The document provides tips and activities for developing leadership skills, including volunteering to help others, reading to build empathy, admitting mistakes, hanging out with other leaders, asking questions, practicing perseverance, and surrounding yourself with a great team. Some specific activity suggestions are playing handshake and greeting games to practice communication, doing a robot building activity to improve instruction-giving and listening skills, and playing charades to work on reading body language. Scoring on a leadership skills quiz can help identify areas to focus on improving.

2. A great step to becoming a leader is learning how to set
and manage goals. Goals can be big-like a goal to become a
leader!-but you should also think about how to break down
goals into smaller, manageable steps.
Not sure what a good goal might be? Try some of these activities
for inspiration:
· Make a bucket list. Do you want to travel somewhere
special? Write your own comic book? Get a B or better in
Algebra? Think about big dreams and small dreams.
· Make categories of things that are important to you, like
Friends, Family, School, or Sports. Write out ideas for goals
that connect to each of these categories.
· Make a vision board! Collect or draw pictures, words, and
shapes that represent your hopes and dreams or that
inspire you. Think about how you might turn those dreams
into goals.
· Play 3 Stars and a Wish. Write down three things you do
really well and one thing you would like to do better (“Wish”).
Your wish becomes your goal!

3. Your local library is filled with great books featuring
awesome leaders or teaching great leadership skills!
Reserve these books and more on their website!

4. How are your leadership skills?
Try out this quiz from Brilliant Star Magazine.
Circle your answer under each question.
1. I believe that having fun together is an important goal for any group.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
2. I keep an open mind and encourage people to share their opinions.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
3. I consider what’s best for the group and its goals, not just what I
want for myself.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
4. I’m courteous to the team, such as by saying please and thank you.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
5. When opinions are different, I look for things we agree about, rather
than choosing sides.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
6. I realize mistakes will happen, and I try to learn from them.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
7. I get involved in making important decisions.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
Marley Dias Marley is behind the #1000BlackGirlBooks
movement and organization. Her frustrations at always
reading books in school starring white boys led her to start a
book drive looking for books starring black girls—and she
ended up with more than 11,000 books! She continues to do-
nate books to schools around the world.
Greta Thunberg Sixteen-year-old Greta began by protesting
the Swedish parliament in an effort to get them to do more
about climate change. Her efforts led her to give passionate
speeches at the UN Climate Summit and more than a million
students around the world protesting climate change in her
name.
Emma Gonzalez After surviving a school shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School, Emma and a group of teen
activists founded Never Again MSD, protesting for an end to
gun violence and a need for better gun control laws. Her
efforts led to new gun control and school safety laws in
Florida.
Jazz Jennings When she was five, Jazz made the news as
one of the youngest publicly documented people to identify as
transgender. Jazz used her voice to advocate for LGBT+
issues, especially related to trans rights. She founded the
TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to help transgender
youth, wrote children’s books, and has a tv show to share
her experiences with the world.
Kelvin Doe At just 11 years old, Kelvin was looking for ways to
fix local technology problems in Sierra Leone, just five years
after a destructive civil war. By 13, he was powering houses
with homemade batteries, and he went on to build a radio
station entirely out of recycled parts. He inspired young peo-
ple across the country to learn about STEM topics.
Jaylen Arnold Jaylen was familiar with bullying, after being
bullied for years due to having Tourette’s Syndrome, Asper-
ger’s and OCD. He started the Jaylen Challenge Foundation,
which has educated more than 100,000 kids on bullying be-
havior and understanding differences.

5. Great communication is a key leadership skill! Try out
these activities to improve your communication.
1. Handshake and Hello: This isn’t a game as much as a great activity to
practice. Practice shaking hands and greeting people with a “Hello! How
are you?”. Think about:
- Eye Contact - Good Grip
- Speaking Clearly - Listening
This is a great skill to teach your babysitting clients too!
2. Robot Game: You need two people to sit back-to-back (no peaking!).
Give each person the same building or drawing supplies (paper/crayons,
playdough, LEGOs, blocks, etc.). One person, the “coder” creates anything
they want, instructing the other person, the “robot” on how to do the
exact same thing. When you are done, compare the finished products.
Seems simple, right? It typically isn’t--you need to really think about
the words you are using, how to give good instructions, and how to be a
good listener.
3. Charades: Communication isn’t all verbal, and playing Charades is a
great way to practice reading body language. Get a group of people for
this game-the more the better! Everyone write down people, places, or
things on small pieces of paper (things someone could act out). Put them
in a jar. Each person pulls out a slip and tries to act out the word, while
everyone else guesses. You can time the activity or play with teams to
make it more exciting!
8. When there’s a problem, I focus on finding a positive solution, rather
than complaining or blaming others.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
9. I listen carefully, and I urge my team to respect everyone’s ideas.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
10. I try to understand the feelings of each person on the team.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
11. I stay flexible and calm when people disagree with me.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
12. I give others praise for their great work and ideas.
Always = 3 Sometimes = 2 Never = 1
Scoring:
36-28 points: You’re doing a great job as a leader! Keep up the
great work helping and encouraging others.
27-20 points: You have a lot of positive leadership skills! Keep up
the good work as you learn more skills.
19-12 points: With practice, you can grow as a leader! Look at the
quiz questions for ideas to work on.

6. How do you develop leadership skills?
Try out some of these activities.
1. Volunteer! Look at everyday situations and consider how you can
help. Dawn is an expert at identifying ways to help in Stoneybrook,
and you may know someone like that too. Ask questions about why
your volunteer project is important and look for ways you can help.
2. Read! Reading helps you develop empathy, or the ability to
understand what
others are feeling (and
feel those emotions
too!). Reading puts you
in the shoes of people
who may have
different life
experiences than you.
Read outside of your
comfort zone!
3. Admit when you mess up. This is a big skill of a leader and
something I struggle with (remember that time I was super
mean to Dawn when she just wanted to be friends?). No leader is
perfect, but people respect you when you own up to what you did
wrong.
4. Hang out with other leaders. Look for ways to meet with other
leaders in your community. Look for school or community groups. Run
for your student council (you don’t have to run for President on your
first try!). Join your library’s Teen Advisory Board. Look for
community opportunities like the YWCA Bright Futures Leadership
Program.
5. Ask great questions! When you see a problem or when something
goes wrong-ask questions!
Sometimes you might not know all
the parts of a problem, but oth-
er times your questions might
lead you to a solution-like a
babysitting business!
6. Practice perseverance. Things aren’t always going to go your
way. You may lose that championship or fail that math test. But
you have to keep trying because those challenges are just going to
get harder as you get older. You can do it!
7. Surround yourself with a great team. Teamwork is vital to
being a leader! In fact, without a team, you aren’t a leader, since if
you are working alone, you aren’t actually *leading* anyone. Being
part of a team can be hard, especially when everyone doesn’t see
things your way. Talk to everyone! You aren’t the only one with
great ideas. Listen to your team!