Raising Leaders: It Starts In Their Childhood

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It is a well-known fact that a child’s early years are the foundation for his or her future development. It proves a strong foundation for lifelong learning ability. It also helps with how the child’s cognitive ability is advanced. Raising leaders can also start from childhood. Training children to have control of their lives and grow their ability to make things happen is necessary if you want to raise them to become leaders. All these will instill confidence and help children solve problems creatively and collaborate with others. Let me share some helpful ways to raise your children to be leaders.

Work on decision-making abilities

Learning to take important decisions that are reasonable and beneficial as a child, is a clear indication that the child would grow up to be a great leader. It is rare to see children exhibiting that culture. A few children are born with that gift but as parents,  you can also hone this ability in your kids from their childhood. Children usually become overwhelmed by too many choices so if you can teach them the act of narrowing down those options to only very important ones, you are already making them more mature. Once this method is continued, he or she would have learned how to use the pros and cons of each decision on the table to make the most suitable one.

Teaching time management

Forget about all the time-traveling movies you see every now and then, time lost could never be regained again and this is why you must do the right things at the right time. Teaching your young children how to tell the time and what time periods of the day mean is very important if you want them to become leaders tomorrow. This is because one of the traits of a good leader is his or her ability to manage time and stick to schedules and deadlines. If this teaching is done effectively, the child will develop a thinking skill that would help him prioritize tasks and accurately judge the period of time needed to complete each one of them.

Teach them how to champion group activities

When you start teaching your kids to take over some activities they are involved in and carry them through to perfection, then you are already awakening their leadership qualities in them. There are a number of such activities for their childhood days. An example of this is gardening. There are usually some activities to carry out during gardening and it requires great leadership qualities to know what it all entails and then lead the others that would be involved. It requires taking responsibility, especially for indoor gardening processes. The child would know about grow lights that are needed for the proper growth of indoor plants and how to use them. He or she can learn to lead the activities and carry others along in setting up the grow lights and using the other garden tools safely. Going around to supervise and make corrections where necessary is part of this package.

Teach eloquence and effective communication

One of the major characteristics of a great leader is the manner in which he uses his words to get other people motivated. They always have their ways with words and even the most stubborn follower gets to have a rethink. When grooming your kids to be future leaders, you need to teach them how to use words appropriately. They need to learn how to speak superfluously, yet softly so that people would always want to listen. Effective communication comes with a lot of practice from childhood. It also involves reading a lot of novels and watching videos of great orators. If this grows with the kids, they are already leaders in the making.

Get them a mentor

Another method you can use to prepare your kids to be future leaders is by getting them someone who can see all the gifts they have and help them grow them. So, getting them a mentor that can propel them in the right direction will be a good choice. Mentors spend quality time with a child and offer support, encouragement, and fun. This helps the kids act more maturely and be ready to lead in group activities they are part of. If this mentor is a leader, it is even better. Learning first-hand from a real leader who is doing very well in the course of leadership is a good way to be prepared to lead.

Final word

The brain of a child is more open to assimilating whatever he or she learns. They tend to grab things faster and what they learn can stay with them for a very long time. With this knowledge, if you hope to see your children lead in the future, you need to start preparing them for that pathway now. There are so many ways by which you can achieve this. It is not an easy task though and a lot of patience is required to carry this through.