Carmel Magazine

046-074 Shortcuts_SU05 Carmel Magazine 10/26/13 10:32 AM Page 13 SHORTCUTS AT LARGE Photo: Kelli Uldall Leading the World One Child at a Time Dr. Alan E. Nelson, who works at Naval Postgraduate School, along with his wife Nancy, founded KidLead and the program LeadYoung. The organization trains children to be leaders and cooperate with their peers, rather using negative behavior such as bullying. " f you want to change the world, focus on leaders. But if you want to and honing their skills at a young age, giving them the tools they need to Those words appear on the brochure for LeadYoung, a training system The results can be dramatic. Negative social behaviors such as bullying I change leaders, focus on them when they're young." be successful adult leaders. presented by KidLead, a program founded by Dr. Alan E. Nelson and his have been known to decrease and children begin to learn to work togeth- School, Nelson holds a doctorate in leadership and has made his career "KidLead teaches how to be a team member," Nelson explains. wife Nancy. Presently employed by Monterey's Naval Postgraduate er to accomplish tasks at an early age. teaching those leadership skills to adults. Another important aspect is that children get early experience in being learning process needs to begin much earlier. Scout leaders—all adults. KidLead enables kids to lead—and be led by— However, Nelson realized that to develop truly capable leaders, the "In the corporate world, formal leadership training begins, on aver- age, at age 42," Nelson says. "But the older we get, the more difficult it peer led. For most of a child's young life, leaders are parents, teachers, others in their peer group. To date, more than 2,500 young people in 12 states and eight countries is to change." ages 2 through 25 have gone through at least one module of the program. elsewhere, the Nelsons chose a proactive approach. their child's leadership potential. While many bemoan the state of leadership in Washington, DC, and "Everyone complains about bad leaders doing bad things," Dr. Nelson says, "but no one is doing anything about it." 68 KidLead fills that need by identifying the natural leaders among children C ARMEL M AG A Z I N E • H O L I D AY 2013 The process begins with a free assessment that allows parents to identify The assessment—and more information on the various KidLead programs—is available on the company's website, www.kidlead.com. —Michael Chatfield

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