What no one will tell you about leadership!

At the YMCA we have identified 3 complementary characteristics to be a good leader:

• Ability to understand how people and projects align with the Mission.

  • Define strategies and engage teams to leverage and improve strategies, goals and practices.

• Guide people to do their best, seek to create moments that inspire the team. They constantly work to share the Vision, and lead teams to share and take on failures and successes and treat everyone as a leader or a future leader.

• They live future oriented, achievements are not goals for a STEM leader. They are avid learners about physical, emotional and mental well-being, seek out best practices and network with others to create opportunities.

Some of these skills are easily found in young people. But the reality is that they take time to learn, which, for a leader is a motivator. Any Leader is committed to be the best and to improve on a continuum.

YMCA Recommendations for a STEM Leader

1. To be a Leader is to empower, that is, to give the platform and tools that the other needs (no matter what they are, conditioned to the starting point), so that you feel useful, confident and able to believe in the possibilities, develop confidence to lead and believe, that you will make a difference, and through this, become an agent of change in the world. The Leader who empowers, not assigns power, leads to success.

2. Share Success, a Leader perceives himself as a piece of the puzzle, along the way supports the team and makes sure the goals are clear and takes regular checkpoints to see how the work is going and whenever he identifies problems he seeks to multiply the ability to solve them.

3. Build a culture of communication, transparency and optimism. People work best when they feel confident and trust the leadership. Resources are scarce, so it is necessary that everyone gives their best, and every day at work feels that they are contributing in the long term as well as the immediate. This can only be achieved by communicating clearly, unequivocally and truthfully always with the empathic mode on. Ultimately no one knows everything and so having a transparent approach is crucial to honest and respectful communication. Often that means letting other people speak so they have time to listen."

Ways to improve the ability to learn to lead

3 YMCA steps to better Leadership

1. multi-experiment!

Try to experiment in various areas within and outside of what you want for your career. Exposing yourself to different experiences helps shape your thinking and helps you understand how you can integrate and involve people in your project.

2. Find mentors.

Who better to help you become a STEM leader than a STEM Leader

Different leaders, different inspirations. "Mentors have experienced failures as well as successes, everything is transitory and a mentor will help you see that, and how one situation enhances another. A Mentor will see something in you that sometimes you don't realize.

3. Choose paths that lead you to bump into companies and people that resemble your Vision and Mission. Build a network of contacts, talk individually about this and that, ask for guidance on a topic, by doing so you give importance to the person you are turning to and you are creating a bond that can later connect you to other opportunities and knowledge.

Just start leading

The opportunities to lead are right in front of your eyes.

There are companies looking for leaders, others looking for bosses, which one do you want to go to? Develop yourself, study, read, and don't stop.

Being a STEM leader means consistently challenging yourself in constantly evolving areas.

But first it all starts with a solid background in science and technology, but to become a successful leader in this field you need experience, mentoring, and training - all of which you can find at the YMCA.

The YMCA has for you opportunities for experience at NASA Space Camp and other transnational opportunities like the Model United Nations Leadership Program.