Training focuses on growing leaders

Twenty-first century leaders need qualities like critical thinking and decisiveness, as well as being humble and open-minded. Effective leaders should also be collaborative, relational, creative, curious and be good communicators and listeners. 

Those are just some of what can make a good leader, according to Dr. Alan Nelson, a global expert in young leader development with a masters in psychology-communication and an EdD in leadership. As a teacher at the University of Southern California and the Naval Postgraduate School, as well as the author of more than 20 books and more than 200 articles, he also founded LeadYoung Training Systems, a youth leadership training curriculum for young people ages 3 to 23. 

During his “Nurturing Young Leaders” presentation Saturday, Aug. 17 at Hinton Center, Nelson talked about the O factor or organizational factor. The O Factor happens to be the name of one of his books, but he defines it as a characteristic of young people gifted for organizational leadership. Nelson shared how cultivating youth at a young age could have an immediate and long-term impact on the schools and communities. 

He began with his own biography. He lives in Thousand Oaks, Calif., but grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa. 

“Before child labor laws, I had to clean hog stalls, drive the tractor and do farm work,” he said. “I hated farm life. The only leader at home was my father, so school was the one place I could show my leadership.” 

For many years, he had a career in leadership development, but he only worked with adults. In the United States, the average age a person receives formal leadership training is 42 years. Around midlife, Nelson decided he was wasting time working with adults since everyone else does that. “I decided there has to be a better way to grow leaders and I looked for what was available for young people,” he explained. “Of 1,000 kids, about 100 are competent leaders and about 50 are gifted leaders. I’m going to show you how to identify young leaders.

He used the analogy of animals having a lead within their groups. “Certain cows or bulls are followed,” he said. “Even ant colonies, schools of fish and buffalo herds. On every playground in America, there are certain individuals other kids follow. Leaders come in all sizes, genders and ethnicities. When you bring together community, people who have the gift of organizing the community are called leaders. Leaders are influencers and they bring out the best in other people.”

Nelson said some leaders are labeled as trouble-makers in school, but leadership traits can be identified and even developed long before adulthood. There are four developmental stages of young leaders:

• Taking root - two to nine years.

• Submerged - 10 to 13 years.

• Emerging - 14 to 18 years.

• Blooming - 19-25 years.

“Ages 10 to 13 is the optimum time to develop leadership ability,” he continued. “There are three categories of defining leadership. They are personal leadership, management of teams and organizational leadership. That one is what we teach executives.”

Nelson said leadership is a modern study, which did not begin until World War II. He loves sharing this vision, but it is not widespread in the United States. “Other countries are hungrier to develop youth leadership,” he said. “Our first club started in Lebanon.”

He added the definition of leadership his team has written. “Leadership is the process of helping people accomplish together what they would not or could not have done as individuals. Leaders are those who catalyze the social process and what they do to do this, is leading.”

In the fall, Hinton will begin Youth Leadership Chatuge for local middle school students. Hinton’s Minister of Church Relations and Development Rev. Karen Kluever said it is important to develop youth leadership. “One of the things I was hired for was to start some youth leadership initiatives,” she said. “As a former youth pastor, I know you can often tell who the leaders will be.”

Local residents, Kimberly Worley and Andrew Baten, have been trained to lead the middle school group when it begins. 

Worley has worked in education for more than 15 years as a parent educator, high school science teacher, assistant principal and principal, alternative school teacher and Early College instructor. She completed M.A.Ed. from Western Carolina University and Ed.S. from Lincoln Memorial University in School Administration and Leadership and works with the Clay County Schools Academically and Intellectually Gifted Program. 

“Youth Leadership Chatuge immediately caught my attention as a perfect segue for influential students to go beyond character education and to develop the skills to be positive role models,” Worley said. “I encourage anyone who knows a middle schooler with natural leadership abilities to nominate him or her for this opportunity. A student who is gifted in sports needs to practice before the game, influential students need the chance to hone leadership skills to be successful.” 

Andrew Baten has a bachelors in chemistry and an masters in management from the University of Florida. He has been a youth pastor for the nine years and received his Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology. “We are all gifted in different ways,” he said. “I’m excited we can identify students for leadership and empower them to develop and use those gifts now while they are young.”

Additional information will be printed in September about Youth Leadership Chatuge and the adult trainers of the group. For details about potential middle school applications email: karen@hintoncenter.org. Hinton Rural Life Center is at 2330 Hinton Center Road in Hayesville. Call (828) 389-8336.