Leadership plays a central part in understanding group behavior and can be defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of accepted goals. A review of the leadership literature led two academics (Day & Lord, 1988) to conclude that the research shows „a consistent effect for leadership explaining 20-45% of the variance on relevant organizational outcomes “. Consequently, leadership training exists as a multi-billion-euros industry, because it works. Through the "LEAD from inside out" project, we give young persons the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become quality leaders with high moral values. In the modern world, organizations need a leader and developed leadership according to the vision and needs of all members. A leader motivates and inspires people to engage and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving a common vision. When organizations can't achieve their vision, they remain without a fundamental function - they can't contribute to the development of the community and can't have a long term impact on the society. This is particularly important in the case of youth workers who work or volunteer in non-profit organizations, because they need strong motivation and continuous support to carry on efficiently with their work. By implementing this project, the objectives we are trying to achieve are: building the capacity of organizations for youth; fostering our transnational network of organizations active in youth work; strengthening the international project capacities of the participating organizations and youth workers who need to improve their skills and competences; improving and professionalizing youth work and key competences/skills of participating youth workers (managerial skills, communication skills, ICT skills etc.); and educating youth workers in proper leadership skills which will help them to deal in day-to-day work. Target group of the project are youth workers - 150 of them who are directly participating in the training activities, and a large number of those participating in dissemination activities and reading the Manual. The youth workers will firstly participate in the online course that will last for 12 weeks and will be based on the previously developed Manual "LEAD from inside out". During this activity, they will learn how to improve their leadership skills, how to become good youth workers and how to live and work in a holistic way. The online course will be sufficient enough to improve the quality of youth workers and give them knowledge and skills for further development and materials to apply what they have learned in their organizations, but for those who wish to go a step further and become the multiplicators of this concept and have shown most success through the online course, the Training of trainers will be organized, which will be much more practical and result in youth workers that will be the carriers of the next phases of this project. In this way, by combining the Manual, quality youth workers as multipliers and an online course which will educate many generations of youth workers, the objectives of this project will surely be achieved and, in the long run, the project will contribute to the professionalization of youth work. The 2 main methodologies used will be 1. non-formal learning guided by a formal curriculum and led by qualified educators with vast experience; 2. informal learning through sharing of experiences and good practices from educators to participants and among participants themselves, in a way that many experienced and expert individuals or organizations share their knowledge and in that way educate others through methods like presentations, exercises, lectures, games, debates, practical assignments, IT tools, writing assignments and any other method that shows to be the most suited for transfer of certain knowledge, tool or skill. Those youth workers who will participate in this form of education will be able to learn how to become strong and not "burned-out" in their youth work, develop their personality and professionalize their work. Youth workers from all over the EU will receive open access to educational materials which have been proven to work in practice, which will be the first step towards their professionalization. We plan to use the Intellectual outputs on a long run and to spread the concept of "Leadership DNA" throughout EU and then even further because we are convinced that this concept can have many beneficial results on the quality of youth workers in both personal and professional aspect.
Through the "LEAD from inside out" project, we gave youth workers the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become quality leaders with high moral values. In the modern world, organizations need leaders and leadership developed according to the vision and needs of all their members. A leader motivates, inspires people to engage and builds a team so it is more effective at achieving a common vision. When organizations can't achieve their vision, they remain without a fundamental function - they can't contribute to the development of the community and have a long term impact on society. This is particularly important in the case of youth workers who work or volunteer in non-profit organizations because they need strong motivation and continuous support to work efficiently. Moreover, good leaders ensure the development of a strategy according to the vision of the organization which results in its sustainability in the fields of finances, human resources and impact in society. By implementing this project, the objectives we were trying to achieve were: building the capacities of youth organizations; fostering our transnational network of organizations active in youth work; strengthening the international project capacities of the participating organizations and youth workers; improving and professionalizing youth work and key competences of participating youth workers (managerial skills, communication skills, ICT skills etc.); educating youth workers in leadership skills which will help them deal with day-to-day work; starting a global network of youth leaders who would be promoting the concept of Joyful Leadership worldwide. The target group of the project were youth workers - who were directly participating in the training activities (online course, training course), and a large number of those participating in dissemination activities and reading the Manual. During the project, an innovative and interactive educational cycle was developed and branded – the Joyful Leadership. The educational cycle consists of the educational manual theoretically covering different aspects of leadership in a user-friendly, colourful, practical and summarized way. Then, the online course was developed including 56 lectures, assignments and quizzes and 5 hours of video materials. The online course is based on the manual and provides a deeper insight into the topics described in the manual as well as exercises and practical assignments. Last but not least, the most motivated participants of the online course attended the training course in Croatia – a 7-day course during which the knowledge and skills introduced in the previous stages of the educational cycle were enriched with personal experience and guidance from the trainers. Thanks to the training course, youth workers had an opportunity to learn how to implement the Joyful Leadership concept in their organizations thus becoming its multipliers. During the educational cycle Joyful Leadership, the participants learned how to improve their leadership skills, how to become good youth worker leaders and how to lead and live holistically. This way, by combining the manual, quality youth workers as multipliers of the concept and the online course which educated many of youth workers, and will continue to be open for years, we ensured the project’s long-term impact and sustainability of its results. An additional aspect of the project was its high level of gamification via the Habitica app. Different daily tasks and challenges were carefully created which helped the participants implement leadership principles in their life. We used exercises, daily tasks, daily habits, real-time monitoring of the results, competition aspect etc. to increase the participants’ motivation and enjoyment in the process. It also increased the assimilation of knowledge and skills. Another important element of the project included the creation and maintenance of the online community - a Facebook group that allowed the participants to share their leadership experiences, resources and insights, fostering networking and cooperation. The 2 main methodologies used were: 1. non-formal learning guided by a formal curriculum and led by qualified educators with vast experience using different methods such as presentations, exercises, lectures, games, debates, practical assignments, IT tools, writing assignments, simulations, demonstrations and any other method that shows to be the most suited for transfer of certain knowledge, tool or skill.; 2. non-formal learning through sharing knowledge, experiences and good practice examples between the participants themselves (as well as experts and trainers).