10 Ways to Raise a Successful Leader
By Sally Sacks, M. Ed.

Leaders are very influenced by the words and actions of those raising them. What we do and say influences our children. They imitate our actions as we are their role models of relationships, and of people interacting. Our leadership shows children how to live in this world, with all it's challenges and responsibilities, reasonably and with reduced stress. We show then how to treat others, provide a positive belief systems, model fairness, cooperation with others, and demonstrate how to manage time and acts of daily living on personal and school matters. We teach our children about how to interact as people, and how to get along in the world.

We can see how easily non-leaders and non productive people/leaders can be are turned if we fail to be good role models. There are parents that teach fighting and project negative energy. There are people that hate and project that onto their children, those who lack of fairness and equality. There are parents that don't have time for their children, or who are emotionally or physically absent, due to their own problems. Most likely, 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 ten 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 such as working hard, setting 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 them credit for their knowledge of how to do something. Ask them to teach you something they know and you don't, like beading, knitting, playing an x box game, etc

4. Encourage their input into ideas. Ask them what they think about a news event, or a topic of discussion. Allow them to express their point of view, even if it differs from yours.

5. Give them chores/projects to do that make them feel good about their accomplishments. Maybe they can learn to make a soup for dinner, or clean an area of the house, and arrange a room as they would like it. Praise them for their efforts.

6. Let them make decisions about dinner, what they'd like to do on the weekend, where they might like to vacation.

7. Show them how you take charge of situations. If you're bored, you create something to do. If you are short money you take action to do something about it. You do not let situations bowl you over and render you helpless.

8. Teach your children how to think positively. Teach them how thinking can get negative, and how to insert positive thinking into their mind immediately. This is a skill they will have, and need forever.

9. Show passion, courage and bravery in your own life.

10. Encourage freedom in themselves, to be and express who they are and allow others to do the same, when not putting someone else in harm's way.

Just remember that you need to teach what you want to see in your children by setting examples by your words and actions. We must be constantly mindful of our actions if we want to raise a leader, be it a leader in our child's own personal world, or in the world at large. We often may do or say the wrong thing, or a non productive thing, but if we are always mindful of the most productive words and behaviors to use, our kids will have a good chance of succeeding in this challenging world ahead.

Sally Sacks M. Ed., is a seasoned psychotherapist with 30 years of experience in counseling. She has 20 years of experience, counseling individuals, children, families and couples. Sally is the author of https://www.sallysacks.com. More about Sally Sacks M. Ed.