Leadership Lessons from Kids

Who would think that grown ups can learn some important leadership lessons from kids?

I recently went to Thailand to represent our university for the University Scholars Leadership Symposium organized by Humanitarian Affairs. The program allowed us to dedicate 1 day to service learning. I chose to go to Ayutthaya to learn more about the culture of Thailand and to also teach some students about good values.

But aside from me sharing some valuable life lessons, I also learned 2 important leadership lessons from these kids:

1. Leadership is for everyone and everyone should be given an opportunity to lead.

In their school, there are no set class officers for the entire school year. This is different from our practice in the Philippines. They said "we change our class officers so that everyone will have a chance to step up and lead the class".

2. Building relationship with others is hard but we have to do it anyway.

The kids said "we don't sit beside the same person everyday". This gives them the opportunity to get to know everyone in class and build relationships with more students instead of just a few ones.

I found this very interesting and I'm glad that the school administration has allowed the students to learn the concept of leadership as early as primary education. Leadership is a very important life skill that is best learned through experience. These kids are not only learning from books but also from one another. 

9th USLS Delegates at the Jirasat Wittaya School in Ayutthaya, Thailand