Leadership is an important skill we try to teach our girls. After a week where our new Year 7 leaders were commissioned and our Years 6 – 12 leaders attended the Combined Leaders Forum, we caught up with some of our leaders and asked them ‘What is Leadership’.

Leadership Skills For the Future

Leadership skills that are important today, may not be as important in the future, and the best leaders are those open to growth and change.

This week, student leaders from Years 6 – 12 came together for a leadership forum that explored the topic of vital leadership skills necessary for the future. Students were encouraged to examine further leadership skills with fruitful conversation, problem-solving tasks and an inspiring presentation by the IWD Keynote Speaker who asked to spend more time with our student leaders.

Many so-called ‘soft skills’ are in fact essential skills for leadership. The afternoon commenced with a very engaging talk from Fadzi Whande on the topic of ‘Future Skills necessary for Women in Leadership’. Fadzi who is a strong advocate for women, spoke about authenticity, the importance of our decisions being guided by a strong value system and the value of respectful relationships to build community.  She reiterated with many examples the value of these four pillars for great leadership. Following Fadzi’s talk, students participated in a process-driven afternoon planned by the Deans of the College.  A Global Café experience invited lively conversation about  16 pertinent topics impacting student life at SMC. These topics had been formulated and refined by the Student Leadership Council. The girls were invited to contribute to three 10 minute conversations using future skills as their tools for a solution. During these conversations, students assigned future skills necessary to address the particular issue and shared the strategies that could be pursued for a favourable outcome.

Students then participated in a Gallery Walk to decide upon the top seven topics for future action.  From these discussions, each Year group has now chosen three topics they would like to pursue to a proposal level for action. The Student Executive leaders will assign projects for each SRC leadership team.  Students will await their decision ready for action. Year 12 leader Stephanie Tory said, “One thing I will incorporate into my own leadership style is to be passionate and authentic. I learnt these two skills from our guest speaker who reminded us to be unapologetically us. She also reminded us to do what we are passionate about as this will bring us success, happiness and joy.”