Qualities Of Effective Youth Leadership - United States Agency For .
Qualities of Effective Youth Leadership: Youth’s Conceptions and their Integration in Alternative Basic Education Programs A Report Produced by the USAID Advancing Youth Project
LESSONS FOR INTEGRATING LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN ALTERNATIVE BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS A Report Produced by the USAID Advancing Youth Project March 2015 EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER (EDC) This work was the product of a collaborative effort, led by Coleen Clay, Ed.D., that included the following contributors: Brenda Bell, Denise Clarke-Reeves, Dave Blaye, Laura Dillon-Binkley, Sarah Nogueira-Sanca, Rebecca Povec Pagel, Charles Wleh, Christopher Ying, and M&E staff in each of the counties in Liberia where Advancing Youth works.
Executive Summary Background. The USAID Liberia Advancing Youth Project provides increased access to quality alternative basic education (ABE) classes, social and leadership development opportunities, and livelihoods skills training for out-of-school youth, ages 15 to 35, with marginal literacy and numeracy skills. Project activities support the continued growth of economic opportunity through work-based learning and an emphasis on clubs and local alliances to support the education and livelihoods of youth. The Advancing Youth Learning Agenda focuses on research questions that have arisen during project implementation, enabling the exploration of the effectiveness and sustainability of the integrated learning, leadership and livelihoods model. Figure 1: The Integrated Learning, Leadership, and Livelihoods Model Study Approach. Through the Learning Agenda, Advancing Youth implemented a non-experimental qualitative study guided by the following research questions: 1. What are the qualities and skills Advancing Youth Project youth expect of persons who are regarded as effective leaders? 2. What project activities do participants feel are the most useful in helping them develop qualities and skills necessary to be a good leader? Findings. Interviews with a sample of youth participants revealed a unique view of effective leadership. Young people viewed effective leadership as the result of a combination of patience, kindness, and giving good advice, where each of these was prized for its ability to help a leader forge and maintain group unity. This primarily social view of effective leadership among Advancing Youth learners speaks to the contexts in which they lead: in communities where war and disease have worn thin the social contract between members, requiring a leader to re-establish that contract in order to be effective. i
Participants reported they were able to acquire or practice the characteristics they identified as most important for effective leadership through key activities in Advancing Youth’s Youth Clubs, situations in which youth worked together on a variety of projects to improve their communities, help each other, or promote their economic activities. Learners most frequently identified giving good advice and kindness (in that order) as the characteristics most developed by Youth Club activities. Figure 2: Leadership Qualities and Skills that Forge Group Unity Recommendations. Study results led to two recommendations: Invite youth to inform the values that guide leadership programming. Discussions with this study’s participants revealed their understanding of effective leadership as primarily social, essentially different from popular constructs of effective leadership, which focus on confidence, optimism and decision-making. The distance between the study findings and other views of leadership qualities has implications for youth leadership programming. It reinforces the importance for program developers to involve youth in defining the leadership qualities they value. Support integrated opportunities for learning and leadership skills development through youth-led efforts. Building strong programs for youth requires opportunities for sharing and mutual learning, social navigating and collective action. Spaces need to be created to promote cooperation and collaboration among young people so that they have opportunities to witness, learn and practice the leadership skills that they identify as most valuable. From this study, we understand that creating spaces for peer interaction, the exchange of ideas and decisionmaking on issues critical to youth’s social and personal engagement is both possible and meaningful for the participants. ii
Table of Contents Executive Summary. i Introduction . 1 Section 1. Literature Review . 2 Section 2: Overview of the Study . 4 Methodology. 4 Limitations of the Study . 7 Section 3: Findings . 7 Phase 1 Findings. 7 Patience. 7 Kindness . 8 Giving Good Advice . 8 Problem-Solving . 8 Compassion . 9 Phase One Conclusions . 9 Phase 2 Findings. 9 Peer Study (without Facilitators) . 10 Youth Club Gardening . 11 Sports Events. 11 Community service . 12 Youth Club Meetings . 13 Peer Support and Visitation . 13 Healthy Actions . 14 Phase Two Conclusions . 15 Section 4: Conclusion and Recommendations. 15 Appendix 1: 2014 Summary of Youth Views of Leadership . 17 Appendix 2: Study Protocols . 18 Phase 1 Protocol . 18 Phase 2 Protocol . 19 Appendix 3: References . 21
