Leadership can mean different things to different people. Leaders are in general, one who set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to achieve success. There are many underlying factors that one should remember in the process of becoming a leader or in other words we can say that few factors that one can develop or work on their skills to become a leader.

A leader should have both the skill set as well as a mission and vision about the task. It is equally important to understand for a leader, the nature of group dynamics or behaviour of individuals in a diverse population. Communication skills play an important role for a leader. A leader is the driving force of the team but not the boss. A leader needs to be a good listener as well as should be vocal enough and brave to take ahead an idea.

The Pre – IBDP session on ‘Developing leadership skills’ focused on developing the key skills, personality development of a leader, different styles of leadership and efficient style of leadership. The objective of the session was to promote leadership qualities among students who are going to be the future leaders, in every sphere of their life influencing several other people working with them and bring a change for the betterment of the community, nation and global society.

The students were given a platform to speak about their experience first- of being a leader in their life in any domain. Students shared their experience and strategies used by them when they got the chance to become a leader. It was good to know that most of them had made a magnificent effort in their role of a leader -be it as a head boy or a leader of a project in school. Students were enthusiastic to share their experiences as a leader and all of them had a potential leader hidden in them.

The geckos reflected with different styles of leadership that they have been using. They were introduced to democratic leadership style as an efficient leadership style, traits and skill set of this leadership style were taught to them and they were given a self-assessment questionnaire at the end of the session to know their leadership style and thereby develop effective leadership skills.

By: Ms Sukanya Das, DP Psychology Teacher and School counsellor