What Sets a Values-Based Youth Leadership Curriculum Apart from a Generic Leadership Program

You walk into two different leadership classrooms and you may see similar posters on the wall, similar words in the lesson plan, similar warm-up activities to kick off the lesson. But if you look closer, you realize these are actually two very different classes in which one is teaching skills and the other is teaching students. You may not be able to tell the difference at first, but by graduation, it will be apparent.

The values-based youth leadership curriculum is built upon a different blueprint than a generic leadership program and those who lead schools who recognize these differences will make much better choices for their students. Here’s how to tell the difference.

Character as the Foundation, Not as an Add-On

Generic leadership programs tend to treat character as an add-on to a values-driven curriculum, while a values-based youth leadership curriculum flips the script and establishes all lessons, goals, and actions around the foundational pillars of character.

A leadership program that is primarily about skill development, without character building underneath it, has the potential to be a vehicle for influence and not integrity. Skills are a tool that can either build or destroy based on the operator. If students don’t have strong character in the first place, they will use these skills to advance their own benefit while putting others at risk. That’s why a values-based youth leadership curriculum makes character building the cornerstone on which all else is built so that skills development is not a replacement for character but an enhancement of it.

Peer-Led, Not Lecture-Based

Generic leadership programs are built on the easiest but most ineffective model for developing leaders. The sage on stage delivers while the students listen and then regurgitate for a quiz. It’s an easy way to “cover” leadership while actually putting very little commitment into developing actual leaders.

A values-based youth leadership curriculum flips the script, it’s peer-led with students modeling and mentoring their peers who in turn hold them accountable. This sets up an entirely different type of development for these students because it creates a multiplication mindset from the get-go. A ninth grader who has learned to influence her peers is essentially practicing for the very real leadership challenges she will face twenty years from now when she’s asked to lead a team or department.

Embedded, Not Elective

A subtle but important difference between generic and values-based youth leadership curricula is whether or not leadership education takes place during the regular school day. Generic programs usually are electives and while they are good for the self-selecting few students, they do not impact the school community. In fact, they fail the students who take the class because leadership is not part of school culture.

Values-based youth leadership curricula are embedded throughout the entire school year and designed to impact both the individual student as well as the school community as a whole. Because it’s impossible to form character in just the self-selecting few. There are always students in the building who need leadership education just as much if not more than those who opted in to the elective.

Long-Term Covenant, Not a Short-Term Spectacle

Generic leadership programs tend to take place within a short unit or a single assembly and a values-based youth leadership curriculum is designed around the long-term covenant of an entire academic year.

The reason for this is a simple one, you can’t develop character in a day.

You can have an impactful single-skill leadership retreat, but if schools want to actually develop young leaders who have lasting character it takes a long-term commitment. That’s why values-based youth leadership curricula that are designed around the long haul make so much more sense than a cool but ineffective spectacle. For example, Maxwell Leadership Foundation has developed an entire K-12 values-driven youth leadership curriculum that’s now impacting students in more than 170 countries because it makes covenants with students for their entire year of growth.

Outcomes That Compound, Not Just Impress

Most skill-based programs are focused on outcomes that perform well at graduation while values-based curricula are more about outcomes that accumulate for life.

Generic leadership programs produce results that are impressive but fleeting. The student who manages a good mock election or makes a powerful speech for their capstone project does so for a short time, but the effect is short-lived. Values-based programs focus on outcomes that compound, for example, the student who learns humility in high school will embody that humility in the workplace long after she has forgotten the speech she made in tenth grade. The student who learns servant leadership will take those lessons to every team she joins throughout her career and influence them in a way that no classroom could have prepared her for.

Programs that focus on skill are impressive performers. The programs that focus on values develop a person who will perform well under all circumstances.

When Choosing Between Generic and Values-Based Youth Leadership Curricula

If you’re looking at what kind of leadership program will best serve your students, look at the curriculum to see what philosophy is driving it. Is it character or skill oriented? Is it peer led or sage on stage? Is it embedded throughout the school year or a single unit? Is it a short-term spectacle or a long-term covenant? When you have answered these questions you’ll be able to tell the difference between a generic leadership program and a values-based youth leadership curriculum, for the two are clearly not the same. But only one will shape generations of young leaders who will live on through their leadership in the classroom.

See how iLead is impacting students in 170+ countries by visiting maxwellleadership.org and start building the ripple effect in your school.