Portfolio Builder

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” Harvey S. Firestone

Goals:

• Demonstrate that you have a solid understanding of the definition of leadership.
• Identify the basic styles of leadership and their application in situations.
• Identify common characteristics of leaders.
• Identify your personal leadership style and qualities and demonstrate your understanding of how they affect the way you lead others.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph for each to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Explain the 3 styles of leadership.
2. Identify 5 traits of leaders.
3. Identify 2 situational leadership behaviors.
4. Provide your personal definition of leadership.
5. List and examine your leadership qualities.
6. Explain when to use situational leadership behaviors.
7. Complete the T-P Leadership Questionnaire to include with your portfolio.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”  The cat replied, “That depends a good deal on where you want to go.”  Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Goals

• Demonstrate to your adviser that you can successfully identify and use goal-setting practices.
• Identify the common characteristics of good goals.
• Explain the importance of setting goals and the basic steps used to set goals.
• Utilize goal-setting techniques to successfully write goals.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Identify 5 reasons to set goals and 5 reasons why people don’t set goals.
2. Identify the parts of SMART goals.
3. Use the NASC 4-Step process to write a group goal.
4. Create one short- and one long-term goal to include in your portfolio using the Goal Setting Worksheet.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Henry Ford

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully identify the characteristics of effective teams and team leaders.
• Develop an understanding of the benefits of utilizing a team approach in student council activities.
• Recognize and understand the 4 conditions that support effective teams.
• Successfully lead a team-building activity.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Explain the attributes that separate a team from a group.
2. Identify 10 characteristics each of effective team members and team leaders.
3. Identify 5 signs that a student council is in need of effective team building.
4. Select and lead a team-building exercise.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Goals

• Demonstrate your ability to identify the steps to making decisions.
• Identify and demonstrate 4 ways that groups make decisions.
• Identify 5 steps to making solid decisions.
• Identify and employ ethical decision-making practices.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Explain how decisions are made using each of the 4 decision-making methods.
2. Identify a decision that would be best made using each decision-making method.
3. Name and explain 5 points to incorporate during the decision-making process.
4. Explain the importance of ethical decision making and how to evaluate whether or not a decision is ethical.
5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using a consensus approach to making decisions.
6. Facilitate a group to meet consensus on a decision.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Leaders are problem solvers by talent and temperament, and by choice.”  Harland Cleveland

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully identify the 7 steps to solving problems.
• Identify and demonstrate proper techniques for effective brainstorming.
• Recognize barriers to creative problem solving.
• Explain how decision making and problem solving are used together by groups.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Identify and explain the purpose for each of the 7 steps to problem solving.
2. Select 3 barriers that can block creative problem solving and explain how a leader can resolve each one with a win-win solution.
3. Summarize the basic techniques of brainstorming.
4. Lead a committee or group in a problem-solving activity using the 7 steps.
   Problem Solving Worksheet 1 >>
   Problem Solving Worksheet 2 >>

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.”  Virginia Burden

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully identify and explain the 5 stages of group development.
• Identify the basic needs of group members.
• Identify the basic group roles fulfilled by its members.
• Define “group think” and explain how to recognize it.
• Identify “self-oriented” roles of group members that can jeopardize group cooperation.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Identify what happens to a group in each stage of the team-building process.
2. Explain the roles of group members in the “task” category.
3. Explain the roles of group members in the “maintenance” category.
4. List 4 actions to maintain cooperation within a group.
5. Describe 9 self-oriented roles that weaken group development and select 3 to suggest strategies that a leader can use to bring about a positive change in cooperation.
6. Select and lead a council group or committee through a group cooperation activity.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Watches are so named as a reminder – if you don’t watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you.”  Drew Sirtors

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully identify and explain 3 strategies for effective time management.
• Identify strategies and create a plan to better organize yourself.
• Identify signs of stress and how to manage it.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Identify 6 strategies to better manage your time. Tell which strategy works best for you and why.
2. Identify 10 strategies to improve personal organization.
3. Identify the general signs of stress.
4. Explain 5 strategies that can be used to deal with stress.
5. Using the 10 strategies to improve personal organization, create a plan that incorporates at least 3 strategies. Use the plan for at least 2 weeks, then evaluate whether or not your plan helped. Summarize your observations and suggest what you need to do to improve your plan.
6. Create a personal calendar with a daily “To Do” list covering two weeks. Explain how you used the calendar and evaluate to what extent it helped you organize your time.
7. Complete a Stress Test inventory. Summarize your reaction to the results and explain what you do to reduce your own stress.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” Stephen Covey

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully identify 7 principles for meetings.
• Identify and create a complete meeting agenda.
• Demonstrate a working knowledge of basic parliamentary procedure.
• Demonstrate proficiency in scheduling, planning, and chairing a council or committee meeting.
• Demonstrate the ability to record accurate minutes for a meeting.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Explain 7 basic principles for meetings and identify 5 characteristics of good meetings.
2. Identify 10 strategies used to facilitate a meeting. Select 5 and explain how each one is important to use during meetings.
3. Identify and explain key actions that meeting organizers should always do.
4. Identify the differences between main, subsidiary, and incidental motions, and explain how each is correctly handled.
5. Demonstrate the ability to create and use a proper meeting agenda. Report on its effectiveness during the meeting, any problems that developed from its use and how they were resolved, or any problems avoided by using your agenda.
6. Diagram tracking a motion from beginning to end, and explain council options in dealing with the motion.
7. Demonstrate use of parliamentary procedure and correct terminology in meetings. Include a copy of the meeting minutes showing your participation.
8. Plan, organize, and run a committee or council meeting. Summarize the experience.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio  >>

