I was a KAIROS leader (its a religious retreat) for my senior class. Chosen as a junior, me and 10 other girls ventured out to put on an eye-opening retreat for 80 reluctant second-semester seniors-- and you all know the mentality of a second-semester senior. Anyway we used the Relational Leadership Model to structure our meetings and it worked really well for a few reasons.
1). We all had a common goal
2). All members of the team were actively engaged in preparing activities.
3). We were all very aware of our working strategies, which helped the other members tailor tasks to those specific work ethics (if that makes any sense).
4). We were so supportive of each other. We put in extra hours until every speech was just right!
5). The most important aspect was that we all respected each other unconditionally. We accepted criticism and understood that it was coming from a place of love--as cheesy as that sounds.
I believe this image clearly reflects social change. The ripple effect takes charge when starting with the individual's ideas. Then it grows larger and spreads farther when taking into account the group values. Then it extends to its limits with the social and community values.
Cool that you were a Kairos leader. I led a group of people on a retreat crew for a Search retreat, which is similar, at my high school.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely important to be support each other, and to respect one another unconditionally. In fact, I'd argue that those two things are two of the most important pieces of leadership. When we're coming from a place of love and support versus a place of command/structure, things tend to work out better, that's for sure!
Wow I was a Kairos student leader too! What a wonderful experience that was, something I'm sure you will never forget. I liked what you said about the relational leadership model especially in that position, where you are augmenting or encouraging someone's religious beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that Kairos has it's feet in the the Leadership Challenge as well, especially since you talked about having a common goal. We should swap stories!