Most parents and many teachers believe that if middle-school and high-school girls show no interest in science or math, there's little anyone can do about it. New research by a team that includes vocational psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) indicates that the self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning math and science than their initial interest (from the flickr caption)
What's "the Right Stuff" for Great Leaders
It's my experience that the greatest leaders are not just charismatic, and wise decision makers. Beyond those desirable leadership traits they are capable of inspiring others to find the courage to lead.
An often referenced thought leader, Seth Godin has helped create a web business which to varying degrees has achieved leadership inspiration. Squidoo is a web publishing site where anyone can sign up and begin making web pages. The entire process is fairly straight forward, and while I've enjoyed creating over 40 lenses (each web pages name), there are far greater gifted designers than myself. The enlightened business model donates 5% of revenue to charity, 45% to Squidoo, and 50% to the lens crafter. Advantages from the business include a higher negotiated affiliate rate from Amazon, as well as some cross lens marketing, and an incredibly knowledgeable and helpful community. If you'd like to learn more about Seth Godin's ideas on leaderhip, he convey's his expert knowledge within his book, Tribes.
Each lenscrafter serves as a small community leader, for all those who visit their site. Comments can be left as well as visitor suggested information (links, votes, social media modules -Twitter). This simple model allowed me to discover a fondness for sharing information, which naturally lead me to blogging and social media.
The great leaders inspire us to trail blaze, and do so out of passion for their goals and their communities. Wisely they do their best to spread their vision to others collaboratively for no man is an island. What truly legendary leaders do is open up doorways for those who may not have considered spear heading their favorite cause. These gentle thought leaders humble themselves daily by keeping their views open. They show us that the only super power we need is relentless dedication and tenacious will. Their love for leading and inspiring positive change is infectious. Let's ingrain the greatest leaders as role models within our culture.
This type of encouragement can begin early on in our education. Unfortunately, much of modern schooling's focus is on training people with valuable skills and knowledge with little consideration for what inspires them. By surrounding young folks with encouraging leadership from parents, friends, family, and education we can stack the deck in favor of their discovery of a profitable and deeply satisfying calling. We can all help to instill leadership qualities and self confidence by inspiring those around us.
[podcast]http://www.victusspiritus.com/audio/LeadersInstillConfidence.mp3[/podcast]
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- My Experiences with "Thought Leadership" and Personal Writing and My Own Professional Development (sentimentsoncommonsense.com)
- The Seth Godin Interview: How to Become a Leader (copyblogger.com)