By Amy Collette
Leadership skills don’t just help children succeed in school and strengthen their college applications — although those are certainly important benefits.
When parents, teachers, and organizations like Viwida USA foster leadership in young people, they’re also fostering responsibility, discipline, and the confidence to set and achieve goals. That translates to better outcomes for kids as well as better outcomes for the world they’re set to inherit.
Cultivating leadership doesn’t necessarily mean training youths to become the next student body president or club leader, however. Rather, developing leadership in kids is about giving them the skills and confidence to achieve whatever they set their minds to.
If you want to improve leadership development in your youth organization, use these resources to get started.
Viwida USA helps women develop the leadership skills that will help them achieve in business and in life. Find out how you can get involved, or make a tax deductible donation.
Building Leadership Development into Youth Activities
In addition to modeling good leadership, give youth the opportunities to try it out for themselves. These tips will help you build leadership development opportunities into any youth activity.
- Allow choice: Even young children can make their own decisions when allowed to choose between several acceptable options.
- Talk about current events: Make space for youth to talk about what’s happening in your organization and share their thoughts.
- Include everyone’s voice: Encourage everyone to speak up by taking polls and surveys.
Leadership Skills for Kids
Leaders come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. Rather than attempting to identify high-performing youth to cultivate as leaders, educators and youth organizations should aim to cultivate leadership skills in all youth.
These are the leadership skills that everyone needs, even from a young age:
- Building integrity starts at an early age by setting clear expectations and following through on them.
- While it’s important to be confident, children should also have the vigilance to reflect and refine their approach.
- Courage isn’t an innate quality, but a mindset that puts learning over fear.
- Children should learn that it’s okay to admit mistakes and for others to make mistakes too. Openness is a critical skill when it comes to leadership and interpersonal relationships.
- We should always be striving for self-improvement. You can model self-improvement in your own life by eating healthy, mastering a new hobby, or acquiring a master’s degree.
Leadership Games for Young Children
Games and activities are a fun way to cultivate leadership skills in younger children. UNICEF recommends these simple leadership activities for children:
- Same or different: This game involves children sitting in a circle and pointing out both similarities and differences among themselves.
- The listener: Designed to encourage listening skills, this game has one child quiz another and then share what they learned.
- This is me!: This confidence-boosting game lets kids draw themselves using cut-outs and decorate their image to reflect their wildest aspirations.
Developing Leadership Skills in Special Needs Youth
Leadership skills are especially important for youth with disabilities. Mentoring in particular is a great way for youth with disabilities to learn leadership skills. Youth mentoring can take several forms:
- Peer mentoring: A youth close in age provides informal guidance to the mentee.
- Disability mentoring: A person with a disability mentors a person with a similar disability, serving as a role model and providing information.
- Group mentoring: A mentor works with a group of disabled youth to develop skills.
- E-mentoring: E-mentoring is mentoring done through email, video chat, or other online forums.
Leadership skills are for everyone. Whether you’re preparing your preteen for college or nurturing independence in a special needs youth, investing in leadership skills will pay off in a more capable, confident, and driven child.
Image via Pexels
by our partner – Amy Collett amy.collett@bizwell.org