Written By: Audrey T
What is FRC Northlands?
The FRC Northlands All Are Welcome FRC Student Leadership Program is a program organized by several volunteers within the FRC Northlands area. It is comprised of an orientation session along with four workshops, with an optional session at the end dedicated to discussing project proposals. These workshops aim to help FRC student leaders gain skills in leadership and teach the importance of inclusion. At the end of all the workshops, participants will develop a project proposal that demonstrates how they will promote inclusion within their teams. Each team was allowed to send up to two students to this conference; we decided to send our inclusivity lead and media lead (who had led inclusivity last season)!
Before Orientation: CliftonStrengths
Before we could get started on the conference, we had some homework to do! We were asked to complete the CliftonStrengths assessment and report back with our top five strengths. Each strength was assigned a color; we didn’t know what the colors meant, but we would be learning later during the meeting. The assessment asked us about our opinions, views, and reactions to a wide variety of things. It really forced us to think more about the types of leaders and people we were.
Orientation
The first meeting was an orientation session, so we began by all introducing ourselves. It was super cool to see how many different teams had representation there! After we all knew each other’s names we were told a bit about the norms expected from the program, you guys already got this summary so long story short: the program will be a place of learning and inclusion.
After introductions we had a speaker, Kim, tell us a bit about strengths. She told us about how our strengths play into the kind of leaders we are, and that we were all good leaders.
You are a leader in exactly who you are…and who you are is enough
In addition to encouraging all of us in our leadership skill she also touched on weaknesses. She brought in an interesting viewpoint: you should prioritize cultivating your strengths over solving your weaknesses. While it was understood that weaknesses shouldn’t be ignored, she shared the belief that dwelling on them instead of growing further into the areas you thrive isn’t an effective use of time and energy.
Discussion
After Kim presented we were split into breakout groups. There were four groups, one for each “strength group” used in Cliffton. Both of our team representatives were in the blue group, which is the group who had skills primarily based in relationship-building.
Once we were placed in our groups we were asked to describe some of the strengths we had and how they may fit into being on an FRC team. Within our group we found that we had several shared strengths, and it was interesting to see other’s perspectives on how these strengths came into play on their teams.
One of our key takeaways was that it is easiest for us to lead when we see our teammates as people and friends. This includes doing activities like ice-breakers, having a more approachable demeanor, and communicating consistently. These activities also help us maintain a more inclusive environment where people can joke around and share ideas freely, but also have enough trust to have serious conversations.
Ending the Session
After the breakout session ended each group took a turn to share what they had talked about. Everyone had completely different strengths, but they all played important roles in leadership and FRC. Despite how unique every group was all the strengths shown were needed to have a successful environment.
We ended with a final takeaway:
There is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone
Thank you to Kim and everyone who helped put together this great day, we look forward to the next one!
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