LeadershipHandoverAustralian Young Christian Students

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Building leadership skills is an important part of YCSvision. The 2012 National Conference thought thatleadership skills were very important for YCS tofunction successfully, and created the aim that; EachDCT and local group is to establish and effectivelyimplement a handover plan, using “do before, dowith, do after” each time roles are changed. This planmust include an AA and/ or chaplain and anexperienced role bearer preferably from the group.Good leadership is so important because allows ateam to produce good work. Leadership handover istherefore crucial in order to be able to continuedoing this. The AYCS Exec have found that groupsneed support in effectively handing over leadershipand have put together this resource as a guide.

Introduction

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Do Before‘Do Before’ is the process of performing an action before everyoneelse. For example a leader of a local group running a meeting and areview of life by themselves and showing the rest of the group how itis done. This step is an important one during the leadership handoverprocess in YCS as it allows future leaders to see what the steps are tosuccessfully running a meeting, planning an event and also running asuccessful review. Without this step the leadership handover processwould lack the foundations that are required for a successfulhandover to occur.

Do With‘Do With’ is the process of performing an action with the potentialleaders in the group. For example, the current leaders planning anevent, action and or meeting with the future leaders of the group. Thisstep is probably the most important step out of the entire leadershiphandover process as without this step the students will not be able torun a meeting properly, adequately plan events and or be able to runa successful review of life. However, if this step is emphasised within agroup then the future of the group would be in good hands of thefuture leaders.

Do after‘Do After’ is the stage in the leadership handover process when thecurrent leaders step back and let the new leaders take over. However,it is important to remember that at this stage that the current leaderscannot just disappear that they to still have to play a role in thesuccess of the group by assisting the students appropriately and whenneeded.

Method

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What to look for when looking for the next leader?It is important to remember that anyone can be a leader, it is not simply who has themost to say with the loudest voice. It is your job as the current leader to make sureyou consider everyone in the group to be the next leader, as the mission of YCS is todevelop leadership qualities in everyone. When looking for YCS leaders it might bebeneficial to look for people within your group who;• Understand the See-Judge-Act• Are genuinely passionate about YCS• Are interested in developing other young leaders• Have good interpersonal skills (they are able to engage with all members of thegroup)• Are organised• Are willing to learn

Student Runness and ROLLike everything in YCS, it is important that the leadership handover occurs with‘student runness’, this means that the students are the ones managing the handoverand writing the plans. Handing over leadership is an opportunity for the currentleader to learn new skills as well. A chance to each another person the skills to run agroup is as much formation as being a role bearer in a group. To ensure thatleadership handover is effectively student run it is important to remember thefollowing;• An adult is present (Adult Assistant/Chaplain)• The students run the handover planning meetings• The adult is there only to provide assistance or ask deepening questions if the students aren’t able to explicitly plan their handover.• The students are responsible for following up each other, even if this means you call in another student to follow up on the progress of the leadership handover.

You will notice that the ‘Do Before, Do With, Do After’ method is a reflection upon the ‘See - Judge - Act’. This is why in YCS, we believe that by doing this method of handover whilst reviewing within groups and taking action, students will develop the skills that form young Christian leaders.

Scouting for Leaders

SEE JUDGE

ACT

EFFECTIVELEADER

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It is a good idea to plan how you will handover leadership. This should be done with1. Current Role Bearer2. Future Role Bearer3. Adult Assistant/Chaplain

The following template will give you spaceand guide you through leadership handoverplanning, making sure you don’t missanything when training the person for thenew position. As always, a clear and practicalplan will help you to achieve! Remember youdon’t have to follow this template, do what isbest for you, but it could help you with someideas to get started!

There is a sample template that has beenfilled out at the end, just incase you are notsure what to write in which box. Happyplanning!

Planning LeadershipHandover

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E X T S T E P S

Planning TipsDo before:When thinking about the responsibilities ofthe role, remember that what you set outhere will plan the entirety of yourhandover, so remember to be verythorough. You should think not only aboutthe final outcome, but the steps involved incarrying out that responsibility. (Viewsample for an idea).

Do With:When thinking about how to include thefuture role bearer, these are simple tasksthat you can do together. It is a learningstep, so think about how the new rolebearer will best learn how to do the task.

Planning Template

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Planning Sample

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Testimonies

Leadership is not about doing everythingyourself, the best leader knows their ownstrengths and weaknesses and then let’s otherpeople around them fill those weaknesses withtheir strengths. In other words a true leaderknows when to take the spot light and be incharge of something and when it is time to stepback and let someone else use their gifts.

- Liam

Leadership is the ability to influence others. We all have the potential to influence others thus we all havethe potential to be leaders. To be a great leader youneed to inspire others. You need to inspire the peoplearound you to make a change. It is not always up toyou to make the decisions or do the work; it’s up toyou to empower others to take on those roles. The signof a true leader is in those which he/she leads.

- Bec

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