Put me in the column of parents here who support the notion that leadership skills are best developed organically.
In fact if they aren't learned organically, they aren't learned at all. And I don't think this is an issue for kids only, or for leadership only.
This is why - at work - I want to poke my eyes out in order to avoid "career development" classes on mushy things like leadership, management, teamwork, mentoring, trust, women's issues and all the related Dilbert stuff. I have to do these "mandatory" classes all the time. I can honestly say I've never applied a single thing I "learned" in them. They are artificial, useless and profoundly irritating.
To the extent it's useful for your daughter - let her know that it's not just her!
Oh, I don't know. I still vividly recall one HazMat training session in which our "trainer" proudly proclaimed that he was a TERRIBLE multi-tasker, but that he felt that his tunnel vision was a real strength.
No forest in HIS trees, thank-you-very-much.
This was a real epiphany for me at the time. No-- not that it made me respect him (every PhD in that room-- which was most of us) basically was hiding the fact that we had all just SNORTED in unison), but that it made me realize that he was
serious. He really felt that this made him a superior being to those of us "big picture + details" people.
I'm guessing that "leadership skills" probably don't mean the same things to all people, either.
