Erin,

I smirked a little when I heard you describe the Green Beret's comment.

My seven year old attends a very special school which is making a great impact on his (and our family's) life. It's the AB Combs Leadership magnet elementary school. http://combses.wcpss.net/ Here, his curriculum is steeped in a foundation of Covey's Seven Habits, and is of the firm belief that these children (all of us, for that matter) lead in different ways, at different times each day. That we should celebrate our strengths and use them to better others and the world around us.

To witness the principal Muriel Summers and Vice Principal Michael Armstrong plus their administration in action is nothing short of inspiring. The real delight, though, are the children. These are some of the most well-behaved, respected, and polite children in any school that I've seen. The administration expects the children to display LEAD (Loyalty, Excellence, Achievement and Discipline) all day, every day at school. Administration walks the talk, and supports the children to stretch past the 'standards'.

The children are centered on personal leadership and encouraged to be the best they can be and to MAKE mistakes, as from this comes true grace and knowledge. Here's a direct quote from their site about the Leadership Model program:

"Each quarter of the school year, students identify and set their own personal academic goals. Using Baldrige criteria, data collection and data analysis practices, children track their progress and growth over the course of the school year. Students also learn social etiquette and develop communication and presentation skills through student-lead programming including a daily news broadcast, school-wide assemblies, community service projects, and an innovative Leader of the Week Program featuring local, state and national leaders."

This program is highly supported by General Hugh Shelton and his Leadership Initiative program at NC State University, "Leading Organizations that Embrace Change". The story of AB Combs begins that as new principal with a strategic choice of magnet focus, principal Muriel Summers (inspired by seeing Covey present live and in person) interviewed who she deemed to be the stakeholders for the school- not the parents, but local business professionals. Corporate and small business leaders told her that true leadership cannot be taught on the job, that it is core to a human's fundamental understanding of morality, ethics, and trust. That the confidence that comes from understanding ones' strengths and limitations makes for very effective teams, comprised of 'leaders', as well as 'individual contributors'. The combination of leadership nurture should begin as soon as possible in life to ensure this. Combs went from a school that nearly lost funding to continue to, with the new Leadership focus, Magnet School of the Year in the USA within 2 years of the change! Companies like Cisco and Lego are great supporters of AB Combs and schools from all over the world work with Combs to benchmark from their standards. see: http://www.theleaderinme.org/books.html for Covey's book which showcases Combs and Summers as the beginning of a movement!

Each one of these children is commended for their leadership each day and as far as I know not one of them has commanded a troop.

So, it is with gratitude that I support you putting this post up and revealing further to the world that leadership is multifaceted, and comes in different forms. We can find it in the tiniest actions in all of us, we can recognize it and encourage it at all ages. True leadership comes from being the best we can be, making mistakes, and learning from them to become strong and conscientious humans, wherever we end up as adults.