Years ago, I was involved with a firm that experimented with teaching leadership principles to elementary school children. We were introducing the same skills to 3rd and 4th graders that we teach managers in large corporations. These nine- and ten-year-olds had no trouble understanding such concepts as the importance of preserving self-confidence in your colleagues or the dangers of focusing on personalities. In fact, they lost no time in applying the principles to their parents (who are, after all, their immediate supervisors). I can't help smiling when I think of a 3rd grader informing her parents that they were not focusing on the problem, but only on the person. From this we concluded that it's never too early to teach leadership skills.
I'm not suggesting that fostering leadership skills in the schools is a corporation's responsibility (that's really a subject for another day). But I am arguing that leadership development can be taught at any age — and that companies wait far, far too long to begin. And when I say late, I mean very late.
To read the full, original article click on this link: We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders - Jack Zenger - Harvard Business Review
