186: Leadership Development at Home with Virgil Tanner

Virgil Tanner, my good friend and one of the best leadership development gurus, talks about how to develop your children into leaders, right in your own house.

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Show Highlights

Virgil Tanner has been married for 20 years and is a father of four. He has lived on three continents and currently oversees strategy and global operations for a non-profit with hundreds of staff scattered all over the world.

Virgil says, we have to “trigger-proof” our kids. You have to raise a child that can have bad things happen to them or people say mean things to them, and they are mature enough to walk away and be alright. If they are too easily triggered, they can’t become adults or effective leaders in the world today. Cultivate a thick skin and a soft heart.

Equip your children with the emotional vocabulary they need to express themselves and they can identify what’s going on with others and are able to address these with words, not by physically lashing out.

Develop young leaders with the 70-20-10 rule. Successful development is comprised of 70% experiences reflected upon; 20% guidance and input from other people like mentors, parents, friends; 10% content from books, videos, courses and other materials.

Our children will learn more from actual experience than from what other people say and from learning materials they can study. Talking to people about their experiences and giving them materials in support of their experiences can help double or triple their learning.

Your kids lives are full of experiences. Address difficult incidents in your child’s life and turn them into a learning experience with these questions: What? So what? Now what?

What. What happened?

So What. What was significant about it? How are you going to think about it?

Now What. What will you do next time you are in a situation like that?

As you have the conversation, notice the facts – what are the details of what happened? Discuss how these made you child feel. Finally, notice their contribution to the situation.

This focuses their attention on their locus of control. You and your child cannot control what will happen to them in the future, but they can change how they will act in any given situation.

These make for a magic conversation that will help make each experience a teachable moment for developing leaders.

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You can't child-proof the world, so you have to build adults.
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Resources Mentioned

• Things for Thursday and free e-book: Text THINGS to 66866
• Book: The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd
• Youtube Channel: Virgil Tanner
• Recommended Videos from Virgil’s Channel: Lower the Bar; Making Room for Grief and Lament
• Previous episode: 170: Wisdom for Thriving from a Parent in Lockdown with Virgil Tanner