Volunteering events involve many participants, due this there is a need for a leader. Somebody to lead the activities, support the newcomers and help everybody to do quality work which reaches the objectives. We may lead ourselves or others as well, but in every situation we have to adapt to the circumstances (new tasks, situations, areas, etc.). The situational leadership is a good framework to support this adaptation and to help us to find the best way to guide different participants.

Step-by-step IMPLEMENTATION

Memorable leaders (15-20 mins) Ask participants to sit in a circle in a calm position. 10’ Role models“To understand effective leadership/coaching, it is worth recalling our experiences when we were the coaches, also known as subordinates. Let's go on a short journey through time and recall our memories of our leaders from childhood to now. For this exercise, it is worth bearing in mind that leadership is not just a position. There are also many peer relationships in which leadership and leadership roles develop. Now you may close your eyes and remember back

A memorable senior from my school years,

A memorable leader from the family,

A memorable leader in some sport or other course, recreational activity,

A memorable leader from my film or book experience,

A memorable leader from my workplace,

A memorable leader from any other area (e.g. a workcamp).

Choose two of your most memorable leaders and list their positive and negative qualities on a paper. Give 10 minutes for this exercise. 10’ Sharing When you see that the majority of the participants are ready, ask them to share a couple of examples about the qualities they remembered. Try to collect the main / most important qualities for a good leader by the team. 💻Virtual version: In an online event ask participants to take papers and pens and write down their memories and qualities, which should be shared in pairs in breakout rooms. Finally in a big circle ask them to share the best examples they heard from each other.

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Leadership tasks in a camp (20-30 mins) Create groups with max. 6 participants randomly. “Imagine a situation that now we are a new workcamp participants just arrived to the destination, where we will work with local children in the upcoming 2 weeks (or any other topic and details about a possible workcamp). A new person is coming to join our team as a team leader. Give for each team a flipchart paper prepared with a human shape and ask them to fill up this skeleton by

What qualities, skills and values would you like him/her to have?

What would you like him/her to take care of during the camp? What should be his/her main tasks?

Give a name and draw and label features that bring out their tasks, skills, qualities and values in the upcoming 10 minutes. When the teams are ready, ask them to present their artwork in a big group. Try to collect the most important tasks and skills they mention regarding a workcamp leader. 💻Virtual version: Prepare the human shape in a virtual whiteboard and create small groups in breakout rooms where they can add the labels as post-its.

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Situational leadership (90 mins) 20’ Debrief the theory: Situational leadership is one of the most important management techniques of the 20th century. It is based on the idea that leadership should be adapted to the developmental/maturity level of the employee (mentee).

A workcamp participant can have four levels of maturity/development in the performance of tasks: from a complete beginner to a fully developed volunteer who is perfectly capable of performing his/her tasks. The classification of maturity levels is based on a matrix of skills and motivation, which can be divided into four options as follows:

D3: The volunteer is largely prepared. This means that he/she has the knowledge to perform the task, but for some reason is not motivated to do it.

D2: The volunteer is partially prepared. This means that s/he has some knowledge to perform the task and is motivated to do it, but does not yet have sufficient experience.

D4: The volunteer is fully prepared. This means that he/she has the knowledge to perform the task and is motivated to do it.

D1: The volunteer is unprepared, i.e. lacks the knowledge to perform the task, but is mostly enthusiastic about performing it.

Less prepared volunteers require more or different care than those who have the necessary knowledge, and the same is true for the level of motivation. Accordingly, a workcamp leader needs to choose an attitude and style that matches the volunteer's level of preparedness. Thus his attitude can be:

Directive, i.e. the leader communicates mainly in one way, telling in detail what needs to be done, how, when, where, to whom, with whom, etc. Sets objectives, sets deadlines, directs directly and controls.

Supportive, when the leader is a two-way communicator, listens, helps, gives moral support, discusses, facilitates working relationships, gives feedback.

The proportion of these two behaviors is mixed across the four leadership styles, according to the four levels of preparation: Development / support methods:

Directive leadership (for volunteers at level D1): low support, high direction. Leader assigns tasks and tells who to do what, where and when. Strong leadership, teaching behaviour, clear instructions and strict control. Useful e.g. for new volunteers, as they are usually enthusiastic and energetic and therefore do not need too much support, but it should be clear and specific.

Coaching leadership (for students at level D2): high support, high guidance. The leader explains his/her decisions and discusses them with the volunteers. The mentor is both directive and supportive, builds on motivation. The mentor tries to inspire confidence in the students, but does not relinquish responsibility for decisions and control. This style is most suited to beginners and inexperienced learners.

Supportive leadership (for students at level D3): high support, low control. The leader and the volunteers develop ideas together, the leader involves them in preparing the decision. The most important task of the leader is to prepare and motivate the volunteers to succeed in the task. It is appropriate to use it when volunteers are already confident in solving the tasks but lack the motivation that can be achieved through an engaging style.

Delegating (for students at level D4): low support, low management. Leaders show minimal guidance and minimal support. Provides greater autonomy in implementation along with task definition. Strengthens volunteers autonomy, independence - self-confidence. Can be used with experienced, responsible - competent - volunteers.

