Inside Out: Leadership for Teens

For Ei ATS Scholars; students in Grades 8/9/10 in 2022-23

“…it is how we handle ourselves in our relationships that determines how well we do once we are in a given job... many people with IQs of 160 work for people with IQs of 100, if the former have poor intrapersonal intelligence and the latter have a high one.” - Daniel Goleman

High ability (IQ/ aptitude for a subject) is necessary but not sufficient for achievement. It is the capability for self-awareness, self-management and collaboration which makes the difference between potential and achievement. Unfortunately, these human-oriented skills have generally been viewed as lower priority in terms of training and education. The good news is that unlike IQ, they can be learned and improved upon.

The course looks at leadership, as first, ‘influencing oneself’ (self-management) and then ‘influencing others’ (relationship management). Like the popular movie ‘Inside Out’ shows, the first step in leadership is self-awareness - especially awareness of one’s emotions. This awareness, coupled with tools to manage these emotions, equips one to start ‘responding’ instead of reacting compulsively. As this capacity for self-management grows, one is able to start adopting a win-win mindset to build wholesome relationships and handle conflicts - be these with siblings, peers or parents.

The course aims at creating a safe and loving space for students to explore their own fears, habit patterns and self-belief issues and learn specific ‘how-to’ methods to work on themselves and their relationships. They will learn to balance consideration for others’ needs and views, with the courage to voice their own.

The course is experiential using elements of art, music, storytelling, theatre and movement. Activities such as the below will guide students on their journeys of self-development:

• awareness and management of emotions through exercises such as ‘conversation jar’, ‘feeling boards’, mirror work, free flow painting and music
• exercises based on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to counter the impulsive reactions of flight, fight and fright
• nature walks and daily meditation to ground and find stability within themselves.
• team games , to develop collaborative leadership skills
• enacting the Parent, Adult, Child Modes in Transactional Analysis and learning how to  navigate through these modes to develop conflict management skills

Start your inside-out journey towards discovering yourself, and the leader within you, by registering for this course!