Youth leadership

What?
The youth program in our church has been struggling for quite some time.  Aside from the instability in the youth leader position (we've had three youth leaders in the last five years), the members of the youth group do not seem to feel that the group belongs to them, teaming does not occur, and the youth consequently do not put much effort towards the group's success.  As a result, the energy required of the youth leader is enormous and he/she becomes burned out easily. 


So What?
The youth group has historically been run in an "interactive lecture" style, where many meetings are spent listening to the leader lecture with a little time at the end spent enjoying activities (biking, hiking, playing games, etc.).  This approach follows the transactional leadership model as defined by Jackson and Parry (2008), where the "leader offers rewards in return for compliance and performance".   The implied transaction is if the members of the group attend and listen to the lecture part, the reward will be the activity part of the meeting.  This approach sends the message that the youth will be doing whatever the lesson plan calls for, with little room for their own plans or initiative.

However, as Jackson and Parry (2008) state, "the most effective leaders are successful at enacting the transformation and the transaction".

By employing transformational leadership, the youth leader should be able to bring about "a transformation in the attitudes and motivations, and consequently behaviors, of followers" (Jackson and Parry, 2008).  The youth leader can exercise the four transformational leadership factors to get there: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Northouse 2010).

Now What?
I plan to meet with the youth group leader and discuss ways in which the youth group might be simultaneously run with transformational and transactional leadership.  In particular, I plan to ask the youth leader the following questions related to the four transformational leadership factors:

1. Idealized influence - is the vision and mission of the group understood by all its members?  Do the members of the group respect and trust one another?
2. Inspirational motivation - are your expectations of the youth communicated to them, and are you expectations high enough to elicit inspiration?
3. Intellectual stimulation - are you allowing the youth to be creative and innovative in this group?  Are they allowed to challenge all beliefs and viewpoints?
4. Individualized consideration - are you able to care for each individual in the group, ensuring they get what they need on a case-by-case basis?

If any of the above answers are "no", I plan to work with the youth group leader until he can answer them in the affirmative.  By adding transformational leadership to the existing transactional leadership, I hope that the youth group can experience "performance that goes well beyond what is expected" (Northouse 2010).


Image courtesy of juliaf