Developing young leaders is a worthy goal for any church. It’s especially crucial for older-elementary kids and tweens. Preteens have an incredible four-year window that’s critical for influencing future leaders in our communities. Here’s how to make the most of it.
From ages 10 to 13, kids are exceptionally teachable and moldable as leaders. I call this the 10/13 Window, and I believe these are the most critical years for developing young leaders. This is when kids’ cognitive and moral development is growing and being shaped.
Giving Kids a Head Start
Sometimes I tell people I could beat the world’s fastest runner in a race. They look at me and wonder what I’m getting at, as they gauge my middle-aged-ness. I say, “I could beat the fastest person in the world—as long as I had a big enough head start.”
Imagine if we gave all kids a 15- to 25-year head start by training them how to be effective, ethical leaders as preteens. The future of the church and society depends on encouraging all kids to develop ethical leadership skills while they’re still pliable.
After 25 years of pastoral ministry, including over 15 years of training leaders and writing on the topic, I’ve reached a conclusion. The best hope for developing ethical, effective leaders is to train them during their preteen years.
I didn’t always believe this. Like many people, I believed that leadership is a role reserved for adults. You hear it in comments to kids: “Someday you’ll be quite a leader!” You see it in how we develop influencers. Most formal leadership training doesn’t begin until ages 25 to 35, when corporations provide staff with assessments, coaching, and training. It’s even evident in research on leadership, nearly all of which focuses on adults.
Over the last few years, I’ve focused on kids and leadership. And I’ve discovered that preteens have an incredible ability to grasp leadership concepts and demonstrate leadership skills. In fact, this is the most neglected area of leadership potential in the church today.
Despite many misconceptions, kids really are capable of true leadership. Focusing on youth, specifically preteens, is the most effective way to raise ethical leaders. So what better place to start developing young leaders than in your children’s ministry?
Capture the Preteen Moment
Cognitive Development
Kids’ cognitive development is becoming increasingly complex during the 10/13 window. Their ability to understand abstract concepts and reason abstractly is in high gear.
Leadership involves organizing people toward a common goal to accomplish something together that they couldn’t achieve as individuals. This ability requires a relatively sophisticated capacity to understand and manage a variety of factors.
By age 10, most kids are developmentally ready to handle this complex thinking and problem-solving. Plus, preteens have the emotional intelligence required to read others and know how to effectively relate to them.
Moral Development
By age 14, our moral development tapers off significantly. In other words, our “hard-wired” ethics are fairly well-established. Kids with strong character grounding in their formative years are far more likely to make good ethical choices into adulthood. These years are the prime time to instill the Christian values you want young leaders to have.
In the 10/13 window, children’s cognition is sufficiently developed to learn sophisticated social skills such as leading. Yet their character is still pliable enough for shaping. The goal in this window is to teach character in the context of leadership. In other words, to teach leadership that’s ethical and Christ-centered.
Tips for Developing Young Leaders
Use these step-by-step guidelines to develop faith-focused leadership skills in kids.
Look for the leader in all kids.
If you want to intentionally develop young leaders, start with kids who naturally exude social-influence behaviors. Social influencers are typically the most motivated and quickest to pick up leadership skills because, in reality, they’re already leading.
But these kids aren’t always who you think they are. Social influencers aren’t always the “good” kids or the most committed. Sometimes they’re the challenging kids who seem to rope the rest of your class into misbehavior. Sometimes they’re the nonconforming kids others emulate and look up to.
These kids, by their very nature, will encourage other kids to try their hand at leadership opportunities when they arise.
