“If you want to change the world, focus on leaders.
If you want to change leaders, focus on them when they’re young.”
–Alan Nelson, Ed.D., founder
Top 10 Benefits of 
Training
Equip your children for a future of leading. Here's what you'll gain:
- Identifies leadership aptitude: While some programs assess IQ, raw athletic talent, and artistic ability, LeadNow identifies youth with leadership aptitude. Through the Social Influence Survey and live training opportunities, we can earmark those with a natural leadership gifting that enables them to learn leadership skills faster and more enjoyably than most. This need not take years of hit and miss testing in life experiences, but can be assessed early for more intentional training and development.
- Unique combination of character and skill training: The reason for focusing on the 10-13 year old window is to target leaders when their cognitions are developed sufficiently to learn concepts related to leading and yet their character is still pliable. By combining character and competency, we lessen the risk of leaders compartmentalizing their ethics from leadership decisions that is the root of many organizational scandals and problems we see today and historically.
- Concentrated practical experience: Over the course of our 4 training modules, participants experience approximately 100 activities related to various aspects of leading. These are accomplished in teams, among peers, and with adult coaching and feedback. That is a lot of supervised experience, utilizing accelerated learning methods that research says heightens retention. Your young leader won’t get boring classroom lectures or conceptual book learning.
- Provides a 15-25 year head start: Most formal leadership training does not begin until the ages of 25-35, when certain employees have been identified as potential leaders and are sent to seminars and training events. Some leadership development programs can be found in college and high school, but practically none taps the pivotal preteen years of 10-13. This early development provides a significant head start in the competitive field of leadership.
- Parent training for turning homes into leader incubators: Parents weigh in as the number one influence in a child’s life. But raising a leader is different than other children. LeadNow’s 3 hours of parent training and book provide parents and guardians with practical ideas designed to help them coach, not just parent young influencers in a healthy manner, as well as turning everyday activities into leader training opportunities. We know parenting leaders can be challenging, so we want to decrease your stress while increasing your effectiveness.
- Focuses on the most sought-after leader qualities: If you analyze why leaders succeed and where they fail, you’ll find that most can be summed up among core qualities we refer to as the “Sweet 16.” While this list is not everything pertaining to leadership, the foundation is laid by concentrating on these essentials, half of which are character oriented and half that are skill focused in nature. (You can see this list on our “curriculum” page.)
- Establishes a leader self-image: One of the biggest ah-ha’s we’ve seen as a result of LeadNow training are the lights that go on as those with leadership aptitude begin to actually see themselves as leaders. Because leadership is typically considered an adult activity in our culture, most kids do not see themselves as leaders. Trainers and parents attest to the observable change in disposition as they gain confidence and begin to think of themselves differently.
- Get noticed by prime universities and employers: Competition for key college education and good paying jobs is increasing. More and more universities are looking beyond GPA and SAT/ACT scores for those exhibiting leadership qualities. Military schools, for instance, actually assess points based on demonstrated leadership ability. Since leaders are typically paid more and provided more opportunities, this alone is a tangible benefit of early leadership training. As the KidLead reputation grows, being included on our national roster will be a vetting process for denoting those with leadership abilities.
- Executive quality training at group tennis lesson prices: Unlike many youth programs that use the word leadership, LeadNow is designed by a team of people led by a leadership development expert with a doctorate in the field and author of several books. The training is modeled after some of the finest (and most expensive) executive training programs in the country, but age and price sized so that most families can afford to provide top tier training for their budding leaders. Since over 95% of youth never use their athletic skills competitively past high school, why not invest in training that will last a lifetime?
- Sets the sail for future leadership development: While the core of LeadNow is its 50 hours of leadership training, the larger benefit is setting the sails for future thinking and behaving as leaders. This calibrating of the internal compass allows for even greater opportunities through high school, college and beyond. A few degrees after take off can significantly alter the destination of an airplane. The same is true of leaders. Our motto says it best: If you want to change the world, focus on leaders. If you want to change leaders, focus on them when they’re young.