“Good communication does not mean that you have to speak in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn’t about slickness. Simple and clear go a long way.” John Kotter

Goals

• Satisfy your adviser that you can successfully identify the 4 common elements of communication and explain each one.
• Identify influences that affect communication.
• Identify and demonstrate 10 guidelines to be an effective speaker.
• Identify 10 rules to be an effective listener.
• Identify conditions that disrupt or block effective communications.
• Demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate in print, electronic, and verbal forms.
• Satisfy your adviser that you understand and can demonstrate proper stage and podium etiquette.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. List the 4 common elements of communication, and explain the role of each.
2. List the 8 common influences on communication. Pick 5 to explain how they affect the way we communicate.
3. Explain 5 ways that students can become better listeners.
4. Identify 10 conditions blocking effective communications. Define 5 and suggest strategies to address them.
5. Compose a letter or memo or submit a sample you created for use in your current or past council role to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively in print.
6. Submit a printout of an email or short PowerPoint presentation you created for use in your current or past council role to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively in electronic form.
7. Demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate orally.
8. Demonstrate your ability to speak using proper stage and podium etiquette and based on the Adviser Checklist items on the activity sign-off form.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.” George Bernard Shaw

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can successfully explain the general purpose of evaluation and identify 5 reasons why student councils should evaluate.
• Identify 10 simple methods that can be used to carry out evaluations.
• Identify 5 common characteristics of a good evaluation instrument.
• Successfully select and perform project and personal evaluations, and report findings.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Provide an explanation of why it is important to evaluate people, groups, governing rules, and activities as noted on the worksheet.
2. Identify 10 evaluation methods or instruments and provide an example of how to apply each appropriately.
3. Name 5 characteristics of good evaluation instruments.
4. Identify the best evaluation method for each example given on the worksheet.
5. Using the 7 tips for planning evaluations, plan, perform, and report the results.
6. Complete the Individual Leader Evaluation Form. Summarize the results.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It’s important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It’s the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.” Dorothy I. Height

Goals

• Demonstrate that you can understand and can explain the importance of service as a key role of student leaders and the basic types of service projects typically performed by students.
• Identify school and community resources that can assist student council to identify school and community needs.
• Identify the difference between service and service learning and the 4 main parts of service learning.
• Identify and apply the 12 W’s of project planning to the planning and implementation of a service project.
• Lead a student council committee or group to plan and carry out a service project that will benefit the school or community.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this optional worksheet to take notes:

1. Explain the role of service as it pertains to student leaders.
2. Explain Direct and Indirect Identify strengths or weaknesses of each. Explain which type of service you feel is better for students to participate in and why.
3. Explain the difference between service and service learning. Identify 4 key elements of service learning and explain what occurs during each.
4. Research and create a list of 5 resources at the school and 5 in the community to contact or utilize in support of student council service projects. Summarize how each one could be used or what information it could provide.
5. Provide evidence of active participation in 2 service projects within the last 2 years.
6. Use the 12 W’s of project planning to plan and carry out a community service project. Follow the outline on the worksheet.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

“Young people say, ‘What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment.” Dorothy Day

Goals

• To understand what it means for students to have a voice in school and community issues.
• To understand what civic engagement means.
• Identify student council functions and activities that are civic-based.
• Understand how the “system works” in order to have input or to effect change.
• Identify community and online civic resources and define how they can be used in planning a civic-based activity.
• Assume the lead on a civic-based activity designed to engage members of the student body.

For your portfolio, read the following items and prepare no more than one paragraph to address the following. As you read, you may wish to use this worksheet to take notes:

1. Identify 2 types of school issues and 2 types of community issues for which students should have input and explain why.
2. Explain what it means to be civically engaged and why it is important for students to be involved in civic-based activities.
3. Identify 4 goals of civic engagement.
4. Explain 3 types of civic engagement and activities that illustrate each one.
5. Explain a process that could be used to make an improvement or effect a change in your school.
6. Create a list of 3 community resources and 3 websites that support civic engagement. Explain how the student council can utilize each.
7. Organize and lead a committee or the student council in a civic-based activity that engages members of the student body. Explain the activity and identify it. Keep a journal of the activity and prepare a short report of the outcomes.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

Goals

• Articulate your personal philosophy about leadership.
• Identify your traits and characteristics that have served you as a leader and explain how you used them.
• Identify and explore how both successes and failures have affected your development and growth as a leader.

Complete the following and add them to your portfolio:

1. Create a list of your leadership traits and identify the style of leadership you most often use.
2. Write an essay of 750 to 1,000 words to discuss your personal philosophy about leadership. In your essay, cite examples of applying your leadership traits, skills, and characteristics and what you have learned about yourself (as a leader) as you have worked through the process to become a National Student Council Distinguished Student Leader.
3. Upload your essay to be submitted with your online application.

Get your adviser to sign off on your completion of these and include this sheet in your portfolio >>

• The DSL application is accessible to students with adviser-verified student accounts.
• Students will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address for the adviser. The adviser will receive an e-mail with a unique link to provide validation.
• Once the applicant completes all sections of the application and the adviser completes the validation, the applicant must log back into the application portal to submit.