Leadership Lessons from a 10-Year-Old by Chris Spradlin
-May 18, 2011-Comments (3)
Last year my daughter, Kylie, decided to run for Student Body President of her elementary school. I was so proud of her! She dreamed, strategized, marketed, prayed her guts out and even “hired” a campaign manager. Trump should consider hiring her!Speech day arrived and I will never forget walking into the auditorium. Every candidate was dressed like a clown, a rock star, or they rode a unicycle and juggled. The reality is that it looked like a Barnum and Bailey Three Ring Circus. It looks like Kylie had missed something! She should have dressed up like Dora, Hannah Montana (that’s not happening), or Dee Snider from Twisted Sister!! Something!!
Kylie looked me in the eyes and said, “Dad, I’m not going to play that game. If I win, I will win because they like me, trust me, and want me to be their president.”
Bam!! I was so proud of Kylie. I started to tear up, shout, and do a dad’s happy dance.
So what happened?
Kylie won the position of Student Body President!
Kylie taught me a ton about life that day; but most importantly she taught me about strong, confident, unwavering leadership.
Parents, teach your kids these leadership lessons by Kylie Spradlin:
3 Choices Every Leader Must Make:
- CHOOSE IMPACT OVER IMPRESSION: God has called your kids to IMPACT the world, not IMPRESS the world.
- CHOOSE WEIRD: My friend Craig Groeschel just wrote a book called Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working. Parents, we must teach our kids to stand alone and choose weird. Kylie chose weird by not dressing up like a clown and getting out of a clown car.
- CHOOSE SERVICE OVER SELFISHNESS: True leaders serve! Kylie didn’t “pimp the school store” or add Coke machines. Instead she led a team to serve the community in a Steamboat School District Food Drive.
I think we could all learn a lot from Kylie. Have your children taught you any life lessons recently?
Chris Spradlin is husband to Jodie and dad to Cole, Kylie, and Tifton. He lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and is the pastor of Euzoa Church. He also blogs at EpicParent.tv about being a creative, involved, and godly parent.
Comments (3)
thank you so much for the opportunity to partner w/ LifeWay!!
Posted on May 18, 2011 9:42 AM
Love those leadership lessons. I am reading "Weird" now and feeling more confident in living that out. I was working at Lift Up in Steamboat when the donations came in from the middle school food drive that Kylie organized - there was so much donated, we had to call in volunteer reinforcements to stock the pantry shelves. Kylie is a world-changer.
Posted on May 18, 2011 5:11 PM
What a great article! I pray that I'm raising little girls who will be bold enough to be weird. :-) I have really enjoyed reading your blog, so it was a great surprise to see you on this blog as well!
Posted on May 26, 2011 10:03 AM