10 Ways Your Parenting Might Be Crippling Your Kids’ Leadership Potential

Kathy Caprino’s recent article in Forbes highlighted 7 ways parents may be contributing to the stunted growth of their kids’ leadership potential. She interviewed a guy named Tim Elmore who has written some books on leadership. From the article, he seems to have a pretty good pulse on the current generation of youth and parents.

7 THINGS ABOUT YOUR PARENTING THAT MIGHT BE CRIPPLING YOUR KIDS’ LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL:

  1. We don’t let our children experience risk
  2. We rescue too quickly
  3. We rave too easily
  4. We let guilt get in the way of leading well
  5. We don’t share our past mistakes
  6. We mistake intelligence, giftedness and influence for maturity
  7. We don’t practice what we preach

I love this list and it really challenges me in some of my common parenting mistakes (the article really fleshes this out, I recommend reading it).

3 MORE COMMON MISTAKES SOME PARENTS MAKE THAT STUNT LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL IN THEIR KIDS

As a parent and a youth worker I thought of three more things that I would probably add to this list. These are 3 common ways we stunt the leadership potential in our kids:

  1. We subtly communicate the false notion that we are more different from one another than we are alike.
  2. We fail to show respect to our kids in ways they need it.
  3. We unknowingly communicate that we are doubting they have what it takes.

If you’d like to delve further into ways you can avoid these pitfalls, please read my post: 3 Things Teenagers Need to Hear from Adults.

To read Caprino’s full article, “7 Crippling Parenting Behaviors That Keep Children From Growing Into Leaders,”  just follow the link below from my Twitter feed.

You Might Also Like:

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  2. God’s Amazing Design for the Parent-Child Relationship | Colossians 3:20-21
  3. How Youth Ministry Attracts Kids to Jesus
  4. The Benefits of Involving Parents (& Grandparents) in Your Student Ministry
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Categories: LEADERSHIP, MARRIAGE & FAMILY, PARENTING

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3 thoughts on “10 Ways Your Parenting Might Be Crippling Your Kids’ Leadership Potential”

  2. This is a great list and certainly convicting. As my kids get older and reach out in their own leadership sphere, I have tension with many items on this list. Do you have any suggestions on how to show respect to our kids in ways that they need it? I’m guessing that since this made your list, you have some good example of this done well in action.

    • Hey Richard, thanks for your comments. Yeah I too continue to struggle daily with this as I know that respect is what teenagers need the most, but I fail to show it sometimes in the way that meets their need. I’m not sure if this is what you were wondering about, but in my other post: “3 Things Teenagers Need to Hear from Adults” http://adenton.com/ZMbSd1 I share some specific ideas about how to show respect to teenagers… even if/when they might not be acting “respectable” at times.

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