Parents urged to instill leadership qualities in children

Head of Year 10, Greensprings Lekki campus, Mr Samuel Olasogba, has called on parents to inculcate leadership skills in their wards, saying it is imperative to succeed in the corporate world.

Olasogba who made the call at a two-day leadership training programme of the school said children are better off if they acquire skills at a young age.

“It is an open secret that employers hire and promote candidates who are great team players, who communicate excellently, who are goal-getters, and have other exceptional leadership skills. Nevertheless, many children grow up or graduate from tertiary institutions without acquiring these skills, and this is likely to put them at a disadvantage in the job market,” he said.

To prepare children for the real world after graduation, Olasogba enjoined parents to invest in building the leadership capabilities of their children.

He said parents could do this by helping their wards develop their self-confidence by allowing them to creatively solve personal problems and make them take responsibility for their decisions.

Mr Olasogba added that schools also have a role to play in instilling leadership attributes in children, and he spoke about what the school is doing in that regard.

“Children spend most of their days in schools, so as parents do their part, schools must also support them. For us at Greensprings School, we organise intensive leadership training for our Year 10 students annually. This training is activity-based, and it is facilitated by our teachers and Project Summit, a team-building service provider based in South Africa.

“In the course of this training, students were engaged with presentations and group discussions on leadership and teamwork. They also took part in team-building activities such as minefield, traffic jam, warp speed, tower building, among others. From the training, our students learned empathy, resilience, emotional intelligence, transparency, delegation and empowerment, creativity and innovation, and other excellent leadership attributes,” Olusoga added.

He noted that when parents and schools do their part in instilling leadership capabilities, the job market could expect to see more candidates who are employable.