The Young Leaders program for high school sophomores had their first retreat of the year at the Stratton Center last Friday — Leadership Day.
“Today they had leadership training with Dr. Debbie Powers from the University of Louisville,” said Susanne Burckhardt, college and career coordinator with Shelby County Public Schools. “They are using the color system where they lean about themselves, their strengths and how they work, but they also learn about other people’s strengths and how they work, so they can work together.”
Burckhardt said this is very unique to the participants’ age group as most people complete and study these types of personality tests when they are older adults, but these young leaders were given an opportunity to do that during the first training session.
“Their insights when we were talking about it were amazing,” Burckhardt said. “They are already connecting the dots.”
The color system is called True Colors, which focuses on keys to personal awareness and success. Each leader is predominantly represented by one of four color groups: Gold, Green, Blue and Orange.
Gold is typically more traditional people who are well organized. Green tends to be people who are deep thinkers. Blue represents more emotional and relational people, while Orange identifies people who are spontaneous and prefer to be active and want to move around.
“We all have those colors within us, but some colors are stronger,” Burckhardt explained. “It’s neat to see them realize one color is not better than another. It takes a combination to make a leadership group work.”
The Young Leaders group meets once a month, just like Leadership Shelby. The group has a focus or bi-focus of the day. Participants have homework prior to these retreats so they can build their background knowledge. This allows them to come into the event with strong background knowledge about Shelby County, so they can maximize the day.
