For the last 20 years in my professional life I have attended numerous softskills and leadership development programs and as a trainer and a leadership coach i have trained many people so far. However I always wonder how much would that be helping people to transform.
Personally I felt there were only few trainings which i attended which was really impactful. The very reason is because at this age we all are hardwired and its very hard to unlearn something and adopt quickly to a behavioural change or a change in our thinking patterns.I wish i could have got exposed to some personality development and leadership development programs at an early age.
However as a parent now I need to take a call on what exposure I need to give my children from now on. I am sure most of you can relate to my situation and more so if you feel your child is also going through some of these.
Does he or she communicate confidently ? Does he or she interact with you as a parent ? Is he or she comfortable in a group of strangers? Does he spend more time on Electronics gadgets or likes to go out to play with friends? Does he or she have any stage fear ? Does he or she get too stressed in general and mostly during exam time ?Does he or she have enough friends or can he make new friends with ease? How about his listening skills ? Does he or she manage time well ? Does he or she always come up with creative ideas ? Does he or she take failure positively ?
Does he or she have a role model ( it can be anyone – Mahatma Gandhi ,Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Messi, M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli ) Any one from whom he or she gets influenced and inspired.
If most of the answers are not favourable then we need to certainly think about what we can do as a parent to prepare our child for a better future.
By the way many of us, through exposure to popular media, largely associate leadership with professional adults who are in executive management roles in politics, government, or business. However, if we reflect on our life experiences, we notice that leadership opportunities really begin in youth and this is where the most influential leadership life lessons emerge.
We need to be encouraged, role modelled, and nurtured to develop these skills and it should begin in childhood.
Keeping this in mind, Indian leadership academy has come up with a leadership development program called Future leaders.
The future leaders is a comprehensive program where we cover topics like Leadership styles and Qualities, Developing Social skills, Effective Communication and Presentation skills, Time management, Stress management, Team building, Emotional intelligence, Appreciating Diverse cultures, Creative and innovation skills and more importantly how to create a Entrepreneurship mindset form now on.
The program is designed by Corporate gurus and IIM Alumni’s and is targeted at the age group of 10-18 years.
please write to me and my team at nextgenleaders@outlook.com for more details and get in touch with us if you want to contribute in any way for improvising the content and the approach. we all need your support in building our future leaders.
Kaushik Mahapatra
Leadership coach, Founder – Indian leadership academyKaushikmahapatra.com/ilacademy.in
