Let’s celebrate mothers as leaders in their many ways, seen and unseen, in the lives of their children.
The moment a woman begins her journey into motherhood, she inevitably turns into a leader for the tiny tots in their care.
More often than not, it’s a silent role, with no title to boot. Nevertheless, a leader still, in the sparkling and adoring eyes of their children.
We’re not all born and brought up the same way, hence everyone leads differently.
What makes a good leadership style for someone may not be a suitable style for another. Therefore, the best way to lead our little ones would be to just do you.
Of course, we can adopt several good traits from others and make it work in our own ways.
Let’s have a look at some of the good traits of mothers as leaders, and see if we can learn a thing or two from each other to improve our leadership skill as our little one grows up.
Yes, we need to constantly be changing with the ways, even where leadership style is concerned, to adapt to children’s age and maturity.
Eight Good Traits For Mothers As Leaders
1. Trustworthiness
Children need to trust us, and they most automatically do so. It’s important not to break this trust and to always uphold it, doing what we say we will do. Always walk your talk!
2. Positive Attitude
Whenever our children are down and out, they always need someone to turn to, make them feel better.
Having a positive disposition helps soothe our children, and builds up their positive attitude too.
3. Self Control
Life with kids can get chaotic and dramatic many times a day. When children are overwhelmed, angry, frustrated, etc., don’t get sucked into the drama.
Instead, we need to have a good sense of self-control to hold everything together. Share our calm with them, and not share their chaos.
4. Honesty
We need to be honest with our children. If we can’t, by rights we also can’t expect them to be honest with us.
It’s bad enough that we aren’t honest with them, it’s even worse if we are caught in the act of being dishonest with them.
We don’t want to be an example for them to learn to lie to us.
Practise and promote honesty also as a way to build your child’s character.
At the same time, being an honest leader builds trust and goes a long way.
5. Being Fair
Needless to say, everyone wants to have a just and fair leader. Practise fairness is everything, not taking sides and showing bias and no double standards.
6. Encouraging And Inspiring
The best way to bring out the best in our little people is to be a good cheerleader and motivator. Be encouraging.
Inspire them. Tell them stories, offer a helping hand, reassure them, be there for them.
7. Good Communicator
Good communication needs to happen both ways. We need to deliver our message clearly so that we are accurately understood.
At the same time, we also need to be excellent listeners and can draw out and understand what may not be said.
Listening is just as important as talking when it comes to communication.
Many things contribute to effective communication. It’s a life-long skill that we sharpen as we grow.
Always be mindful to practise healthy communication with everyone so that it becomes second-nature.
8. Empathy For Others
Being able to feel for others and understand their situation, coupled with having good communication skills make us better leaders to our children.
While we listen to their stories, especially about what made them angry or sad, they can feel our empathy and find comfort in it.
Being empathetic is to show kindness. Helps to foster bond and builds trust, too.
Leadership By Example
The best way to lead is to lead by example. What you preach, you must follow them yourself.
Otherwise, our children will not trust our words and leadership. We are our children’s first experience of leadership in life.
Whilst it’s not easy to be the leader to our little ones, but the good news is that we can always improve along the way.
No one is born the perfect and great leader. It’s all learnable. So fret not, and continue being the super-mum that you already are to your children.
Learn from other mummies, compare notes, and try out methods that work for you and your children.
It’s ok to make mistakes because leaders aren’t perfect. Mummies definitely aren’t as well.