4 leadership lessons from children’s books

Maturity, respect and responsibility are all important leadership traits. However, a healthy dose of imagination and child-like wonder can also be beneficial.

Management training can help you understand the fundamentals of your new role when learning to become a leader. For a more comprehensive range of skills, you might want to consider independent education.

Rather than slogging through massive business help books that could put the author of War and Peace to sleep, you can try picking up a much simpler source. In fact, some of the most important leadership skills come not from the advice of successful business people but from embracing your inner child.

Here are four key leadership lessons you can learn from the picture books found on a child’s bookshelf:

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

This simple tale of a family heading out an adventure teaches us about overcoming adversity.

Each time the adventurers come across a new obstacle on their bear hunt, they refuse to give up. Rather than turning around and going home, they figure out a new way over, under or around the challenge.

Matilda – Roald Dahl

“All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen.”

Knowledge can be a leader’s most powerful weapon. By reading as much as she possibly can, Matilda is able to defeat both her ignorant parents and the tyrannical Miss Trunchbull. Leaders can learn a lot here about expanding their minds and the importance of education.

The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein

The sad tale of the tree that gave everything it could teach us two important lessons. First: great leaders will put others first.

Second: Ensure you do not just give blindly. Some people will take everything you have and give nothing in return, so it is important to protect your own interests and balance your generosity.

The Little Engine That Could – Watty Piper

A firm belief in your own abilities is one of the most important factors to success, especially when others believe you can’t.

Give your team the confidence to achieve and they will be in a better position to meet and exceed your expectations.