Student Expectations

What do your students expect out of your leadership program? Do you know?


Why not?

If you don’t know what your students expect, than you might be in for a few nasty surprises down the road. You might experience losses from your group or a general discontent from certain individuals if you don’t figure out their expectations.

Now, many of you are probably saying: “What does it matter what they expect, aren’t I running this program?” This is a good thought. It is our responsibility to let students know what we expect of them, and what the program is, before we even consider them as a candidate to join the team.

However, leadership is a big word, and means many different things to many different people. Find out what it means to your students up front. Find out what they expect to get out of a spot on the leadership team. By doing so, you might find some otherwise good candidates that won’t be satisfied with the program you have put together. You might also be alerted to some weak spots in your program.

In the end, it’s just good practice to find out what your students expect from you, just as you are eager for them to find out what you expect of them. It’ll save you some headache down the road.

Here’s a couple of ways you can work student expectations into your program where they will benefit you most:

1. On your application, have a spot where each student talks about their expectations.

2. Hold an informational meeting with prospective students where you can openly talk about expectations; both yours and theirs.

3. Make one of your first leadership meetings about expectations. Let them know that they need to be prepared to talk about their expectations, and that you will talk about yours.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt