I believe we have established that leaders are made.
You are your child’s first teacher, role model, coach and mentor!
I know that puts lots of pressure on us as parents… However, it’s true!
We need to consider our qualities and work to improve them first,
if we want to grow happy, healthy and capable children.
In this post we will discuss 6 essential leadership qualities of parents
that help them raise leaders.
Leadership qualities of parents
These qualities are all related to each other and some leadership skills coexist. Also, the connection between leadership qualities means that working on improving one of those qualities will result in developing other leadership qualities at the same time. Let’s go through each quality!
1. Visionary
Leaders have visions that they share with others with passion. They think out of the box and they tend to be creative. Also, curiosity encourages leaders to learn, expand their knowledge and experiences and improve their skills.
Children need to be encouraged to remain curious to learn, think out of the box and pursue things with passion. Thinking out of the box is beneficial for children and adults. It leads to innovations and getting out of the comfort zone, and it encourages creativity and problem-solving, which we will discuss below.
2. Optimistic & resilient
Optimism and resilience are two leadership qualities of parents that usually coexist. Leaders don’t give up easily and both optimism and resilience increase the likelihood of success.
It is important for children to be positive and practise positive self-talk. In this way, they will develop their confidence and positivity in order to overcome any obstacles and challenges that come their way. It’s critical for parents to promote positive side of things and appreciation.
3. Problem-solvers
Leaders face challenges and they enjoy solving problems. On a daily basis parents as well as children face challenges, which can be overwhelming.
Nevertheless, learning and practicing the 5 steps of problem-solving can make us feel more competent, confident and willing to take more risks. These steps are: 1) problem identification, 2) brainstorm solutions, 3) pick one solution, 4) test the solution out and 5) assess the impact of the solution.
4. Dedicated
Leaders adhere to principles and they stay committed and devoted to projects and visions.
Nowadays, it is challenging to concentrate and stay focused on things without distractions. We need to support our children develop their self-control and concentration through activities, experiences, tasks and games. However, we, also, need to be realistic as children’s attention span is 2 or 3 times their age.
5. Honest & effective communicators
Honesty and communication are, also, intertwined. Influential people are honest and they gain other people’s trust. Leaders use honesty to communicate with others and share new information.
Modelling honesty and transparency in front of our kids is crucial. Good leaders are honest, vulnerable and apologise, when they need to. Days that parents don’t show their best leadership qualities, they need to apologise for their mistakes and they are still good leaders for their kids!
6. Empathetic
Empathy is a key element of emotional intelligence and it underlies many facets of moral judgement and action. Moreover, empathy is important in everyday life as well as parenting life. Parental empathy is associated with childhood attachment security and emotional openness.
You may have come across the book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ by Daniel Goleman as it is a million-copy bestseller book. Daniel Goleman refers to empathy in many parts of his book. Specifically, researcher Martin Hoffman believes there is a natural progression in empathy from infancy onwards. By late childhood the most advanced level of empathy emerges. At this age children can understand the plight of groups and distress beyond the immediate situation. That understanding will guide children, as adults in the future, towards strong moral convictions. Empathy is needed to build strong relationships and communicate effectively that is another important leadership quality as we mentioned already.
Last thoughts
If you believe that you don’t have one of these qualities, don’t panic though! You can still raise good leaders. For instance, neurodivergent people find empathy and sympathy challenging or they struggle in recognising emotions. This doesn’t mean they are not able to support the development of empathy in their children. All parents can cultivate their children’s leadership qualities as long as they know which qualities are important. Also, you may not have one of these quality, but how about your partner? Or another important role model or mentor in your child’s life? For instance, we discussed in the article “Raising boys in the 21st century‘ about the importance of male role models and other mentors in boys’ life from 6 to 18 years old. Nevertheless, according to KJ Dell’Antonia, “To raise the children we hope to raise, we have to learn to become the person we hoped to be”. KJ is the author of the book How to Be a Happier Parent.
Now if you would like to learn in more detail how to develop leadership skills in your children read this post.
Some days parents thrive and other days they just survive.
Nevertheless, these 6 leadership qualities can help us raise good leaders.
This post was about the most essential leadership qualities of parents.
Now we know the qualities that we need to improve in ourselves
and cultivate in our little leaders.
I would love to read your thoughts below!
