My youngest grandson started 4K kindergarten. This is a half day program that gets the kids used to having a little more structure, teaches good socialization and they begin the journey into formal education. He is a quiet one, the youngest of three boys and he seemed so young going off to school. However, he can be independent and holds his own with his 2 older brothers (5 & 7).
His teacher shared the following story about his first week at school.
At recess the group has a specific amount of time to be on the playground and “burn out energy”. When it is time to go in, the teacher begins clapping. When you hear the clapping, you clap and get in line at the door. This was done for the first couple of days.
On day four, the grandson began standing by the door and started clapping. Soon he had almost the entire class standing in line at the door, ready to go in. Once he had a good crowd, he yelled… “Fooled you!”, and ran off into the playground, as it was not even close to the time they were to go in.
The teacher had to go over and tell all the other kids it was not time and they needed to go play!
Of course, I found this humorous, and I was a little proud!
Is this his first foray into leadership? Did it click that he was able to get others to follow him, or was this just a fun-loving prank?
We obviously know leadership skills can be taught. We teach these skills all the time, but we have also heard people have natural leadership traits.
In my line of work, I deal mostly with adults. Helping them develop their own leadership skills, building off their natural traits, and teaching how to understand their personality tendencies as well as others. As adults, much of this is already formed.
As time moves on, we will see if he has natural-born tendencies or was he just a fun-loving kid playing a joke on his classmates!
It is interesting watching all my grandchildren grow up, to see what kind of people they will become. Will they be leaders or followers? What kind of interests and natural abilities will they have? How can I help influence them to be successful, productive people?
I enjoyed watching this growth with my own children, and I am looking forward to watching the grand children grow and offer that grandfatherly advice when appropriate.
Prime Leadership & Development 