How to Take Effective Political Action

How to Develop Leaders

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Why Shared Leadership Is Helpful:

  • As organizers, one of our primary roles is to recognize, develop, and grow leadership for the movement
  • Each leader provides different perspectives, and those unique perspectives could help to bring more success.
  • Share the workload.
  • There is capacity if other leaders need to step down or step away without affecting the team, group, campaign, or organization.
  • Ensures that nothing that needs to be done is missed or overlooked.

Leadership Development:

  • There should be a plan for leadership development
  • This plan should consist of:
    • Recruiting existing leaders
    • Identifying possible leaders, for example:
      • Someone who others already follow
      • Someone who shows up consistently and is reliable
      • Someone who understands how to work with others and across differences
      • Someone who has demonstrated leadership skills
    • Methods to develop them
    • Topics to cover
    • Assigning responsibility for:
      • Asking the person to step up
      • Providing necessary training and support
    • Timeline of the process
    • Regular evaluation process to ensure that everyone is participating and working to hold each other accountable

How to Develop New Leaders:

Method 1: Give Additional Responsibilities One at a Time

  • Ask person to take on additional responsibilities
    • Provide training
    • Provide support
  • With each responsibility added:
    • Check in
    • Find out how it is going
    • Determine when to add another responsibility
    • Ensure training and support for each new responsibility
  • Go as slowly or as quickly as the person needs
  • Useful to use this method:
    • If the person might be overwhelmed by a large number of responsibilities all at once
    • When you want to test the person before adding many responsibilities

 

Method 2: Hold a 1:1 and Ask Person Who Meets Criteria to Take on Leadership Role

  • Explain:
    • Why leadership is needed
    • Why the person is the perfect candidate
  • Provide training
  • Provide support
  • Check in as needed
  • Useful to use this method:
    • When the potential leader has experience
    • When the potential leader has skills that match the need well
    • When the potential leader has indicated a desire to take on additional responsibilities

 

Method 3: Hold a Team Meeting

  • Discuss what roles are needed for success:
    • Describe responsibilities for each role
    • Describe qualities and skills needed for each role
    • Take volunteers or have members nominate leaders
  • Provide training
  • Provide support
  • Check in when needed
  • Useful to use this method:
    • When the team is newly forming
    • When the team is transitioning from one goal to a new one
    • When the team wants or needs to reset