7 lessons learned about personal development from the perspective of a student volunteer.

This article has been guest authored by Matthew Barnsley, Founder of outdoor education company, Polaris Outdoor, and Liv, a student who attended a number of expeditions with the Polaris team in different regions around the world.

As a teacher, I attended many leadership and CPD training activities. Before long, I saw myself on the teacher training program as an instructor myself, mentoring new teachers as they began their work in schools across London.

Then comes the day when your senior manager asks you to deliver your first CPD session and you feel like you have to come up with something that no one has ever done before, something so edgy, practical, and new that it will blow everyone’s socks off! Then you realise that the majority of teacher training has already been done before in one way or another. Sure the technology changes, but understanding learners and how to help them to succeed is still essentially the same as it has always been; some of the tools have changed but our brains are pretty much the same as they have been for thousands of years. So, what happens next?

You can try to put a spin on something, or you could turn to thousands of years of rich history to find the very best teachers and see what they have done. Enter Aristotle.

 “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”

Wisdom. I would like to turn the rest of this article over to a brilliant Student Liv. Liv has been on numerous expeditions around the world with us, has done work experience and is currently on an internship at Polaris Outdoor. Participating in the ‘Young Leaders’ program has helped Liv develop skills in safety, communication, logistics and organisation, outdoor skills and much more.

Here is some brilliant wisdom that Liv has learned from her experiences with us:

1. Don’t be overly commanding - if you are overbearing the students will just want to ignore what you are saying. One if the first tips I would give to a student leader is to not be overly commanding, this can cause the students to deliberately ignore you. For example when I was at school we had a teacher who was overly strict and because of this as we got older everyone decided to stop doing what she told them too which obviously made her life as a teacher much harder.

2. Don’t be too lenient - if you are too lenient students may take advantage of you. Leadership is about balance and consistency. If you are too soft the students will use that to their advantage knowing there may not be consequences for doing bad things. Years ago when I was on an expedition, a teacher had been too lenient to some badly behaved students and it ended up with one of them injured because the teacher didn’t set boundaries and use discipline. 

3. Willing to negotiate - if a student is refusing to do something, sometimes you may want to negotiate with them to get them to achieve positive personal results. Something else to remember is that all students are different and techniques that work for some might not work for others, this is why negotiating with students can sometimes be a better option as they can still get the task done but they feel they are benefiting from doing it. For example when we go on the arctic expedition, all of the students fill out a survey beforehand telling us there hopes/aspirations, fears/weaknesses and from this we give them a personal task; if they feel this task is wrong they are able to negotiate with a member of the team to change their task. This can be beneficial for the leaders and students as it can help build a better rapport between staff and participants. 

4. You need to be able to adapt your skills to different environments - teaching in hot and cold environments can be very different as the students needs will be different. Everywhere you teach will be different whether it’s the people you are teaching or the place you are in, another super important skill is being able to adapt to that environmental change. When we are on the arctic trip if we are teaching outside it's important that explanations are quick and succinct as the students will start to get very cold.

5. You need to be approachable - if a student is having an issue with something, they need to be able to tell you about it. Being approachable is one of the most important parts of being a leader as you want a student to feel like they can come to you if something is wrong before things get too bad. My head teacher in secondary school was so caring, that I always felt like I could stop him whilst he was passing in the hallway or I needed to raise a concern, and if I wanted to talk him about things in more depth I could always make an appointment to see him when he had time. This is a great example of being approachable but still having boundaries.  

6. Be open to learning from others - even though you’re the leader in this situation that doesn’t mean you are always right and people might have more experience in certain areas and you can learn from them too. Being open to learning from others, even if you are teaching them will help expand your knowledge of a subject, so it's always important to listen to others if they have a point to make as it could be beneficial to you and the rest of the group.

7. Empathy in leadership - at Polaris Outdoor I am currently learning to develop a number of high-level personal development skills. Empathy is one of the most important skills you can have when being  a leader as it allows you to understand and connect with others, it can also build trust and communication making everyone feel heard and included, and can lead to a more positive and productive work environment. This is a new advancement in my personal development and I am looking forward to where it is going to take me.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or insights about student personal development, we would love to see your comments below!