Developing Student Leaders
A title is not training. Teach them how to do the job.
- What I Actually Let Student Leaders Decide
- Leadership Is a Set of Skills
- How Leaders Learn to Lead Each Other
Dr. Ryan J. Williams (DMA) is a composer, show designer, and educator: two decades in the band room, fourteen years in the U.S. Army Reserve. He has directed programs of up to 200 students and taught across the country's competitive marching circuits.
Where are your leaders getting stuck?
Tell me what you're asking them to handle, what they keep bringing back to you, and what you wish they could do without waiting for an adult.
Tell me what they haven't learned yet →Run the spring leadership handoff so incoming leaders aren't starting from zero in August.
Run the spring leadership handoff →Use this during the first two weeks so new members don't quietly fall through the cracks.
Use this during the first two weeks →Help your leaders notice who is being missed, before a student quietly decides nobody sees the work they're doing.
Help your leaders notice who is being missed →Put this on the drum-major clipboard so water breaks run themselves.
Put this on the drum-major clipboard →Plan the next student-led sectional before it turns into twenty minutes of nothing.
Plan the next student-led sectional →Put this in every section leader's binder so the week is planned before Monday's first rehearsal.
Put this in every section leader's binder →A one-page tool for defining your program's leadership responsibilities before naming a single student.
Define the job before you hand out the title →A fifteen-minute leadership meeting agenda that keeps announcements, problems, and next steps from turning into a free-for-all.
Take the 15-minute meeting agenda →End rehearsal with the next decision already made, instead of walking out still talking about what went wrong.
End rehearsal with the next decision already made →