Leadership Parenting

Parenting is all about leadership. Children idealize their parents thinking everything they do is “normal” and that what they do it’s how things should be done. What happens when parents don’t practice values?

Leadership and Values

Been a parent involves you in practicing values. The most important of them is respect. Once you practiced respect, you would practice love, tolerance, and the list goes on. Respect is something you win by respecting others. If you show respect to your partner, mother, friends, and extended family, you would never have to struggle telling your child how to behave. Using right words, communicating in a healthy way, and serving others it’s how you teach your child to be a leader.

Leaders vs. Despots

A leader is a person who takes people where they never thought they could ever get. How do you that? By listening and compromising with the ideals of each person in order to accomplish together the ideal of a group. Instead, a despot makes people do what she/he wants them to do by ordering and by using fear as a way to make people work.

I’ll take an example from modern history: Nelson Mandela is a man that still today people feel attracted to, respect his name, admire his life, and follow him. He moves masses because of his commitment to his people and his country, because of his values, because he served his nation by fighting for the rights of his people. At his age and with no governmental charge, he’s still a leader. For the contrary, despots’ tyranny lasts for a short time.  Their lack of values makes people unhappy. Having people against you is usually what makes despots fall.

Think about how you are parenting and what do you want for your child. Authoritarian parenting usually leads to rebellion or/and insecure children. Passive parenting leads to children that do not practice values. Parenting should be balanced and should start by trusting yourself and your partner as a parent.

Trust, the Secret of Leadership

Practicing values will lead you to trust. Trusting your child to take the lead but knowing you’re there for him is the way you form a leader. A leader doesn’t take charge; he delegates and trusts the people around him/her. Trusting others is part of commitment. If there’s trust, strong relationships follow. If people trust you they follow you.

The question is: Do your children trust you?

Trust begins with protection. When your child feels protected, he/she will trust you. He/she knows, even as a baby, that you are always there. That’s why the attachment parenting approach is basic to form leaders. Values of taking care of others, sharing, and trusting come from the moment a baby is born. Once you’ve created a strong bonding, your child’s will extrapolate this bonding with others. Reading feelings, practicing values, and leadership are part of the “Emotional Intelligence”. Been caregivers instead of trainers will provide your children with the tools they need in life to be able to succeed as adults.

This video explains exactly how important is to practice values as parents...