What is the Girl Guide and Girl Scout Leadership Model?
The Girl Guide and Girl Scout Leadership Model is the foundation for how we practice leadership at all stages of our journey in Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting.
The model uses a system of six mindsets as the main tool to make leadership practice conscious and to influence reactions, reflections, choices and behaviours. The more we reflect on our daily behaviours using the six leadership mindsets, the more we can make our leadership conscious and lead with purpose. Over time, leadership practice becomes part of who we are. It helps us grow as leaders in any role, both inside and outside the Movement.
Why is the Girl Guide and Girl Scout Leadership Model important?
Offering space to practice leadership using the Girl Guide and Girl Scout Leadership Model is key to our approach to supporting personal growth, particularly considering our vision of a Movement where every and any girl feels confident to lead and empowered to create a better world together.
Leadership practice contributes to learners developing the eight growth outcomes and is an essential foundation for active global citizenship. Our leadership model recognises that an individual’s ways of being and thinking about the world are the foundation of who they are as a leader. Through active reflective practice, it helps learners navigate complex situations and diverse environments with greater understanding and empathy, and be prepared to lead with purpose towards a better world.
Leadership practice is relevant for everyone, from the youngest youth member to the most senior adult volunteer, Our model challenges the traditional and limiting definitions of leadership as skills acquired over time, through special training, or being restricted to a special position, role or title. By making leadership practice accessible to all, empowering everyone to feel more confident to see themselves as leaders, and seeing leadership as a shared journey, it creates the conditions for meaningful youth participation and supports us towards becoming a girl and young women-led Movement.
A good leader is a lifelong learner who consciously deepens their understanding of different contexts, draws on different wisdoms, and uses that learning to collaborate with others to make a difference.
Leadership is a shared journey that empowers us to work together and bring positive change to our lives, the lives of others, and our wider society.
What does the Girl Guide and Girl Scout Leadership Model look like?
Leadership practice using the Girl Guide and Girl Scout leadership model is part of our approach to delivering quality learning and development experiences today.
| Youth members should have space to practice leadership through all age stages of the youth programme, and benefit from the empowering leadership behaviours of adults who have internalised the leadership model. | Adult members should have opportunities to understand and practice the leadership model so they can apply it in their different roles, and use it for their own personal development
|
When learning experiences are facilitated by good leaders, who are on the journey of self- improvement and practise leadership using the six mindsets, they have a deeper impact on learners, who can identify and be inspired by positive leadership behaviours. When the same learning experiences also give opportunities to learners to practise leadership themselves using the six mindsets, it contributes to learners developing the eight growth outcomes.
REFLECTIVE MINDSETLeading Yourself
| Draw meaning from your past experiences and think about your behaviour and its impact. Practise this mindset to: • Be aware of ourselves and of others. • Explore and develop our values. • Draw meaning out of past experiences. • Analyse our mistakes and recognise our successes. • Build emotional resilience. |
WORLDLY MINDSETLeading In Context
| Get inside the worlds of others, understand their needs and concerns more deeply. Practise this mindset to: • Understand other people’s needs and concerns. • Develop and demonstrate empathy. • Adapt our leadership to the environment we’re in. • Avoid generalising and stereotyping. • Consistently champion diversity and inclusivity. |
COLLABORATIVE MINDSETLeading Relationships
| Bring together different perspectives and inspire consensus around a shared vision. Practise this mindset to: • Be a team player, share positive energy and be supportive of others. • Establish the conditions people need to thrive. • Create a safe and positive environment. • Be attentive to potential conflicts and try to resolve them. • Give and ask for help. |
CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING MINDSETLeading For Innovation
| Create an environment where both innovation and enquiry are valued. Practise this mindset to: • Explore complex situations and make decisions. • Think for ourselves and not give in to group thought. • Learn to prioritise what is important and what can be dealt with later. • Be open to changing our mind. • Encourage ourselves to innovate and take informed risks. |
GENDER EQUALITY MINDSETLeading For Girls’ Empowerment
| Take gender into account when practising leadership, and challenge gender stereotypes. Practise this mindset to: • Research and learn more about gender equality. • Reflect on what inequalities we can see in our own lives. • Adapt our leadership practice to take gender into consideration. • Empower ourselves and others to become overcome gender barriers. • Actively seek gender equality. |
RESPONSIBLE ACTION MINDSETLeading For Impact
| Mobilise energy around what needs changing, and what needs to be protected. Practise this mindset to: • Mobilise energy to create change, or to protect continuity. • Influence and nurture change-friendly environments. • Learn how to advocate for the things that are important to us. • Inspire and mobilise others to be responsible citizens. • Consider how our actions may impact ourselves, others and our community |
