Almost every parent I have spoken to wants to develop leadership skills in their children. While some people appear to be born leaders, many others argue that this is a myth. Where do I sit? I believe that leadership is a skill that can be developed and modeled by parents.
Granted, there are many variables that will impact upon a person’s ability to lead successfully: willingness , creativity and intelligence rate high on the scale BUT, understanding and surviving group dynamics is at the core of leadership skills. This is an area that as parents, we can teach our children about AND practice ourselves while we are active in our on-line group at Families.com.
KidSource On-Line, Leadership Development, locates eight characteristics of leadership that we can help to develop in our children and ourselves:
• The desire to be challenged.
• The ability to solve problems creatively.
• The ability to reason critically.
• The ability to see new relationships.
• Facility of verbal expression.
• Flexibility in thought and action.
• The ability to tolerate ambiguity.
• The ability to motivate others.
These characteristics all involve a degree of individual understanding and skill development in the area of group survival. Some groups can be difficult to endure, but skillful navigation of the dynamics makes for an enjoyable and positive growth experience.
Groups can be closed or open. Closed groups are number set from the beginning with no new members allowed. The group dynamics follow a clear path and members are at the same psychological stage at the same time. Families.com is an open group though because members can come and go as they please. Therefore, new members will each go through five distinct stages of group dynamics, at different times, while working out what Families.com is about, if they feel welcome and if they wish to stay. For this reason, it is imperative that we all understand what is happening when people complain or become angry toward Families.com, and more importantly, what we each can do to guide the change and grow our own characteristics of leadership.
In the next article, we will look at the Five Steps to Group Development. Families.com will be used as an example of a group and an opportunity for all of us to display the eight characteristics of leadership.