A guest post from Jenna Sherman founder of Parent-Leaders
Chances are you want your child to become the type of person others look to for how to act. While you might think of that as a future goal, just like so many journeys in life, what you do now will affect later outcomes. To that end, I wanted to offer the following resources to help moms and dads who want to shape tomorrow’s leaders—starting today.
Start With Yourself
As a parent, it doesn’t take long before you start seeing your kids mirroring your own behavior. You might hear them use your personal expressions, or see them echoing your partner’s gestures. With that in mind, think about what you say and do, and seek out ways to fine-tune the message you’re sending.
- How you communicate with your child has a direct impact on your parent-child relationship, how they handle emotions and their interactions with others.
- Your role modeling extends beyond how you interact with your child to your behaviors and attitude toward the world around you.
- Consider things you can do that reflect the values you want your kids to embrace; for example, if lifelong learning is important to you, consider furthering your own education.
- Be sure to regularly connect with Great School Voices so you can stay on top of education-related events and news in the Oakland area.
For Your Youngster
Leadership comes in many shapes and sizes—there is definitely no one-size-fits-all. Whether your child has an outgoing personality or tends to prefer the sidelines, leadership skills can be learned.
- Encourage your child to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
- Books are a great resource for encouraging kids’ leadership abilities.
- There are even toys that can help bring out your child’s inner leader.
Growing Together
As you search for ways to encourage your child’s leadership abilities, as well as ways to better exemplify leadership in your daily life, activities that you do together can be a perfect solution. You can embrace role modeling while actively encouraging your child’s growth.
- Volunteering as a family is a wonderful way to exemplify leadership, and your child can learn valuable lifelong skills at the same time.
- For your next family movie night, choose a film that will inspire and encourage leadership.
- Consider adding leadership-building games to your family’s quality time.
Honing leadership in your child can start today. Shape your own behavior, provide your child with opportunities to grow, and consider things you can do together that will encourage the qualities you want to bring out. You can start planting the seeds for leadership now, and you’ll see your child blossom over time.
“Jenna Sherman created Parent-Leaders to be all about what parents can do to make sure their children grow up to be strong, independent, successful adults. By providing a collection of valuable, up-to-date, authoritative resources, she hopes to help other parents acquire the skills they need to raise future leaders. Jenna is mom to three children — two girls and a boy.”
Image courtesy of Unsplash