I was teaching at a school the other day about Roosevelt when I decided to ask them about their perception of the current political turmoil.  This is a pretty common discussion among my adult programs, but I had never brought it up to 3rd and 4th graders before.

I decided to get the conversation started by asking them what they thought made a good leader.  Like all classrooms,  hands shot into the air:

“Smart”

“Good at giving directions”

“Tells people what to do”

“Has a following”

The words were painfully shy of the words and concepts I teach when I do Corporate programs on Leadership:

“Honest”

“Reliable”

“Trustworthy”

“Looking out for other’s best interests”

It made me realize that we are not teaching our children the baseline of what is important – the skills that make each of us not only influencer’s in our small local world, but leaders the greater world.   It concerns me when Honesty is not on a child’s list of important attributes for a leader.  Shouldn’t we start there if we want to have the best future for our next generation?

We teach our children how to compete in almost everything they do – perhaps it is time we find a way to make honesty a competition instead of an anomaly.