9 Leadership Steps For Parents and Teachers

9 Leadership Steps

I love to watch leaders grow! It’s fun to see someone take their first steps into leadership. Leadership is a choice, a choice that more of us need to take. At home our children need parent leaders. At school, our children need teachers and administrators to offer clear direction and coaching. Here are some Kids […]


Leaders Lead

Leaders Lead

Effective leaders empower the whole person to do the whole job of self-leadership and management. Epictetus said it well over two thousand years ago, “No man is free who is not master of himself.” In order to help others help themselves, we have to engage their minds, bodies, heart and spirits. We must include them […]


Leaders Are Committed

Leaders Are Committed

Peter Drucker, one of the greatest management minds of our time, wrote that with a few hundred years’ perspective, historians may view our time as one of “unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time–literally–substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. […]


Leaders Take Risks

Leaders Take Risks

Our initial responsibility as leaders, no matter what field we are in, is to first do no harm. If we are going to be problem solvers and remove obstacles to a child’s development, we have to take risks. Change always involves the danger that what we do may not work, but change also creates the […]


Leaders Have Imagination

Leaders Have Imagination

Being an effective leader requires immense imagination. As leaders we must envision the person who is not yet there; the situation that has not arrived; the community that is to be formed. As leaders we must imagine the human potential, and this is no small or easy task. We have to have vision and curiosity. […]


Leaders Have Spirit

Leaders Have Spirit

One definition of spirit is “a particular mood or emotional state characterized by vigor and animation.” As leaders we need to have enthusiasm for the work we are doing, the people we are working with, and the place where we work and play. As parent  and school leaders we model to our children what it […]


Leaders Respond

Leaders Respond

Responsibility. Think of responsibility as being able to respond with ability. As leaders, if we are to respond with ability, we must have certain skills, knowledge and attitudes. We must cultivate a habit of enlarging, as well as focusing, vital attitudes, knowledge and skills. To know and not to do, is really not to know. […]


Leaders Listen

Leaders Listen

As we examine the leader in the mirror, we should see improvement and growth as we work to enlarge our sphere of influence by learning and practicing new skills based on principles that represent the people and causes we value most. To grow as a leader we must have integrity, empathy, and critical thinking skills […]


Leaders Grow

Leaders Grow

Research shows that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of focused practice to become a master musician, artist, dancer…parent or leader. One of the first steps in becoming a leader is realizing that proficiency requires a significant amount of time, commitment and dedication. How much time is 10,000 hours? Practice eight hours a day, […]


Leaders Innovate

Leaders Innovate

Making small adjustments in our lives in terms of vision, discipline, passion and conscience provide big payback on our leadership growth and abilities. Vision requires our mental skills of using imagination and curiosity. Discipline in turn uses our mind to control our physical challenges. Passion arrives when we find purpose in our lives. Conscience deals […]