How Kids Become Leaders: 4 Essential Skills & Their Benefits
Barbara Farland • January 20, 2024
How do you define the word “leader”? What images or specific people come to mind? Traits such as charisma and wisdom might top your list, perhaps the likes of corporate executives and famous personas, too. But in its truest sense, leadership means influence—and anyone can grow in that! That’s why leadership is a core value at Brightmont Academy, a one-to-one private school with 18 campuses across the U.S.
At Brightmont, leadership takes on an even deeper and holistic meaning among our teachers and students. In addition to setting high expectations for performance and employing best practices of educational excellence, we believe in the lifelong positive benefits of practicing leadership skills at a very young age.
So what are some essential leadership skills? We believe there are four key skills that reap lasting benefits no matter who you are and what you do…
- Skill: Communication = Benefit: Advocacy
To say that communication is multifaceted is quite the understatement. Communication involves speaking, writing, tone, body language, etc. It is foundational to development and relationship-building. A primary benefit of good communication skills? The ability to advocate—the ability to speak up and communicate clearly about things that matter.
Where does advocacy show up in the real world? Of course, there are countless political and social causes for which people may advocate. But advocacy is also a critical professional skill. Think of department managers, salespeople, teachers, mechanics, and other workers. In the end, they are all hired either to promote their organizations’ services and products to the public, and/or to advocate for certain strategies and plans behind the scenes.
In other words, career success is often rooted in good communication and advocacy!
- Skill: Listening = Benefit: Comprehension
If we think of communication as both input and output, listening is also an important leadership skill. Growing in listening skills isn’t always an easy task, but the benefits of listening are definitely worth the work.The practice of active listening not only produces social benefits, such as empathy and tact, but also leads to better understanding of academic concepts, organizational systems and processes, and world events.
In education, we often link the topic of comprehension with reading, but listening and reading go hand in hand. Both are about processing information, which entails not only taking in details, but also being able to translate them, summarize them, and reshare them when appropriate. The benefits? People who comprehend things well are more likely to experience less frustration and greater efficiency no matter the scenario, thus making them strong leaders.
3. Skill: Responsibility = Benefit: Independence
Look at any organization that specializes in early childhood development and you’ll notice a theme: the importance of helping even the youngest kids become responsible. Sure, when kids of any age assist with chores and other obligations, it takes a nice load off their parents—there are a lot of practical benefits in the short term. But a sense of responsibility also makes for a lifelong leader.
Where does a sense of responsibility lead? In a word, independence. Financial independence may come immediately to mind, but a responsible person is better able to become independent in a wide variety of ways. Responsibility grows one’s ability to be discerning, savvy, and creative. This person is more likely to form unique thoughts and ideas that improve their quality of life and enrich their contributions to society.
4. Skill: Goal-setting = Benefit: Confidence + Perseverance
Outcomes are another core value at Brightmont and for good reason. Goal-setting not only propels student progress and mastery, but also serves them well in preparing for leadership roles.
The benefits of goal-setting? When a student sets and communicates their goals, then measures and understands their progress toward meeting those goals, they become more confident in their ability to face tasks and challenges of all kinds. They develop a positive self-esteem, can-do attitude, and systematic way of working through problems. Even more, they know how to persevere when worse comes to worst. Needless to say, who wouldn’t want to follow a leader like that?
Students enjoy many meaningful, lifelong benefits from demonstrating good leadership skills. More than that, as good leaders, they are appreciated and admired by the people around them. And that’s exactly our hope and our passion at Brightmont: to help grow leaders who will live joy-filled lives of influence—and change the world for the better.
Barbara Farland is an English & Social Studies instructor at Brightmont Academy in Plymouth, Minn. She holds a master’s degree in Business Communication from the University of St. Thomas and, prior to pursuing a second career in education, worked as an award-winning public relations and communications professional in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. As a “storyteller by nature and teacher at heart,” Barbara continues to contribute to various anthologies, among other writing projects.
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In an August 2024 interview with People magazine , Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz shared how his son, Gus, has a “secret power.” That is how the Walz family has come to describe Gus’s diagnosis with multiple learning challenges, including ADHD. The Walzes are not alone in seeing neurodiversity’s benefits. Many families, along with teaching and mental health professionals, are now commonly referring to these benefits as “superpowers.” In fact, neurodiversity often proves itself not only advantageous to those directly affected but also necessary to the workings of the world.
