May 2011

Child Leadership

What an audience of parents, Teachers, Friends and students saw on the evening of 22 March 2011 is a kinesthetic coaching session in child leadership. What is the Number 1 desire of all parents for their child? What is the Number 1 desire of all teachers for your child? Our collective Number 1 desire is that children should be happy, they should be successful in life, and grow up to be leaders in whatever they do.

Having said that, we live in an extremely dangerous world, a world that is unpredictable, chaotic, and diverse. In such an environment cognitive skills alone will not be enough. Given this scenario, what today’s children shall inherit will be infinitely more myriad and messy, than those we face today. Children will need leadership, emotional and spiritual competencies to be successful. The fundamentals of these competencies, whether they are for three year olds or thirty year olds, remain the same. The message for schools and parents is clear: We have to start building leadership early, as early as possible, consciously and carefully.

In the 1960s a profound experiment on delayed gratification was conducted in Stanford. A group of four-year old kids were put in a room. They were given one marshmallow, but were promised two if they could wait for twenty minutes before eating the first marshmallow. They were told that if they found the temptation too much, they could ring the bell in less than three minutes, and then eat the marshmallows. Two-thirds of the children ate the marshmallows well before the stipulated twenty minutes. But the experiment does not end there. Fifteen years later, a follow-up study was done on all the thirty kids now grown up into adulthood. The results were astounding.

The longer delayers, the one-third children who could resist eating the marshmallows, grew up to be more resilient, confident, self-reliant, trusting, dependable and persevering. They also scored 120 points higher on SAT scores, formed happier and more lasting relationships, and were more resilient in face of stress.

We often underestimate the capabilities of young children on what they think about leadership. When asked “What is a good leader,” nine and ten year olds had profound advice to offer. A good leader should have the following qualities:

Responsible

Open minded to absorb new ideas

Appreciative and caring

He should not be mean

Listen to others

Everyone makes mistakes; just go on, you can do it

Should encourage with imagination

It’s an honour to be a leader – means you are pretty important

There is a leader in every child.

Leadership training must start as early as possible – consciously, by extending opportunities, by providing examples, and through trust and sharing.

Teachers and parents are co-trainers and the most important ones as well, we are influenced most by those who are closest to us – parents, teachers and local community leaders.

Our primary role as leaders is to help the child find her passion, and then help her to live that passion.

Creativity and innovation begin with imagination; and the 21st century belongs to imagination. We all know that imagination is more important than knowledge; not because Einstein said that, but because science tells us also. Children have better imagination than adults. Nurturing imagination is a leadership function.

Finding and igniting the child’s passion and imagination are leadership functions. Picasso once said,“It took me four years to paint like Raphel, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”