Leadership's Future: 5 Ways For Parents To Lead
by Miki SaxonI came across the kind of commentary that so angers me. The post was about how to recognize leadership traits in children.
Of course, parents should encourage their children to grow, but this type of thing furthers the myth of what to look for in those who become ‘leaders’, while those without these traits are destined for a lesser role in life.
“…raise your child to be a winner, a leader and a success rather than another member of the dull rat race.”
The ‘leader’ to which the post and follow-up links refer is the person out front with the big pay package, as opposed to plain, hard-working solid citizens—I guess they’re the afore mentioned dull members.
Leadership isn’t a set of skills, it’s how you think and live.
And while it may be your pleasure to see your children excel, it’s your parental leadership responsibility to help them do it.
5 ways for parents to lead
- Teach your children to love reading books. Books offer every person a world of hard knowledge and imagination stimulants.
- Don’t make things easy for them, especially in school. A poor grade merits neither a rant at the kid or the teacher, rather it requires your effort to understand the difficulty—tough homework isn’t it—and assistance to find ways to improve.
- Don’t fight your kids’ battles. People grow by overcoming difficulties, so be supportive and available to help, but don’t do it for them. Obviously, the exception is bullying, which should never be tolerated.
- Set age/maturity appropriate boundaries within which decisions are up to them without interference or advice; this gives kids the luxury of making mistakes and learning from them.
- Don’t live vicariously through your children. Their hopes, dreams, fears and worries should be of their own making, not foisted on them, whether actively or passively.
By the way, if you follow the links in the post I mentioned you’ll find it’s a sales pitch for a Christian leadership course.
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Image credit: Sandy Caldwell