Introduction The USAID Liberia Advancing Youth Project (Advancing Youth), implemented by Education Development Center (EDC), provides many opportunities for youth development and engagement through a model of Alternative Basic Education (ABE) that integrate livelihoods and leadership development with academic and experiential learning (see Figure 3). To examine the ways in which youth leadership development can best be implemented in this integrated model of ABE, Advancing Youth conducted a study to explore ABE learners’ understanding of effective leadership qualities and to learn if and how participants think these qualities are developed through the project’s ABE and livelihoods skills development programs. Figure 3: The Integrated Learning, Leadership, and Livelihoods Model The Project. Young people enrolled in Alternative Basic Education through USAID Advancing Youth have the opportunity to develop leadership skills in a variety of ways. ABE courses such as Work Readiness, Life Skills, and Literacy for Work include learning activities about leadership concepts, interpersonal communication skills and teamwork. Through the project’s Youth Clubs, learners are involved in meetings, community gardens, and other activities. Further, learners may be involved in savings and enterprise groups or be trained to serve as Peer Livelihoods Training Innovators (PTIs) or Peer Health Educators (PHEs), leadership roles that involve youth mentoring or training other youth. The Study. Program designers and staff expected that through these activities, learners might develop skills—such as planning, managing, negotiating, goal-setting and tracking, and speaking to groups—by leading their peers and working with older community leaders. To learn more about the ways in which project activities contribute to the development of youth leadership skills, Advancing Youth implemented a study guided by the following research questions: 1) What are the qualities and skills Advancing Youth Project youth expect of persons who are regarded as effective leaders? 2) What Advancing Youth activities do youth participants feel are the most useful in helping them develop the qualities and skills necessary to be a good leader? The project team implemented this study with the goal of providing recommendations to the Ministry of Education and its implementing partners on how to better integrate youth leadership development into ABE programs. 1
This report describes Advancing Youth’s study of youth leadership. Section 1 is an abbreviated review of the literature on youth leadership development and its importance for youth and their communities. The second section describes the design of the study and the data collection processes for the two phases of the study. The third section presents the findings from the two phases of the study, highlighting the characteristics of leadership most valued by youth in the study and the extent to which the experiences in the program support the development of particular leadership qualities from their perspectives. In the final section, we discuss the implications of this study’s findings for literacy and leadership skills development programs in Liberia and elsewhere. Section 1. Literature Review Diverse conceptions of effective leadership exist—ranging from the extremes of effective leadership as an individual’s force to leadership as a partnership. Scholars, however, agree that, whatever the leader’s style, an effective leader is one who has “the ability to create confidence and support among those people or actors who are required to achieve the goals of an organization” (DuBrin 1995), where ‘organization’ most often refers to well-organized, member-only, goal-oriented groups such as companies or political groups. When these definitions of leadership are applied to youth leadership, one’s idea of ‘organization’ must expand, for the development of youth leadership skills and abilities is often tied to the larger context of youth participation and civic engagement, where ‘organization’ may not be highly structured or member-only. Instead, these ‘organizations’ in which youth participate or exercise their leadership skills may be loosely composed of youth’s family, friends, and communities in nonmember only groups with less rigid structures and/or organizational goals. The literature is not robust regarding the qualities and outcomes of effective leaders in this less structured organizational space, though research that suggests the importance of pro-social qualities to leadership are important here. Pro-social qualities include sensitivity to the feelings of others, social responsibility, responsiveness to and care for the needs of others, genuine interest in others, and emotional support and trustworthiness (Ford 1986). These qualities contribute to the ability of leaders to influence the behaviors of others through what is termed relational influence using “warmth or inclusive relationship as a source of influence” (Mentkowski et. al. 2000). It is this relational influence that, in this model of leadership, allows a group to achieve its goals. Yet youth participation and involvement in achieving community goals is especially difficult with youth in conflict or post-conflict areas because youth in these places often feel a strong sense of marginalization from their communities. For these youth, the greatest source of risk comes from elements within their own communities (Sommers 2006) as communities face internal struggles due to acts of self-protection, self-interest and collusion with an external enemy (Newman 2005). In such contexts with low community trust, youth are unlikely to provide leadership to achieve community goals. Despite the difficulty of youth leadership in these contexts, some researchers argue that transforming youth into leaders is the only way to effectively improve communities as youth are 2
