Leadership for Kids: Activities, Qualities & Skills

Creator: Anisha Nair
Published: 2018-08-17 12:18:27

By Anisha Nair | Updated: 03/10/2024

Medically Reviewed By

Harsha G Ramaiya (Counsellor)

A leader is a person to whom everyone looks up to. All of us come across different kinds of leaders in our walks of life, from our very homes to our workplaces, from our surroundings to our countries. Reading the biographies of great leaders, you might have noticed the various incidents in their childhood that shaped their attitude towards life. Encouraging leadership for kids through different activities and practices is essential for nurturing their confidence, decision-making skills, and ability to work well with others. Read on to learn the best ways and activities for teaching kids about leadership.

What Is Leadership?

The words’ leader’ and ‘leadership’ are spoken so quickly that very few truly understand what they mean. Many confuse leadership with position or power. However, in children, leadership tends to indicate the innate ability of a child to gather different people and help everyone work together towards a singular goal. This includes developing the path to be followed and the best way to reach the destination (1).

Essential Qualities Needed to Become a Good Leader

Any person can become a leader, but every person cannot be said to be a good leader. There are certain qualities that a leader must possess if he wants people to believe in him and look up to him. The following are the qualities of a good leader (3):

Before people can believe in a leader, a leader must believe in himself. He needs to be honest with himself and with others to form a bond of trust and faith.
A leader should be dedicated and practical. His own emotions or prejudices should not influence him.
To become a good leader, one should possess listening skills, i.e., listening to what others say. A good leader also considers and acknowledges other people’s opinions.
Being fair is also one of the leadership qualities needed to become a good leader. He acknowledges suggestions and opinions that work towards achieving the goal without bias toward who put them forward or how.
Decision-making skills are also one of the main qualities required to become a good leader. The goal can be achieved by making the right decisions, which is one of the strongest abilities that a leader needs to present.

Nobody likes a dictator or an autocrat. A leader is one who maintains a positive attitude, motivates people, is not egoistic, and enjoys some humour.

Why Is It Important to Cultivate Leadership Skills in Kids?

Learning something early in life helps you get better at it in the future. Apart from all the technical skills, leadership is also one of the essential skills that can make your child stand out (2).

The core of leadership is confidence and the ability to believe in yourself. To move ahead in life, your child needs to believe in his own abilities and have the confidence to try out new activities. Leadership skills help him with that.
Social skills are paramount in the world. Giving your opinion and leading a team can only work when your communication skills are strong and you can express your thoughts lucidly.
The world today needs more leaders and entrepreneurs who can shift traditional methods and make way for better ways to lead our lives. To have such leaders, we need to sculpt our children and make them strong enough to face competition and create an identity for themselves.

15 Ways to Inculcate Leadership Skills in Children

There are a bunch of points you can keep in mind when teaching your child leadership skills.

1. Be an Example

It all starts at home. Let your child look up to you as a leader and inspire him to become one. This is the greatest way to let your child move in the right direction.

2. Put Together a Team

Schedule some activities that he can enjoy with a group of friends or other kids. These could be as simple as playing a sport or going on a picnic, where he can work together as a team.

3. When You Fall, Rise Again

Teach your child to handle failure gracefully. Tell him to consider failure a learning opportunity. Teach him to accept his mistakes and give them another shot by doing better.

4. Negotiation Is a Skill

Some children work by compromising. If your child is stubborn or too complacent, gently teach him to choose between options that seem the best or present options to you when confronted with a choice.

5. Let Them Make Decisions

Let him decide for himself first what clothes to wear or what to eat. As he grows old, let him pick a movie for the entire family or a list of holiday destinations everyone can enjoy.

6. Tiny Acts of Confidence

Confidence is not built in a day. It’s a gradual process that comes with handling various situations. Encourage your kids to take on small tasks that you’d normally do for them. These could be as simple as letting the restaurant server know everyone’s order, or bargaining at the grocery store. Each small victory will boost their confidence.

7. Work Develops Humility

By encouraging your child to help with activities at home, helping a neighbour out, or even starting his own club or a stall at a fair, you expose your child to a potential leadership situation.

8. Make Him Join a Camp

Various summer camps allow your kid to interact with numerous children, learn how everyone behaves, and complete the tasks assigned to them. This way, your kid will learn to work all by himself, and working on his own and making decisions all by himself will instil leadership qualities in him.

9. Be a Family

Keep away from those phones at night and play a board game or a card game together as a family. While enjoying this family moment, your child will learn various skills, such as interacting with people and making strategic decisions.

10. Start a Project

Ask your kid to work on a small project, like making a gift for Dad or deciding on the place and menu for a picnic. Let him get help from his friends; this way, he will learn to make decisions and work together as a team. These qualities will later help him in life.

11. Give Them a Board

Arranging various sticky notes and organising objects properly can inculcate a feeling of achievement. By organising objects in the right manner, he will learn to organise things, but this little work of organising will also help him to clear his thoughts. He will also learn to prioritise his work.

12. Avoid Spoon Feeding

Let your child learn by himself. Avoid providing any help or advice unless he asks for it. Allowing your child to work independently and handle a situation all by himself helps develop problem-solving skills. And problem-solving skills are essential to become a good leader.

13. Get Him a Mentor

If your child shows interest in a particular field, look for experts and ask them if they could guide your child. This can be of great help in creating a future leader. Your child can guide others, too, if you nurture his talent in childhood.

14. Read a Lot

Not just you, but let your child join in, too. Reading books and articles helps expand the horizon of his mind and be open to new ideas.

15. Reward Optimism

Make sure you encourage your child whenever he looks at an obstacle positively, makes efforts to overcome it, and maintains a positive attitude.

Activities That Help Build Leadership Qualities in Kids

Some fun leadership activities for kids can help them develop the qualities required to become good leaders.

1. Egg Transfer

Working as a group, let the leader decide how best to pass an egg from one end to another. Coming up with creative ideas is a bonus.

2. Draw Me

Let children draw on paper and present themselves as a project, discussing their skills and dreams.

3. Listening Carefully

Pair up kids as speakers and listeners and let the speaker talk about his own life and family. You can quiz the listener about various aspects he spoke about and check how well he can recall them. This will develop the listening skills that are important to becoming a good leader.

4. Lead the Blind

Make a group of children. Each group will have a leader. Blindfold the group members of each team. The respective leaders of each team, who are not blindfolded, will have to lead the entire team to a safe spot using clear and precise commands from a distance.

5. Similarities and Differences

Let children talk about what is similar between them and another person and what is different. This helps in accepting everyone as equal and fosters friendships.

FAQs

1. Can leadership skills be taught, or are they innate?

While some children may have natural leadership tendencies, leadership skills can be taught and nurtured in all kids. Through guidance, practice, and positive reinforcement, children can learn the qualities that make a good leader, such as empathy, resilience, and the ability to inspire others (2).

2. At what age should children start learning leadership skills?

Children can begin learning leadership skills at a young age, as early as preschool. Simple activities that promote sharing, decision-making, and teamwork can lay the foundation for more complex leadership skills as they grow. The key is to introduce age-appropriate challenges that encourage responsibility and initiative (4).

Remember, the brilliant minds of today are the leaders of tomorrow. As a parent, teacher, or educator, you play a crucial role in shaping your child’s future. By encouraging the proper skills and introducing great activities, you can take the appropriate steps in shaping your child into a confident individual, ready to lead in the future.