Day 30: Lead TODAY and EVERYDAY

Leadership does not have to be about special causes or special days. It does not have to be about followers either, they come naturally. Leadership is about exercising creativity, courage, and integrity every single day.

Games for everyday leadership

• Drawing/Writing Time

Talk about women leaders who inspire you. It does not necessarily have to be Hilary Clinton. It can be your mother (or you in the case of your daughter), your grandmother, your neighbour, aunt, friend – any woman who inspires you. Draw a picture of this inspirational woman and write around her everything that makes her inspirational. Everything that you admire about her.  If possible (some people might unfortunately not be around anymore), you could give this drawing to that woman to keep.

Day 29: Lead by GETTING to YES

Today is about negotiation. Leadership is rarely associated with negotiation. Followers are usually there because they believe in the leader and her cause anyways. So why the need to persuade somebody? Because there are many instances when a leader will have to negotiate.

Recent reports highlight that women are not doing well on negotiation. The ever increasing pay gap between men and women has everything to do with our inability to negotiate well. It’s never too late to start learning some negotiation skills. Share them with your daughter today.

Games for leading by getting to yes

• Story time for mummy

Start by learning to negotiate like a child: Angelic. Sweet. Affectionate. (makes for a great read by Bill Adler)

• Story time

With your daughter, try to negotiate something instead of telling a story and then talk about it. Perhaps you want to negotiate the price of your Internet Broadband? Or you need the services of a plumber or window cleaner? The best negotiation also takes place at the market – so try to get the price down.

Even supermarkets are not off limits for negotiation. We went there last week with my daughter and were able to negotiate the price of a house plant by 1 pound. This will be a priceless experience for your daughter. Just make sure you make negotiation into a fun game.

Day 28: HEALTHY Leadership

This is not a post about leadership in healthcare. It is about healthy living as part of any leadership model.  I strong leader cares about herself and her body, so healthy living for body and mind are paramount. Make today about eating well, moving more and thinking more positive thoughts.

Games for leading a healthy living

• Story time

Three Hairs. There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "Hmmm..," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.

Day 27: Lead OUTSIDE the BOX

What sets a strong leader aside from everybody else is her ability to think outside the box. This goes beyond creativity. It is a mindset where you set yourself outside our mental boundaries. Creativity unleashed outside the box is mega-creativity.

For us adults, this may be hard work because it would imply erasing a lot of the pre-conceptions we have about the way in which he world works. Children are natural outside the box thinkers. As adults, we actually spend more time putting a box around them than helping them to think differently. So make today about learning from your daughter how to think outside the box.

Games for leading outside the box

• Story time

A golfer is standing at a beautiful par five hole. She hits a perfect approach shot. As the golfer walks up over a knoll in front of the green, she can't find the ball. After further searching, she sees the ball has rolled into a paper bag on the side of the green. So what can she do?  Take a stroke and remove the ball from the bag?  Give it a good, old-fashioned whack?  Wait and hope the wind blows the bag away from the ball?  Nope!  She takes out a match and burns the bag.  This is somebody who thinks outside the box.

Day 26: Lead with INTEGRITY

Leadership and integrity go hand in hand. A leader with integrity is usually someone who is consistent in actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In our case, we also want somebody who is creative too, so often that requires breaking boundaries and patterns, and thinking outside the box. How is this compatible with integrity?

First and foremost, a person with integrity is someone who is truthful and honest. A leader has to be honest about her goals, and if patterns need to be broken, she should be able to do that without any doubts. It’s all about the balance. She should not feel like she is breaking values by trying new methods. Staying true to her vision and followers is what defines her integrity.

Games for leading with integrity

• Story time

The carpenter’s house. An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.  He would miss the pay check, but he needed to retire. They could get by. 

Day 25: Lead with care for the ENVIRONMENT

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children – says an old proverb.  No matter what a leader’s cause is, she will care greatly for the environment and ensure that her followers do too.

Talk to your daughter today about the environment and climate change. Perhaps this will inspire her to take up climate change as a cause to lead on. If anything, we are short of inspirational leaders who could help change the world for better.

Games for leading with care for the environment

• Play time

Climate change interview. Get your daughter to talk to and perhaps even interview several friends and relatives about the climate. Talk for a few minutes and establish some relevant questions (you’ll have to let your daughter lead on this) and identify interviewees. After she does the interview, talk about the findings and what they could mean.

Day 24: Lead CALMLY

In line with our talk on patience yesterday, today we are focusing on staying calm regardless of circumstances – the two go hand in hand.

I know you will agree that as parents it is often hard to keep things calm.  New things come up every minute, and often we get overwhelmed and lose it. A strong leader will stay calm in front of any storm… well in front of some storms.

It’s good to stir things up a little sometimes, it is usually this kind of stirring that will help shape a vision and make a leader stand up. But after that, it is the calm of the leader that will keep everybody an everything together.

Games for leading calmly