Children Taking Charge

10 Ways to Raise a Successful Leader

By Sally Sacks

Leaders are very influenced by the words and actions of those raising them. Everything that we say and do influences our children. They mirror our actions, as we are their first examples of relationships and of people interacting. We lead our children by showing them how to live in this world, with all their challenges and responsibilities, reasonably and with reduced stress. We demonstrate to them ways to treat others, positive belief systems, fairness, cooperation and how to manage time and acts of daily living such as personal matters and school matters. We help them to interact as people, and how to get along in the world.

We can see how easily non-leaders and non-productive people/leaders are turned out by my above examples. There are parents that preach fighting and project negative energy among themselves daily. There are people that hate and project that onto their children, and lack of fairness and equality. There are parents that don't have time for their children, or who are absent emotionally or physically, due to their own problems. Obviously these kids will have problems unless they find another more positive leader role model in their lives, and this can happen. This happens all the time. How can you raise a leader? Follow these 10 simple steps:

1. Lead by example. Remember you won't always be the best example, because you are human, but admit mistakes and always keep your responsibility within your awareness.

2. Take charge of things in your life and let your child see you doing this. Work hard, set goals for yourself and follow them. Encourage your child to identify goals and help him/her to attain them.

3. Sponsor activities that your child likes, and give him credit for his knowledge of how to do something. Ask him to teach you something he knows and you don't, like beading, knitting, playing an X-box game, etc.

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