The model is based on the diagnostic ability of the leader, the importance of which cannot be overemphasized. A successful leader must have the sensitivity to understand and assess differences. Moreover, volunteers should not be "pigeonholed", they may have different levels of maturity for certain tasks/skills. The leader must be able to perceive and understand the signs that are found and be able to adapt his/her management style to these maturity needs. He/she should have sufficient personal flexibility to adapt his/her own behavior to the situation. Tips: Try to be interactive, give people the opportunity to ask questions and make sure the model is understandable to everyone. Use examples to make the model come alive.

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Applying leadership styles (50-70 mins) 20’ “The theory of situational leadership is simple, but putting the practices into practice is more difficult. Think of some occasions when you have used different leadership styles. What are your strengths and skills that you can build on when applying different leadership styles? What are the areas of each style that challenge you? Reflect on your experiences and record them!” You may create a matrix on a one pager document with the four leadership styles :

(S1) Directing: strong task assignment

(S2) Coaching: strong delegation and strong support

(S3) Supporting: strong support

(S4) Delegating: minimal delegation and minimal support

Give participants 5 mins to think individually then facilitate group sharing. Ask “What leadership practices were effective / unless in these situations?”

30-50’ Case studies / situations First ask the participants to collect in post-it such situations when they have an issue or difficult situation with their camp leader or with a participant as a camp leader. Ask them to write each situation on a different post-it and collect them. After collecting, read them all out loud and put them on a flipchart, try to sort them. As a next step give each participant 3 votes to mark those situations they would like to work with. This can be made with a pencil simply by putting a dot there, or if you have small stickers you can give 3 of them to everybody. Identify the main topics and facilitate a discussion around them. Try to ask for more clarification if the “owner” is happy to share it, but do not push it. Try to have questions what everybody have to answer e.g. “What would you do as a camp leader in such a situation?” and even round what is more of a brainstorming. You may collect the best actions on a flipchart or ask a participant to take notes there. 💻Virtual version: In an online event try to be as interactive as possible during the theory part, ask questions, examples, try to involve the participants. You may debrief the theory and create 4 groups in breakout rooms and ask each group to discuss in more detail one-one styles and collect examples for them. For the case studies you can collect the examples on the chat or on the digital whiteboard.

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Paper Plane folding - group exercise (60 min) The aim of the exercise is to illustrate situational leadership and to give the participants a feel for the characteristics of the different styles in their own situation. The exercise aims to show how to distinguish between different situations and what a leader does and does not do in them. 10’ Round I - The aim of the first round is to give everyone a chance to fold a paper plane and get it flying and to establish a ranking of the participants according to the distance they have flown. "The exercise will look at how a leader can help improve performance. First, let's see how everyone is doing with the skill of paper plane folding. So, for the next 5 minutes, everyone should make a plane out of A4 paper that lands as far away from the dropping point as possible. The only rule is that the plane must resemble a paper plane, not a paper galaxy for example." When the planes have been made, the participants drop their planes one by one from the starting point you have given them. Since throwing technique can be important, a trial round is followed by a live competition. Make sure to mark their landing spot with a post-it. You can write the name of the participant on the post-it, so you will definitely not confuse them later. Round II - The aim of the second round is for the most skilful folders to use the situational leadership theory to get the biggest possible performance increase over the others. 5’ Assigning roles Each participant stands at the place where his/her plane lands. The most skilful flyer will be the leader of the group. The others are divided into three groups based on their results. The primary criterion for grouping is that participants with approximately the same results are in the same group, similar numbers are secondary. 20’ Development The leader works with the three groups one by one for 5 - 5 minutes. S/he works from the weakest group to the best. S/he chooses the method of leadership he wants. But if it is not clear to him, he can suggest: weakest - direct control, middle group - coaching, best - supportive leadership). At the end of the exercise, everyone makes a new airplane (possibly one that was already made during development) and throws it away. It is worth leaving the post-its on the floor so that you can now measure progress accurately. 20’ Reflection In the discussion try to focus on the leadership support participants received “Specifically what did the leader do in each role? What worked in each of these roles? What did the participants do in each role? What could be done better?” Tips: Provide a flight path where objects do not affect the result, there is a clear fold point and it is easy to indicate which aircraft has landed where. Protect the leader from negative feedback. 💻Virtual version: In an online event the activity could be a digital drawing e.g. draw on a jamboard a picture about yourself. Assign each participant a separate page, where on the left side they can make their first picture, on the right side the second one with the guidance of the leader. To select a leader, ask the team to vote for the best drawing by taking a smile on the page, what they think the best is. During the situation ask the leader to share her/his desktop so everybody can see what he is seeing, meanwhile participants can work on their dedicated jamboard.

REVIEW & DEBRIEFING

At the end open up the space for a feedback session and ask participants what they have learnt about leading in a camp, what they would do differently from now on or even what kind of challenges they still see. Try to reinforce the need for adaptability and to understand the workcamp participants' maturity level and their needs for support to reach the common goals.

TARGET GROUP size & specifics

10-30 participants workcamp participants, leaders

DURATION

min. 90 minutes

TO DO List

& Deadlines

In case of a live session prepare a big room without obstacles for the paper plane game. In the case of online, prepare a jamboard for every participant.

You may check the previous knowledge and experience of participant with a short survey or training history.

Familiarize yourself with the theories or any other knowledge what you would like to bring in to the session.

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