forced into adult roles and responsibilities during times of conflict, social upheaval and other crises (Sommers 2006). If youth are actively involved in leadership activities and roles, they become encouraged to take ownership and express opinions within their communities. They begin to see themselves as assets, not only to themselves, but to the larger community as well (Youth on Board 2001). This can create a cascade effect as displayed in Figure 4: as youth become involved in their communities, their actions can change their communities. The communities can become more stable and connected as youths’ actions to address issues and problems promote collaboration among other members of the community (UNESCO 2012). This collaboration, which is facilitated by different norms and networks within the community, is called social capital. Research has suggested that higher levels of social capital within a community can help lead to better development outcomes (Woolcock 1998). Communities are not the only ones who benefit from transforming youth into leaders. The youth themselves – through leadership roles – build skills, confidence and a sense of purpose. This, in turn, makes them better leaders as these attributes are associated with effective leadership. As youth gain more of these attributes and skills, they are less likely to engage in destructive behavior such as crime or drugs (Dubrin 1995). Youth benefiting from this process also see better health and education outcomes as well as increased interest in civic service and higher career aspirations (UNESCO 2012). The positive cascade effect of youth leadership is well argued: several scholars and organizations point to the benefits of youth leadership in less formal organizational structures such as communities—and especially in communities in which there may be levels of social and political distrust—over the long term. In the short term, an emphasis on youth leadership development in the project context—where youth can develop leadership skills and assist with more immediate project outputs and operations—can serve as a microcosm for leadership in the larger community context. When youth are cast in leadership and decision-making roles in development projects, they tend to participate more regularly and can encourage others to do the same. These young leaders can also serve as key communication links as often they not only have the trust and support of their communities, but are also better communicators due to their leadership experience (USAID 2004). While participation at the project level can serve to develop leadership skills in youth that are practical for longer term community engagement, the question still remains as to what qualities construct a youth leader who is effective enough to catalyze this process. This study picks up from other research here, with a deep inquiry into the leadership skills youth in Liberia view as most important to Figure 4: The Cascade Effects of Youth effective youth leadership. Leadership 3
Section 2: Overview of the Study Methodology The Advancing Youth Project implemented a non-experimental qualitative study to learn more about the qualities that project participants deem essential to being an effective leader and to identify the project activities that support these qualities, from the perspective of participants. Prior to designing the study, during the 2014 Youth Summits,1 project staff convened small groups of youth leaders and youth who had not taken on specific leadership roles to discuss their definitions of leadership. The output of these discussions provided a conceptual framework for this study’s inquiry into the youth-defined leadership qualities that are used in this study. Please refer to Appendix 1 for the concept map that emerged from the 2014 data analysis. Sample. The Youth Leadership Study was implemented with youth at selected urban, peri-urban and rural ABE sites in two counties, Nimba and Montserrado. In each county, 8 ABE sites (four high performing and four low performing) were selected for participation based upon criteria developed by project staff. Criteria included learner activity participation rates and class attendance rates. At each of the eight sites, a total of 20 learners were evenly chosen from two main categories: Leadership Experience - learners who have served as elected leaders, Peer Health Educators, Peer Training Innovators or those who have attended the Advancing Youth Leadership summits No Leadership Experience - learners who have no prior leadership or summit experience within the project. The eight sites were selected for the diversity of perspectives that would likely be evident among the learners from these sites. A total of 320 young people enrolled in ABE participated in the study; 74% of these participants were female and 26% were male, closely representative of the gender split within the project as a whole. Table 1 lists the ABE sites by county and community and the number of male and female participants selected from each site. Table 1: Sample at Each Site No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Site Male Montserrado Kendaja 6 June L Moore 8 Careysburg 5 Kortu Town 6 Gray D. Allison 2 KRTTI 4 Soul Clinic 5 William G. Kpolleh 6 Total 42 Female Total Site 14 12 15 14 18 16 15 14 118 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 160 Borsonnor Toweh Memorial Varmie Johnny Voker D. Gborboe Sarkolay Karnplay Kpairplay Total 1 Male Nimba 3 7 2 2 0 11 5 12 42 Female Total 17 13 18 18 20 9 15 8 118 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 160 National and County-level Youth Summits create space for Alternative Basic Education (ABE) learners from across the Advancing Youth Project sites to share individual and site achievements and challenges, identify areas for improvement, discuss how they can learn from each other and get guidance on strengthening gaps where they exist. 4
