Raising Kids to Be Leaders By Being Good Followers

Leader or follower, parents need to be Raising Kids to Be Leaders By Being Good Followers. This is a sponsored post, to encourage all parents to #TalkEarly with our kids. All opinions are my own. May contain commissioned links.

Raising Kids to Be Leaders By Being Good Followers

If you Google the words “kid leader follower,” you get all sorts of parenting advice on raising our kids to be better leaders. Emphasis on leaders

NOT followers.

Leaders are loud and bold and ready to move mountains. With the focus on strength, decision-making, role-modeling and confidence, parents quickly jump at the chance to raise kids to be BIG world changers. But how quickly do we brush aside those important follower traits? No one encourages parents to raise a follower – as if those traits are assimilated with weakness and failure.

But the truth is, they can be both.

Remember my Angry Parent Teacher Conference? We need to stop limiting our kids to be a leader or a follower. What if by raising kids to be good followers – they can become GREAT leaders? Let me explain…

Good Follower Skills Our Kids Need to Be Leaders, A Talk with Julie Foudy

Back in October 2018, we got to sit down with 2-time FIFA Women’s World Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist soccer player, Julie Foudy. From the soccer field to ESPN to empowering parents and young girls through The Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy, she knows leadership inside and out. And through her own journey and now as a parent raising her own kids she is speaking out on the leadership qualities our kids need today. And it starts with being a good follower.

“Leadership is personal, not positional.” It’s not about a position of power. Rather, it’s sometimes the quiet leaders, the strategists and the cerebral thinkers that lead better.
“Success isn’t a matter of chance, it’s a matter of choice.” Leadership isn’t always about taking bold risks, but calculated choices. It’s stepping back and thinking about the best of the group and not the person in power.
“Everyone can lead. It’s a matter of how you lead.” The key to raising kids to be leaders is by developing your child’s unique leadership style, identifying leadership traits and constantly evolving they way they lead – with their parents’ help and guidance. Everyone, even the follower can be a leader.
“The we is greater than the me.” It’s not about the leader, but the whole group – including the followers. Listening, collaborating, bringing positivity and a good attitude – all things that a good follower possess is so important to shaping our kids into better leaders.
“Failure is a great thing. By failing, that’s how you grow.” Being a follower is not something to look down on. It’s through the failures that we become better leaders.
“You have the power, even if you are the minority voice.” You don’t have to be the loudest in the room to make the important decisions. Even the introvert can be powerful.
“Be a better human being.” So simple, and yet so true. We’ve got to want to strive to be better. Leaders AND followers should both desire to be better humans. Period.

Being a good leader doesn’t mean that you have to be the loudest and boldest. Sometimes it’s the introverts with their gifts of quietness, diplomacy, collaboration, critical thinking, ethics that can make a leader better and more effective.

Raising Future Leaders Starts with Us, The Parents

Leadership is a matter of choice. Julie Foudy taught me that. Raising our kids to be leaders starts with us parents giving our kids the tools they need to make responsible choices in life. Our children are “following” our words, actions and our example in a digital world that is exposing them to drinking, drugs and adult situations faster than we can keep up. If we don’t #TalkEarly with our kids about the “hard stuff,” how can we raise them to be good leaders?

Let’s #TalkEarly During Alcohol Responsibility Month

April is Alcohol Responsibility Month. If there was ever the time to start talking about the hard topics with our kids, let me encourage you to start here. We need to give our kids the tools they need to handle peer pressure and stressful life moments down the road – before we hit the teen years. Raising kids to be leaders, it starts with parents opening the door to communication early with our children, even as young as 6-years old (like my kindergartner). Head over to Responsibility.org for conversation starters and resources so we can raise our kids to be leaders by being good followers.

Don’t underestimate our kids’ abilities. They can be so much more than just a leader or a follower. It’s our jobs to raise them to be responsible as both. It’s time to #TalkEarly.

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Parents, weigh in. Should we be raising kids to be leaders by being good followers?

I’ve been compensated as a #TalkEarly blogging ambassador for Responsibility.org for 2019. Even though this post is sponsored, I love the mission. All opinions are my own.Be sure to follow Raising Whasians for more parenting tips, easy family recipes, kids crafts and travel.