership Discoveries is a free monthly e-mail mailing about leadership research.  If you have any colleagues who would like to receive Leadership Discoveries, please have them send an e-mail to flynn.61@osu.edu with the message, Subscribe Leadership Discoveries.

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Created: 2007-11-09, Updated: 2009-02-18