Parents and teachers want children to be independent thinkers. They encourage children to develop their own opinions and have the courage to stand up for them. Whether you are working with children who are yours or you’re a caretaker for someone else’s children, learning how to lead them effectively is important. You may want to lead your kids to practice a healthy lifestyle, develop better communication skills, or something else. In any case, good leadership is a way to reach your goals with the children in your care.

How do you become a good leader for kids? It can be hard to know if you’re not used to it, or if you didn’t have strong leaders when you were a child. Here are some tips.

Set an Example

You’ve probably heard “lead by example,” but that means more than just doing something and hoping your kids will notice and imitate your behavior. It also means being purposeful in setting an example, and you’ll need to stop practicing certain behaviors and pay attention to what you say.

For instance, if you want your children to be patient with others – an important leadership attribute – then take care that you’re patient with them. If you want your children to be able to make decisions like a leader, then make sure you’re not making all of their decisions for them. Don’t be a helicopter parent. Permit your children to make mistakes and learn from them. To lead by example, you need to think about more than just living out healthy, positive lifestyle choices (although that’s important, too). It’s also important to set an example of how to treat others.

Include Them

Whether you are a teacher or a parent, including the children in your care is important to instill leadership. How do you include them? First, let them help. In the classroom, this might be a simple task like collecting papers and passing out papers. Students might be allowed to write an assignment on the board for the teacher. At home, let your children be a part of your daily routines, helping you wash the car and clean the house. After all, these are life skills, and those are the building blocks for good leadership.

Delegate

Good leaders know how to delegate responsibilities and tasks. In your home or classroom, give kids many different responsibilities. You can set things up so that the children in your care have a job to complete, and they have to delegate tasks to others to finish it. A different approach could be to simply explain the task, and give a job to each child to get it done. They will see the value of delegating. Perhaps, you might may explain that many jobs cannot be completed by one person without help from others. Each child participating will still have the satisfaction of helping to get something done.

Allow Them to Help Others

Wherever you can, let your kids help each other without being bossy or bullying. In fact, being bossy is not a good leadership skill. This is important to emphasize when you are working with children in different age groups. Teach them how to help others in an appropriate way, and then set up a scenario where that help can happen. When older siblings learn how to mentor rather than supervise a younger sibling, they learn how to transfer this skill from the family to the outside world. This method works in the classroom or at home with friends and/or siblings.

To Sum Up

Children are like sponges. They soak up what they see and hear in the world around them. Adults are their first role models. Parents, teachers, and caretakers set the example for the youth who will become tomorrow’s future. We will reap what we sow.

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