KidLead Insights

Years ago, we met a preteen named Jeff DeWit, who attended the same church as us. Jeff eventually became a family friend who babysat our sons. He went to USC, then became a successful stock trader, got married, and is now the state treasurer of Arizona. A few months ago, Donald Trump asked Jeff to be the COO of his campaign and we know the results.  So while Jan. 20 is the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. It's also my behind the scenes view of how a 12-year old can grow up to become a very influential leader and why we all need to be looking differently at the children, preteens and teens around us, seeing their leadership potential and developing it as soon as possible. Here's an LA Biz article I wrote, related to this. Click HERE .

All LeadYoung Training curricula, age-sized for 3-23 year old leaders, are designed to develop organizational leadership training skills in the very young.  To do this involves selecting a specific student who is in charge of leading 3-5 of his/her peers in a project with a clear goal. This individual wears a Leader Lanyard, to let the others know s/he should not be hijacked, but allowed to lead. It is the lanyard of responsibility, NOT authority. As the Los Angeles Chair of the Institute for Management Studies, I work with billion dollar corporations, assisting them in developing their leaders.  One of the most difficult things they face is promoting technicians to managerial positions. Titles do not a leader make. Leaders understand the power of synergy, when a team outperforms the sum total of the individual participants. Leaders elevate the IQ of a group, beyond that of its smartest member(s). LeadYoung's project-based training curricula are modeled after executive programs

No matter what you think of Walmart, the world's #1 retailer knows how to get things done. I interviewed the Director of Global Strategy and Leadership Development, Dr. Jay McNaught, who did his dissertation on how leaders make decisions.  One of the reasons that good leaders make bad decisions is because they're unfamiliar with their preferred decision making style and how it is less effective in certain situations. We need to help young leaders discover theirs and then understand its strengths and weaknesses.  To read my L.A. Biz article on this, click HERE .