Five Steps To Develop Leadership Qualities In Children
1. We run a program for children
9-14 years called Young Leader
The questions
we’re often
asked is
“How do we
develop these
leadership
qualities?”
2. Step 1
Internal Resources
Make the child
aware of own
strengths, qualities
and abilities
Eg: List qualities of Sachin Tendulkar (or any other favorite hero).
Now see which of these qualities you also have exhibited in the past –
count even small incidents.
3. Step 2
Prepare
Stimulate the child to
experiment with these
strengths and abilities
Eg: Talk about what we are going to do (say a game) and how you
play the role of Sachin tendulkar in helping the group to achieve the
goal by using the strengths. Children use a tool to mark which
qualities they will consciously use.
4. Step 3
Set up challenge
Put them in Situations
which are exciting yet
stretch them beyond
normal.
Eg: Play a game of reaching the goal from a stating lineup. However,
the challenge is that different children legs are tied to each other
randomly – making it tricky to move together. The tying down connotes
various and different constrains that each one of us has in life..
5. Step 4
Strategize
Give children windows in
between to re-strategize,
and consciously use a
certain leadership quality
Eg: If children are blaming each other for a falling down– ask them to
stop and discuss how they can help each other reach common goal.
Children revisit tools to see which quality they used and which they
will like to use now onwards.
6. Step 5
Reflect
Reflect, recollect and
discuss what leader
qualities were
exhibited and what
they have learned
Discuss questions like what worked, what did not, what else
can we do, what qualities we used, what we learned from
each other, from the whole activity and so on – draw,
discuss, make models of how we did, act out and so on
