Want to venture into Youth Leadership? Here's how you start!

First of all, who is a youth leader? Youth leadership is the practice of teens exercising authority over themselves or others through civic engagements, education reform and organizing community activities.
Personally, I think a youth leader should be someone who is not afraid to bring about change where needed and being able to make decisions that brings positive results to people they govern and any other person.
Some characteristics I think a good youth leader should have is;
- humility
- Willingness to serve others
- Confident
- Smart and knowledgeable
- Willingness to actively listen to others
- Being able to adapt to changes
- Disciplined
- Conflict resolution skills
How do you become a youth leader?
Some people might agree or disagree with me on this but I think becoming a youth leader is a “calling” as in not everyone can be a successful leader in terms of leading a team to achieve success.
The reason being that, one may possess all these qualities or characteristics of a good leader but may be poor at utilizing them. You may be confident, smart and knowledgeable but may not know when to say and not say something and how to say them at any given opportunity.
You should know that as a leader, a lot of people will look up to you and whatever you say might have a positive or negative effect on them so knowing what to say, when to say and how to say something is also an additional benefit of leading a team to success.
Again, as you work with others, all your senses and temperament will be tested. Not everyone will obey your instructions or work according to your instructions and there are some who will deliberately get on your last nerve to the point where you feel like quitting or letting go.
So if it is not your calling, you may be humble, able to resolve conflict, willing to serve and all that but you may lose hope and give up because it was something you think you can do but not because you had that passion and desire to see it through.
Where do you start from?
First of all before you embark on this journey, you need to have the passion and desire to help others and to serve a purpose and this is the meaning of the calling I spoke of earlier.
If your goal or desire or passion is to help others and rewrite all the wrongs, nothing will deter you from giving up on this dream because whatever may be happening or you’re going through is not the end goal. It is the bumps that leads to the smooth path.
You also need to équipe yourself with both intellectual knowledge and practical knowledge.
Don’t just wake up one day and say you have what it takes to be a leader so you want to venture into it. You can read and research about the different aspects of youth leader and find out which one best fits your personality.
You can also volunteer to assist another youth leader on a project, learn how they managed their team, take out the good experiences and learn from the bad ones.
Naturally, you can also ask friends or colleagues from class where you have worked on group projects with and ask them to give reviews or feedbacks anonymously so that they are able to speak freely. This will also help you understand yourself better.
Here is a link to some good leadership novels to help you start your journey.
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