One of the major intents of the Leadership Academy is to help students to be effective in life. During the course of two years, you will learn necessary skills for effective, practical living.
MYERS-BRIGGS INVENTORY
Early in the program, you will take the Myers-Briggs Inventory. The Myers-Briggs inventory is a questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions, and does not measure trait, ability, or character. The goal of knowing about personality type is to understand and appreciate differences between people; as all types are equal, there is no best type. The Myers-Briggs is based on Carl Jung’s theory of types, and evaluates personality type and preference based on these four psychological types by which we experience the world; one of these four functions is dominant most of the time. You will gain valuable insight through your personalized profile based on this assessment.
EQ: RELATIONSHIP SKILLS
When it comes to happiness and success in life, emotional intelligence (EQ) matters just as much as intellectual ability (IQ). Emotional intelligence helps you build stronger relationships, succeed at work, and achieve your career and personal goals. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence impacts many different aspects of your daily life, such as the way you behave and the way you interact with others. If you have high emotional intelligence you are able to recognize your own emotional state and the emotional states of others, and engage with people in a way that draws them to you. You can use this understanding of emotions to relate better to other people, form healthier relationships, achieve greater success at work, and lead a more fulfilling life. Learn more about why emotional intelligence is so important and how you can boost your own EQ by mastering five core skills.
LIFE PURPOSE AND PLANNING
What’s your life purpose? Is there just one thing you’re meant to do with your life or many? Figuring out what you want to do with your life will allow you to start moving towards actually living that dream. Understanding God’s purpose for your life sets you apart; by clearly knowing who God is calling you to be and what He is calling you to do, you will be better equipped to make wise decisions and evaluate opportunities with purpose in mind. This class is a practical tool to help you explore how God is working in your life and to help develop a wise and balanced plan of action to prepare you for what God has set before you.
8 TRAITS OF A STAR PLAYER
This class is will cover the traits and characteristics that define a great leader; you will learn how integrity and other critical characteristics such as humility, respect, and trust will build a culture that will further the kingdom of God. These eight godly character traits will be crucial in leading with competency, character, and creating a positive chemistry among your team members. You will also learn how these eight traits reflect the attitudes of Christ, and how to build them into the core values of your ministry.
ACTIVE LISTENING & ASKING POWERFUL QUESTIONS
Effective communication is probably the most critical and important interpersonal skill, and by learning how we can improve our communication has many benefits. Two key elements of communication are active listening and asking powerful questions. Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. Listening is not something that just happens; listening is an active process in which a conscious decision is made to listen to and understand the messages of the speaker. How well you listen has a major impact on your effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others. Questioning also is fundamental to successful communication – we all ask and are asked questions when engaged in conversation. A fundamental skill is the ability to ask powerful questions; they evoke clarity, introspection, lend to enhanced creativity and help provide solutions. Questions are powerful when they have an impact on the person which causes them to think. In this class, you will learn techniques for active listening and powerful questioning strategies, how and when to apply them, and advantages for their use.
WORKING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE
At times, we all have to work with people we do not find as easy to work with as others. This class looks at the key behaviors that make people difficult to work with, and a range of solutions that can improve these working relationships. By examining ourselves, we can find ways of adapting to our growing understanding of what it is that makes others tick. In this class, you will analyze your own communication style and how to flex this to enhance your personal interactions, as well as reasons why some people are particularly challenging to work with. By the end of this class, you will develop a range of strategies to assist you in handling a variety of difficult and demanding situations more effectively, such as: developing effective techniques for dealing with difficult people, learning coping strategies for dealing with troubling people and complex situations, being able to identify times when you have the right to walk away from volatile situations, and learning how to employ techniques for managing and dealing with anger.
FINANCIAL FREEDOM
We all need a plan for our money. This class teaches God’s ways of handling money. You will learn a 4-step process to financial freedom; these steps are designed to be a broad road map to help people get out of debt and march toward financial freedom. This road map will show you how to get rid of debt, manage your money, and how to spend and save wisely. This class will provide biblical and practical steps to get from where you are to how to plan effectively for the future without going into exorbitant debt.
STRENGTH FINDERS
The Clifton Strengths Finder is a web-based assessment of normal personality from the perspective of Positive Psychology. It is the first instrument of this type developed expressly for the internet. The Clifton Strengths Finder measures the presence of 34 talent themes; these themes were developed out of research into the qualities of effective leaders. Talents are people’s naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied; the more dominant a theme is in a person, the greater the theme’s impact on that person’s behavior and performance. Organizations make use of strength finder themes to help individuals discover and describe their strengths and provide people with strategies to apply those strengths every day.
DECISION MAKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Much of what people do in life is to solve problems and make decisions. Everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter problems on a daily basis; some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others. The other half of effective problem solving is making a solid, informed and fruitful decision to solve that problem. Therefore, it’s useful to have to an organized approach to problem solving and decision making. Effective problem solving usually involves working through a number of steps or stages; this class will teach you the basics of learning how to detect and identify the problem, develop a clear picture of the problem, generate a range of possible solutions and/or courses of action(s), determine how to make the best possible decision, and how to carry out and implement that decision for the best possible results.
SELF AWARENESS
Our classes on Self Awareness allow you to develop and hone what God has created for you to do. You will learn throughout several classes what your strengths, weaknesses, and giftings are; how to know how to use your own personal characteristics and attributes to better communicate, work with and support those you come in contact with. The better you know yourself, the more effective your communication and boundaries will be. In addition, your strategies for helping others will be more objective, encouraging, and empowering towards helping someone solve their own issues.
DISCOVERING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS
Each student will have the opportunity to take the Spiritual Gifts Test, followed by a class that helps everyone discover their God-gifted purpose in life. You will learn more about the spiritual gifts the Lord has given specifically to you, and how He wants to use you (both personally, through ministry in the church, and out in the world) to impact people’s lives for eternity. Each of the spiritual gifts will be defined and discussed, and each student will learn what their top spiritual gifts are.
ENNEAGRAMS
Students will be given the opportunity to look at themselves through the lens of the Enneagram Assessment. The Enneagram looks at not only our external behaviors, but also our internal worlds, realizing that the heart of our actions and our problems is the problem of our heart. The Enneagram is a powerful tool we can use to better understand ourselves and others, and view life in a more meaningful way. It can help you hear the Gospel and you will see yourself with clarity, breaking free of self-condemnation, fear and shame because of the unconditional love, forgiveness and freedom you have in Christ. Once you know your personality type, you will be able to ask the Holy Spirit to help you navigate your internal world and bring you back to a healthier path.