Leadership Through the Ages: Explained

Welcome to my blog titled ‘Leadership Through the Ages’! My name is April Peacock and I am a Senior at Wright State University studying Organizational Leadership. This blog has been created for my final Capstone Course. This blog will focus on leadership characteristics through each stage of life. While reading it, it may be surprising that leadership capabilities can literally be found in very young children. The focus will be how Leadership is impacted and developed from a young age; specifically focusing on children. Then, I will focus on adolescents, young adults, and then adults. I will argue that in each stage of life people are either learning or perfecting leadership capabilities. Then, I will go on to explain how this impacts adults and how they finally exude societies typical picture of what leadership is; through coaching and mentoring.

A little information about me and why I chose this topic: I come from a family of very talented educators of early childhood education. I grew up the same household as my mother’s small preschool. As a young adult, I worked as an assistant teacher at a local YMCA preschool and two separate Montessori schools as their Assistant Afternoon Toddler Teacher. I worked directly with children aged 18 months to 6 years old as well as children up to 6th grade. As you will find in my blogs, I will reference my experience as an assistant teacher concerning the development of emotional intelligence in young children. In addition, my studies of Organizational Leadership through Wright State University has set me up for a broader understanding of what leadership is, what characteristics of leadership are necessary, and what makes a successful leader.

All in all, I chose this topic because of my firsthand experience working with children and supporting the growth of emotional intelligence, my personal belief behind the psychology of adolescents working with authority and finding passions and strengths, how 20 to 30 year old’s are usually presented many opportunities to make decisions, and how adults are then able to (based on learning these leadership capabilities previously discussed in the blogs) are able to coach and mentor others.

To fully grasp my argument, these blogs are best read in order. Beginning with children and moving throughout each life stage: Teenagers, Young Adults, and Adults. I considered children as those aged birth to 12 years old, teenagers aged 13 to 19 years old, young adults ages 20 to 30 years old, and adults aged 31 and over.

My final blog will conclude with the argument that leadership is not something you learn overnight. Instead, it is something that is developed, perfected, and practiced over a lifetime. I argue that in order to develop strong leaders (at any age) the skills I mention should be made a priority. However, please note, these are not the only skills needed to be a successful leader. They are simply the leadership capabilities that I have noticed or experienced in my professional, personal, and educational career. All in all, please enjoy this unique perspective on Leadership Through the Ages.