Tips for Your Child to Become a Leader

By Sally Sacks
www.sallysacks.com

1. Lead by example. Remember you won't always be the best example, because you are human, but admit your mistakes and always be aware of your responsibility as a role model.
    
2. Take charge of things in your life and let your child see you doing this. Work hard, set goals for yourself, and follow those goals. Encourage your child to identify goals and help him/her to attain them.
    
3. Sponsor activities that your child likes and give him or her credit for knowing how to do something. Ask your child to teach you something, even if it's something like playing a video game.
    
4. Encourage your child's input: Ask what he or she thinks about a news event, for example.
    
5. Give your child chores/projects to do and praise his or her accomplishments.
    
6. Let your child make decisions about dinner, what he or she would like to do on the weekend, or where the family might like to vacation.
    
7. Show your child that, if you are bored, you create something to do. If you are short of money, you take action to do something about it. You do not let situations render you helpless.
    
8. Teach your children how to think positively. Teach them how thinking can get negative, and how to insert positive thinking into their minds immediately. This is a skill they will need forever.
    
9. Show passion, courage, and bravery in your own life. Act out of opportunity, not out of fear.
    
10. Encourage your children's freedom to be and to express who they are, and encourage them to allow others to do the same, as long as such expressions aren't hateful or harmful.

Sally Sacks, M.Ed is a licensed psychotherapist, with 20 years of experience, counseling individuals, children, families and couples. Sally is the author of How to Raise the Next President, a groundbreaking parents' guide to teaching and instilling in their kids the qualities they'll need to be happy, successful and productive, no matter which path they choose in life. Sally offers personal and group coaching and can be reached through her website at www.sallysacks.com.

01/25/2006