While growing up, leaders are greatly influenced by the sayings and actions of their families. Undoubtedly, everything we say and do impacts our children; they copy our behaviors, and even follow our actions and gestures because we are their role models when it comes to human relationships and interactions.

We provide guidance to our children by showing them how to live in this world, despite the challenges that come their way, and how to shoulder their responsibilities in a more moderate and less stressful way. We also edify them on the ways of interacting with others and teach them how to practice positive thinking, justice, cooperation, time management, and how to carry out the tasks of daily life, such as personal matters and school assignments. We also help them master human interaction and effectively navigate life.

We can easily see how children may grow up to not become leaders or productive people as a result of our failure to fulfill the abovementioned duties. Sadly, some parents admonish their children through arguments and transmit negative energy to them on a daily basis! Some parents harbor hatred, plant it in their children’s hearts, and uproot the values of justice and equality from them. Other parents do not have time for their children or make them feel their emotional or physical absence due to their own personal problems. There is no doubt that such children will suffer from many problems, unless they find another leader or a more positive role model to look up to for guidance. This is a possible or, rather, quite common scenario. So, the question arises as to how you can raise your child to become a leader. Here are some steps to achieve this goal.

Ten steps to bringing your child up to be a leader:

1- Lead by example: remember that you are not always the perfect role model for your child given that you are human. Rather, you should admit your mistakes and never lose sight of your responsibility.

2- Take full responsibility for all your worldly affairs and make your child witness that as much as possible. Work hard, set goals for yourself, then pursue them, and encourage your child to identify his own goals in life and then help him achieve them.

3- Support the activities your child likes and show him how proud you are of him for knowing how to do things, and ask him to teach you things that he knows and you do not.

4- Encourage your child to express his opinion. Ask him about his opinion on any new event or topic, and let him express his point of view even if you do not agree with him.

5- Assign a project or task to your child, as this gives him a feeling of satisfaction with what he accomplishes. For example, he can learn how to cook soup for lunch, clean a section of the house, or arrange the furniture of a room as he wishes, and do not forget to laud his efforts in performing the task.

6- Let your child make decisions about what to have for lunch, what he wishes to do in the weekend, and where he wants to spend the vacation.

7- Show him how you take full responsibility with regard to your circumstances. When you feel bored, you find an activity to make use of your time, and when you are short of money, you address this problem, meaning that you do not allow the circumstances to overwhelm you or leave you helpless.

8- Teach your child how to think optimistically, and also teach him how to address negative thinking by immediately introducing positive thoughts into his mind. This is a helpful skill that he should learn and will always need.

9- Demonstrate to him how to be patient, assertive, and courageous in your own life.

10- Encourage your child to exercise the freedom to be himself and express his individuality and to allow others to do the same as long as it does not cause harm to anyone.

Remember that you need to teach your child what you want him to be by being a living example for him and guiding him by your sayings and actions.

Therefore, you should be constantly conscious of your own behavior. As long as you wish to raise your child to become a leader, you should be a leader in your child's world or in the broader world in general. Although we may sometimes say or do something wrong or do meaningless things, when we are keen to remain mindful of our words and actions that leave the greatest impact on our children, we will give them a chance to succeed in this tough world.