Tips and Resources for Parents

While some of us are natural-born leaders, other leaders are made — and we as parents have the power to instill leadership skills in our children from a young age. Check out these tips and resources to raise a successful and confident leader that others will truly want to follow!

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Foster Leadership Skills Early On

From volunteering with your child to encouraging teamwork from a young age, these resources will help you to foster leadership skills in your little one.

• Look for ways to volunteer with your child, such as starting a community garden, raking leaves for the neighbors, or coordinating a local event in the community.
• Teach your child the importance of teamwork. Your little one could play a team sport, join a school band, and play team games with friends and family.
• Provide your child with opportunities to earn money, learn business skills, and develop a good work ethic.

Let Kids Solve Problems and Make Decisions

There are many decisions you’ll need to make for your child, but allowing your little one to make certain choices for himself will help him to become a stronger and more confident leader.

• Let your child decide what to wear to school, order at a restaurant, and how to decorate his or her room.
• Introduce games and activities that improve decision-making skills. Some examples include role play, musical chairs, and hide and seek.
• Allow your child to make mistakes and solve problems for him or herself.
• Help your child to learn problem-solving skills with fun activities such as puzzles, storybooks, crafts, mazes, and survivor scenarios.

Lead by Example

Children learn by example, so it’s important to role model the types of behaviors you’d like to instill in them.

• Active listeners make great leaders. Be sure to practice active listening while communicating with your child.
• Teach your child the importance of education and meet your career goals by going back to school and earning an advanced online degree.
• Great leaders also need to be able to admit when they’re wrong and accept responsibility for their actions. By admitting when you’re in the wrong, you’ll teach your child to do the same.

The world needs more leaders, and you’ll raise a great one by teaching your child to listen effectively, make good decisions, solve problems, and own up to his or her mistakes. Any child has the potential to lead, but it’s your job as a parent to help your little one develop the leadership skills he or she needs to succeed!

Guest article by Mary Shannon

This is the latest in a new line of articles where I collaborate with others to provide content for my site, all articles will be personally read and approved by me and is solely for the benefit of the reader – to be clear this is not advertising or paid content. If you would like to be a guest author on my site please get in touch using the contact form.