Data Collection and Analysis. Data collection involved a facilitated qualitative research process with two phases. In the first phase of the study, groups of learners in the study sites were given a list of potential leadership qualities, asked to identify leadership qualities they most respect from the list, and requested to rank those qualities to identify the top five, giving their reasons for their rankings. In the second phase, learners mapped these leadership qualities to specific project activities they believed helped them develop the qualities they identified. The project’s Youth Development and Livelihood Coordinators (YDLCs) facilitated the first and second phases of data collection. The following sections describe the data collection and analysis for each phase in more detail. Phase 1 Data Collection: Identifying and Prioritizing Youth Perceptions of Leadership Qualities. A total of 16 focus group discussions were facilitated by the project’s Youth Development and Livelihoods Coordinators, using the protocol found in Appendix 2. Notes were taken by YDLCs or other project staff and later compiled by county. During the focus group, the YDLC first introduced the full list of potential leadership characteristics identified in the pre-study discussions with youth in 2014. These characteristics included qualities such as patience, kindness and flexibility and skills such as solving problems, giving good advice, communicating with others, and the ability to mobilize friends (refer to Appendix 1 for a full list). Each term was reviewed to make sure all group participants understood the meaning and use of the term. If learners did not understand, the facilitator provided an example that showed the quality or skill associated with the characteristic. Phase One Goal Then, the full group was split into smaller groups of six to seven participants. Each TO UNDERSTAND THE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES small group was facilitated by a YDLC or AND SKILLS THAT LIBERIAN YOUTH DEEM other project staff member. IMPORTANT FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP In the small groups, participants discussed and selected the five leadership qualities or skills they most valued from the full list, arriving at a consensus on the top five. In a process facilitated by the YDLCs, each group returned to the large group to present their five chosen characteristics to the other groups. Each of the groups supported its selection of the five qualities with an explanation or the rationale underpinning the selection. Following the small group presentations of their chosen five qualities, the large group selected, through consensus, a final set of five qualities or skills they believed were the most important for a good leader. The group then prioritized the qualities, ranking them from one to five with one being most important. The group also gave their reason/s or rationale for selecting and ranking the five leadership qualities or skills as they did. Responses were recorded by one of the YDLCs. Phase 1 Data Analysis: Understanding Youth Perceptions of Leadership Qualities. Collected data on youths’ definitions of preferred leadership qualities or skills was analyzed by the Advancing Youth Learning Agenda staff using interpretative analysis. To arrive at the final list of leadership qualities and skills that are most important to ABE learners in the Advancing Youth Project, staff tallied the number of times each quality was selected as being in the top five leadership qualities or skills selected across the study sites. An assumption was that the strength of the characteristic would be reflected in how often it was selected. 5
Using interpretive analysis, the statements made by group participants describing the specific behaviors and attitudes of leaders were clustered around the particular leadership quality identified. This data analysis approach provides the basis for a researcher’s interpretive reflection on the implicit meaning in the descriptive statements by participants on the most valued behaviors and attitudes of leaders. The analysis and interpretation nevertheless acknowledge that one’s conception of leadership is a culturally-bounded and locally-situated construct, so findings are applicable only to Advancing Youth beneficiaries. The statements included below in the section on findings represent a portion of the statements transcribed in the data. Phase 2 Data Collection: Mapping Youth Perceptions to Advancing Youth Project Activities In the second phase of the research, which immediately followed the identification of the top leadership characteristics in phase one, facilitators guided participants’ mapping of leadership qualities and skills to activities conducted by the Advancing Youth Project, with youth choosing seven key activities that they felt most affected their leadership development. Each of these seven activities was an activity implemented through the project’s Youth Clubs, in which all learners who join Advancing Youth ABE classes are automatically enrolled and expected to participate. The Clubs provide opportunities for youth to develop skills such as negotiation, goal-setting and management. For some, the Clubs provide leadership opportunities as members elect peers to leadership positions to help plan and facilitate club progress. Additionally, through youth club activities youth serve their communities by training other youth in livelihoods or health skills as Peer Training Innovators (PTIs) or Peer Health Educators (PHEs)2 and conducting community service activities. Each of the 16 groups who participated in Phase 1 matched the seven Youth Club activities to the quality or skill that they believed was most developed by that activity. During the discussion, the facilitator elicited comments from participants about why they thought there was a connection between the activity and the quality or skill they chose. Phase 2 Data Analysis: Understanding How Leadership Characteristics Map to Project Activities Analysis of the data from the mapping exercise proceeded in two stages. The first stage involved listing the project activities identified as most participated in by each of the 16 groups. After generating the list per group, researchers relied heavily on the transcripts to identify and align the specific top-ranked qualities and/or skills to the activity with which participants associated the quality/skill. In the second stage, researchers looked for patterns or similarities in the responses among the groups and clustered the Phase Two Goal leadership qualities and skills according to the activity in order to gain insight into how the TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE ADVANCING activity was perceived to have provided YOUTH PROJECT HELPS YOUTH DEVELOP opportunity for the development of particular THE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND SKILLS leadership characteristics. IDENTIFIED IN PHASE ONE 2 Peer Training Innovators are two learners per site selected to attend extended short-term skills training on a targeted skill relevant to the local market and to return to their sites to train their peers. Peer Health Educators are learner representatives from each site who are trained to assist in the delivery of the week-long Healthy Actions reproductive health program in partnership with PSI, culminating in a clinic day that engages communities and health service professionals to provide information and access to family planning and HIV counseling and testing. 6
