How to Model Leadership to Your Teenage Children

1. Openly admit your mistakes.

Graciously standing up after huge troubles is an essential leadership quality that every person must have. This would very much model introspection or self-awareness. You would like to train future CEOs and Founders of institutions at home by showing them that they have to take accountability with whatever they failed in doing, or whatever details they overlooked, leading to mistakes.

You do not want to train them to be know-it-all’s by constantly criticizing and focusing on their mistakes instead of improvements. Help them get comfortable in making mistakes, yet confident to make better solutions. Fearing mistakes, will not make creative and resourceful individuals. Let them think of ways on how to redeem themselves.

By this way, you indirectly teach them to apologize to people they have wronged, to understand people who make mistakes by delaying judgment.

2. Give them rules.



In movies, we see parents giving in to teenagers’ whims and wishes by going on with the flow on how their children think nowadays, and forgetting about parent duties like giving rules.

In teenage years, more often than not, children feel persecuted for their raging explorations that will make parents cry with desperation which may be due to fear that these youngsters may hurt themselves, or because they may get into too much trouble they couldn’t get away from. In simple acts like keeping them grounded on a weekend when they miss the curfew will be helpful in teaching the discipline and self-control. That way, you will feel comfortable letting them go out because you know that you at least taught them limits.

One of the best thing in giving rules is making your children realize the essence of time. Every urgent transaction they will deal with in the future will be time and productivity within such period given. Enough time urgency to be acquired by youth shall be imperative in the value of respecting their time and someone else's.

3. Give credit to what is due.

Overly praising your children, it will come to a time when they feel desensitized with praises. Timely criticisms and praises will help them view themselves clearly, and will make them strive towards excellence. You can’t speak too soon and too late.

You want to congratulate them on their achievements just when it happened, and you want to give them constructive criticisms the soonest. Instead of showering them with gifts, treat them with quality time and experiences.

4. Refuse to be disrespected gracefully.

This is hard to model because this may happen rarely. Say a waitress weren’t attentive, and sounding irritated on answering your questions, your child feels your fume. You cannot show your child that you can act mean towards that waitress. There are many ways to tell a person that they are doing it wrong without having to sound rude. Assertiveness is the key, tell the waitress you would love it if she smiles. Whatever ways you can say it without having to embarrass her because she might have just gone through a bad day, and like everybody is guilty of misplaced frustration.

A lot of times, we criticize and also a lot of times, we don’t contribute to improvements. Focus on what you want to happen rather than the things that aren’t operating well. Do what you are saying, and mean everything you say.


#parenting
#leadership
#values
#psychology
#time

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