The question of the reason for the power of an individual over his own kind was also asked by the ancients. The topic of leadership has attracted the attention of scholars for many centuries. Confucius, Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, M. Weber, Z. Freud and many others tried to penetrate the mystery of this phenomenon.
An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand among a mass of other grains of sand, uplifted and carried away by the wind. Most people are fickle in their own beliefs, doubt the correctness of their actions. With the advent of the leader, all uncertainty disappears. The unshakable self-confidence of the leader generates the immense trust of others. They say to themselves: «He knows where he is going, let’s go where he knows.» And as soon as living beings are gathered together in a certain number — it does not matter whether it is a herd of animals or a human crowd — they instinctively put themselves under the authority of the head. The mass is an obedient herd that cannot live without a master. Usually leaders are not thinkers, they are people of action. They do not have insight, as insight leads to doubt and inaction.
The picture of relationships between peers in kindergarten groups is quite complex and ambiguous. Some peers who are inventive in games are treated with sympathy and strive for them, while others are shunned, despite their having the same qualities.
Children’s leaders, sometimes more than teaching staff, set the tone for the lives of children in kindergartens. The authority of the leader and the power of his influence often exceed the influence of adults.
According to the characteristics of behavior and some properties of the character of preschool children can be divided into the following groups:
- leaders and organizers with a strong sense of purpose;
- activists who have personal initiative with the optional firmness of their character;
- performers;
- singles living their own lives;
- rebels entering the struggle against the leaders, against the institutions adopted in the collective;
- hunted members of the team (according to G. Fortunatov).
The presence of these small groups within the team is explained by the selectivity of human communication. Some children are looking for the society of the most mobile, active peers, others are attracted by quiet, passive children. Some feel more confident next to the strong and decisive. Others, on the contrary, prefer to be friends with the weak, timid, finding satisfaction in patronage.
A preschooler leader is, first of all, an active, enterprising person who is able to change the external situation and coordinate the activities of others, organize and lead them.
Studying the relationship of children, the researcher A. S. Zaluzhny identified a typology of leaders, which he subdivided into situational (intellectual leader, organizing leader, emotional leader, etc.) and permanent. The conventional wisdom that some children are “naturally” incapable of leadership is far from the truth; in fact, every child can be and is a leader under appropriate conditions, now one, the next moment another, etc. In other words, in In various specific situations of group life, individual members of the group stand out who are superior to others in at least one quality, but since it is this quality that turns out to be necessary in a given situation, the person who possesses it becomes a leader.
Thus, the emergence of a leader is the result of a place, time and circumstances in which a person must show the qualities necessary for this particular situation in such a way that the result meets the expectations of the group. When evaluating the success of a leader’s activity, it is not so much its objective result that is important, but the recognition of this success by other children.
Are leaders born or made?
Is it possible to develop the leadership potential of an individual? If possible, how to do it? There are two points of view. The first assumes that a leader must be born, that training and education does not play any role. This assumption is based on the fact that humans have seven innate instincts: self-preservation, procreation, altruism, exploration, dominance, freedom, and dignity. A person is born with a genetic program of adaptation, with his own vocation, which is fate (“one who was born to crawl cannot fly”). From what kind of instinct takes the first place in a particular person, his typology according to the dominant instinct depends. See →
An effective way to develop leadership potential
No matter what natural inclinations this or that person possesses from birth, certain abilities can be formed on their basis only in activities outside of which mental development is impossible.
In order to form a new personality trait in a child, it is first necessary to create a situation in which the child would first experience a mental state corresponding to this trait, and then to consolidate this state, to make it a stable personality trait of the child. For example, in order for a lazy student to become diligent, he must be placed in such (or such) situations in which he would be successful from diligence, would experience a sense of satisfaction and thereby would change his position. Thus, the main driver of human activity is the need, therefore, in order to develop the leadership potential of the child, it is necessary to create conditions that require the manifestation of children’s activity. See →