Limitations of the Study There are two major limitations that may have affected the results of both phases of the study. One issue is that many learners in the study were not confident in the use of the vocabulary and concepts used to describe leadership. This presented some difficulty in the details they offered in the descriptions. Another issue is that many of the YDLCs were unable to take detailed notes during data collection, making it difficult to capture broadly and deeply the participants’ descriptions and statements. Both phases of the study could have benefited from improved data capture. Despite these limitations, however, the researchers believe the study offers insights into how learners interpret the leadership qualities they identified and the opportunities the project provides for youth to develop those qualities. Section 3: Findings Phase 1 Findings The qualities of patience, kindness and giving good advice were the top three ranked leadership qualities identified by the youth in the study (see Table 2 below). Problem-solving and compassion were the next ranked in importance. Y A narrative approach is used to report on the analysis and interpretation of the collective meaning the learners in the study gave for the five top-ranked leadership qualities. Quotes from participants are included to preserve the learners’ voices. Patience Study participants described patience as a primarily internal asset that influences one’s social behavior. Over and over again, participants explained that patient people have “cool hearts:” they are not quick to speak, and they do not respond out of anger; instead, the cool-hearted wait, overlook irritations, and control their tempers. One youth described a patient person as one who could “overlook it” when “people insult [him or her].” Youth in all study sites agreed that patience means an ability to avoid hasty and angry interactions with others. More than all other qualities, participants felt that patience was an essential characteristic of a successful leader. Table 2: Top Leadership Qu
leadership skills and assist with more immediate project outputs and operations—can serve as a microcosm for leadership in the larger community context. When youth are cast in leadership and decision-making roles in development projects, they tend to participate more effective youth leadership. Leadership
The leadership qualities in this guide are organized by the NHSI Leadership Framework's three clusters (personal qualities, setting direction and delivering the service) comprising 13 key attributes that improvement leaders can demonstrate in their everyday work (see Table 1). These leadership qualities are cross-cutting for all improvement
the Youth Coordinator getting to know a youth, developing trust, becoming familiar with the youth’s culture, and focusing on what the youth hopes to achieve during their time together. During this phase, the Youth Coordinator is able to learn what resources will best suit the youth and what level of support will help the youth succeed.
20 years of experience managing youth development, youth leadership and youth employment programs. Ruth has dedicated herself to empowering youth, providing pathways to their employment and education, and tapping into youth-led leadership potential of youth in our communities. Community outreach Curriculum development and facilitation
Leadership, Servant Leadership, Situational Leadership, Authoritarian Leadership, and Moral Leadership. Although each of these styles had some very positive characteristics, it was found that Spiritual Leadership allowed for various leadership approaches to be applied as needed and these approaches were designed
animal. Say the good qualities of the 2nd place animal over the 1st place animal. List why the 2nd place animal does not win the class. (bad qualities) Say why 2nd place animal beats 3rd place animal by stating only the good qualities of the 2nd place animal. Say the good qualities of the 3rd place animal over the 2nd place animal.
MAKING OUR YOUTH ALIVE ONE YEAR ADVENTIST YOUTH SOCIETY PROGRAM FORMAT PREPARED BY ARDEN JUNE GUILLERMO DUMPASAN . 3 ADVENTIST YOUTH SOCIETY The Adventist Youth Society is a department of the church through which the church works for and through her youth. OBJECTIVES: 1.
During the youth aspiration sessions, we clustered the youth into four categories: Category 1 - Marginalized, vulnerable youth with a distance to the labour market; typically, youth with little to no formal education, young mothers from poor backgrounds, persons living with a disability, and youth from arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL areas).
Scrum 1 Agile has become one of the big buzzwords in the software development industry. But what exactly is agile development? Put simply, agile development is a different way of executing software development teams and projects. To understand what is new, let us recap the traditional methods. In conventional software development, the product requirements are finalized before proceeding with .
