Parenting

Now that my kids are grown adults, I feel more comfortable teaching both parents and faculty the art of leading young people into healthy maturity. Like many parents, my experience raising my first child enabled me to relax a bit on my second child. We tend to obsess at the tiniest quirk in our first baby, and by child number

Culture, Generation Z, Parenting

Today’s blog is from Andrew McPeak. Andrew is a next gen researcher, speaker, and author for Growing Leaders. I recently read a commentary from a parent in the Chicago Tribune that was equally troubling and hilarious. This dad detailed the strange habits of his “Fortnite-obsessed” kids: waking up early to play the game, using strange words like “epic” and “legendary,” and moving around the

Culture, Education, Generation iY®, Generation Y, Habitudes, Leadership, Parenting, Students, Youth

Follow @TimElmore A few short years ago, corporate executives were asked what single word best describes the recent college graduates entering their workplace. The word they selected? Entitled. Interestingly, when recent graduates were asked to guess what descriptive word these executives had chosen that begins with the letter “e,” they guessed: exciting, enterprising, entrepreneurial and energetic. None of them guessed how

Education, Generation iY®

As I research for my new book, I come across some amazing stuff. Just a couple of weeks ago, I discovered some “gold” on an educational website. It was a document, created in 1918, called: “The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education.” Almost a century ago, high schools were a new idea. Some had started, but there were no guiding principles for

book recommendations, books, Generation iY®, Generation Y, Growth, Habitudes, Leadership, Students, Youth

As I travel and speak to college students, I’m often asked what are the best books for a young leader to read. Years ago, I created a list of “Must Reads” for established leaders, but below, I list what I consider great reads for emerging leaders—teens and twenty-somethings who aspire to leadership. Hope it’s helpful. 1. Leadership and Self-Deception, by the

Habitudes, Leadership

We love leadership movies. So recently we started a fun new tradition at our Growing Leaders office. Once a month we end the workday early and move into our creative space at our office, we pull some snacks out and watch one of these great leadership movies together. Leadership Movies Our team brainstormed some of the best leadership movies over the last few decades and we are going through this list once a month. We may not get through all of them but it provided us a great chance to see leadership failures and successes and discuss it afterward.

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Education, Generation Z, Leadership, Students

When I learned to teach students, it was a different world. Forty years ago, I was much younger and my methods were more about one-way communication. It was all about lecture, drill, memorization and test. Today, students come from a different culture, but teachers are often still about “classroom management.” Students check out mentally; fall asleep and get distracted. And

Culture, Generation iY®, Parenting

I spent the last few days studying thirty years of student trends and patterns. While both K-12 and Higher Education have gone through transitions—the greatest shift in three decades of childhood is the parents. Parents are doing their job differently than they did forty years ago. We’ve all heard the term, “Helicopter Parent.” It’s a title we’ve affectionately bestowed upon moms and

Education, Generation Z, Leadership, Students

More and more teachers today make a distinction between student engagement and student empowerment. It makes sense to me. Julie Diaz is the principal of Travis High School near Houston, Texas. She’s building young leaders within that student body—and discovered surprising things happen when educators do this. Two years ago, some of her students told her they felt their school building

Athletics, Leadership, Students

  Most coaches I talk to today mourn the struggle they have with their young players taking “ownership” of the team. Why aren’t they more responsible? Why don’t they think for themselves? Why do they need me to confront poor behavior from teammates and not do it themselves? Where are all the leaders? My answer?  We stole it from them. Youth culture today

Education

For years, educators, parents, and bureaucrats have been talking about America’s high school dropout rate. So many teens simply decide to stop taking classes and do something they feel is more relevant to their lives. The classic stereotype of a troublemaker who is slow and hates school is too narrow a picture of what’s really happening. Most of these teens get

Parenting

Follow @TimElmore This month was a big turning point for my wife and me: we officially became “empty nesters.” In contemplating this new stage in life, we began to reflect on the good (and sometimes not-so-good) experiences we had as parents, on the times in which our parenting skills were tested. What’s interesting is that throughout the years of working with adults,

Culture

Consider this reality. What the computer was for the Millennial Generation, social media is for Generation Z. The youngest cohort being measured today are those growing up since the turn of the 21st century; many call them Generation Z, following Gen. Y. Some call them the “touch screen generation” because they don’t manipulate the screen with a keyboard as much