How to Develop Leadership Qualities in Children

What Is Leadership?
The words ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’ are spoken so easily that very few truly understand what they actually mean. Many confuse leadership with position or power. However, in children, leadership tends to indicate the innate ability of a child to gather different people and help everyone work together towards a singular goal. This includes developing the path to be followed and the best way to reach the destination.

Why Is It Important to Cultivate Leadership Skills in Kids?

Learning something early in life helps you get better at it in the future. Apart from all the technical skills, leadership also is one of the important skills that can make your child stand out from the rest.

The core of leadership is confidence and the ability to believe in yourself. To be able to move ahead in life, your child needs to believe in his own abilities and have the confidence to try out new activities. Leadership skills help him with that.
Social skills are paramount in the world. Being able to give your opinion and lead a team can only work when your communication skills are strong and you can express your thoughts lucidly.
The world today needs more leaders and entrepreneurs who can shift the traditional methods and make way for better ways to lead our lives. To have such leaders, we need to sculpt our children and make them strong to be able to face competition and create an identity for themselves.

Ways to Inculcate Leadership Skills in Children

1. Be an Example

It all starts at home. Let your child look up to you as a leader and inspire him to become one. This is the greatest way to let your child move in the right direction.

2. Put Together a Team

Schedule some activities that he can enjoy with a group of friends or other kids. These could be as simple as playing a sport or going on a picnic, where he gets a chance to work together as a team.

3. When You Fall, Rise Again

Teach your child to handle failure gracefully, tell him to consider failure as a learning opportunity. Teach him to accept his mistakes and give it another shot by doing better.

4. Negotiation Is a Skill

Some children work by compromising. If your child is stubborn or too complacent, gently teach him to choose between options that seem to be the best, or present options to you when confronted with a choice.

5. Let Them Make Decisions

Let him make decisions for himself at first, deciding what clothes to wear, or what he’d like to eat. As he grows old, let him pick a movie to watch for the entire family or a list of holiday destinations where everyone can enjoy.

6. Tiny Acts of Confidence

A person becomes confident with time, as and when the situation comes, he learns to handle them and one success gives him confidence. Let your kids start doing small activities that you’d usually do for them. These include letting the restaurant server know what everyone will eat, or get grocery from the shop and negotiate the price.

7. Work Develops Humility

By encouraging your child to help out with activities at home, or helping a neighbour out, or even starting his own club or a stall at a fair, you expose your child to a potential leadership situation.