Leadership Activities for College Students

The leadership activities enable them to handle challenges and thereby make them responsible. College students can develop their inherent leadership qualities through these activities. Leaders are known for their ability to face challenges; it is therefore, necessary to arrange programs and activities which push the participants to their limits or at least test them to some extent. The activities mentioned below should enable students to take challenges, acquire new skills and bring about positive changes in their personality.

Leadership is one thing that cannot be taught. It has to be developed all by ourselves. These days, efforts to provide leadership training in order to develop leadership skills of students are made by many universities and colleges. One should however, understand that adversity is a factor that helps in the rise of leaders. Even if we take a look at profiles of great leaders, it becomes clear that they have fought through difficult and mind-boggling situations. One should therefore, pose challenges before individuals for leadership development. The activities mentioned below are few such interesting tasks used for motivating individuals and allowing them to develop their inherent leadership qualities.

Different Leadership Activities*click to enlarge image


Community Service

Role Playing

Debate

Event Planning
Role Playing
In this leadership program, participants have to play roles of different kinds of leaders. One can make use of different scenarios in order to play these roles. Participants will have to play roles of leaders who embody the personalities like self-absorbed, blamer, paternalistic, know-it-all, lecturer, etc. Participants will first have to understand the nature or behavioral traits of different types of leaders and then play their roles. The activity of role-playing creates a playful atmosphere in which different facets of leadership can be studied. For example, an act in which a leader dealing with an employee who has arrived late to office is commonly used for this activity. In this activity, different people can play roles of different types of leaders in the same scenario. Such an activity help us understand how leaders with different personality types react to a certain situation.

Event Planning
Planning an event in the college and executing it properly requires you to possess many different skills. The first thing that students would need is the courage to handle a real-time event all by themselves. Completing the activity without any or minimal hitches should be the participant's target. In the process of event planning and its execution, you learn to manage the time properly. For completing a particular task, you also need to keep in mind the budget and available resources. Leadership and management skills can be developed in the process of event planning.

Community Project Work
The 'Youth Community Service' projects help in the development of leadership qualities and also make college students aware of their social responsibility. The activity of handling different responsibilities raises the confidence of students by teaching them how to delegate the work properly. It is therefore, one of the leadership activities for college students which draws them out of their comfort zones.

Participating in Debates
A good leader is expected to possess excellent communication skills along with qualities like time management, delegating tasks, etc. Organizing debates on current issues provides food for the brain and it also requires the students to research the topic thoroughly. Presenting a topic and providing valid reasons in its support is the main job of those participating in a debate. In this activity, the ability to communicate your views and thoughts in a proper manner is highly important. Heads of companies meet people from various backgrounds. Explaining to them (clients included) the goals of a company, the way of working, etc. is very important. The activity of debate should therefore, be of great help for future leaders in developing their communication skills. Participating in debates prepares a person to understand different views on a particular topic. It requires patience to listen to the counter-arguments and respond to them. Debate is thus, an activity which helps the participant to understand a problem from different perspectives.

Choose Your Quote
For this activity, you'll have to write down few leadership quotes on a whiteboard. The participants have to choose one quote each from the list. Each of the participants have to explain what they found appealing in their respective quotes. The underlying meaning of the quote being chosen should be elaborated in detail. If two or more participants choose a single quote then they can share their different perspectives on a single thought (quote). This activity can bring to the fore some interesting and innovative ideas pertaining to leadership development.
The activities presented in this article can be of great help to students in developing the skills needed for becoming a good leader. Even if a person possesses the required qualities and attributes needed for leadership, he/she needs a medium to demonstrate them; the activities mentioned above act as a medium for the same. Participating in these activities also has a positive effect on the overall personality and not just the leadership traits of the participants.