KidLead Insights

This week I had the opportunity to Skype with a professor,about bringing KidLead to China.  I was quite intrigued by this PhD's interest, not so much on our curricula for ages 6-18, but rather 2-5s.  When I asked why, she said it's because by school age, parents are very focused on helping their children obtain academic success and busy them with all sorts of tutoring and school-oriented programs.  Her strategy was to get to young leaders early, very early. I am amazed how "busy kids" is the modus operandi globally, not just for those of us in the US.  We hear the same things with our work in Thailand, Singapore, and Dubai.  Ironically,the academic success feeding frenzy preoccupies children from developing life skills that will help them accomplish more in life.  An organization has emerged to push back on this tendency, of all places, at Stanford University ( http://www.challengesuccess.org/ ).  Fortunately, some savvy people are recognizing there is more to lif

This quarter I'm teaching two sections of organizational behavior at the Naval Postgraduate School.  My students include helicopter and jet instructors, FBI staff, and other military officers.  As a civilian, I enjoy coming on campus on Tuesdays, the day when everyone wears his/her uniform.  You can see people in the same branch of the military, saluting each other, the lower ranking officer initiating the salute out of respect to the higher rank. I want to salute the men and women who are working with young leaders around the world.  They are paying it forward, giving respect to those who will run organizations around the globe some day.  Right now, most people only see them as kids; immature, challenging, and only "future" leaders.  Unfortunately, this prevailing attitude sets them up to fail, missing strategic developmental windows when character and skills can be obtained, quite early.  I salute the parents, teachers and children/youth workers who see what I do, l