Schools often encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities like participating in fundraisers, and it’s not just for fun and the satisfaction of helping others. These activities help develop students’ leadership skills alongside their teamwork, communication and interpersonal skills. During their time at school, students should take advantage of these opportunities to prepare for their future.

Why are leadership skills important?

Leadership skills are skills for life. Good leaders can motivate, influence and direct others towards a goal and enable everyone to work as a team. As students grow past working with textbook examples and into real-world scenarios, these skills become more important than ever. At i-Learner, we want to help students become well-rounded individuals as much as we want to support them in their academics today. When the time comes to apply for university, demonstrating leadership through activities such as leading a project or being the captain of a sports team will make their application shine.

How do I develop my child’s leadership skills?

There are many ways to develop your child’s leadership skills, and this task can start small. Here are some things that can help your child:

Give them more responsibility

Leaders have to be responsible for projects and to others. Start by giving your child something to be responsible for, such as looking after a house plant or cooking rice for dinner each day.

Develop their discipline

Discipline is needed to get things done, but it is a skill that takes a long time to develop. You can start your child on their journey by giving them targets and goals, such as needing to complete their homework before watching TV.

Teach them empathy

Good leaders don’t just lead by telling. They care about other people and understand exactly what motivates them. Teach your child to understand others by getting them to put themselves in others’ shoes. Talking about the actions of book and movie characters is a great way to do this.

Listening and learning

As adults, we receive feedback and criticism in many forms, and to receive this positively we have had to develop resiliency. Help your child to understand that feedback can be helpful and that listening to feedback will help them improve. Discuss a piece of feedback they’ve received on their schoolwork and ask what they can learn from it.

 

Leadership includes a wide range of other skills, including problem-solving, communication and teamwork. To get your child developing their full range of leadership skills, why not sign them up for an extracurricular activity where they get to be in charge? At i-Learner, we offer project-based courses that allow students to develop a range of leadership skills. Check out our brochure for more information on the projects your child can get involved with.