The Young Foundation's "Taking the Lead: Youth Leadership in Theory and Practice" (2009), authored by Kahn L., Hewes S., and Ali R. and available at https://youngfoundation.org/publications/taking-the-lead-youth-leadership-in-theory-and-practice/, ought to be of interest. Four of the key findings of that publication are that

• There is a wide debate around what youth leadership is, and how best to develop young people’s leadership skills.
• The nature and meaning of leadership is changing in response to a dramatically changing society, and the rise of complex challenges.
• Providing young people with the opportunity to develop and exercise leadership can have benefits for the individual young person, their peer group, and society more broadly.
• Embedding youth leadership into organizational cultures and structures can further promote youth leadership development.

To note, Appendix C lists desirable outcomes for youth development and youth leadership programs.

Just for a smiles sake!

Dear Ben,

I agree that in principle leadership in young people is similar to that of adults, but because cognitive capacities are undergoing development I'm looking for what is age appropriate at different developmental stages? For example, with things like decision making, what are 5 year olds capable of and what are 10 year olds capable of? And perhaps, before we even talk about age appropriate behaviours, what is a comprehensive list of leadership behaviours that can be observed?

When working with children in regard to leadership a key issue  is at what age they begin to understand the social world in a concrete and abstract way such that they can engage with the concept of empowerment and the underlying, often political, causes of powerlessness. An approach to childhood based on rights, or the participation agenda, sees children as social actors who act on the world around them. Practitioners can then engage with children about their worlds and involve them in decision making. Although there is not a definitive ‘youngest’ age at which children can be engaged to empower themselves collectively, my own inquiries into this issue have led to a guide of 14 years, give or take a year, depending on the individual and the socio-cultural context. Empowerment interventions have been successfully used with adolescents but the successful engagement of children under the age of 14 years in the meaning and use of this concept is not fully clear.

When I have studied Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson and their perspective theories on developmental psychology, I can see clearly how leadership is viewed from the average 5 year-old. At 5, a child is in his or her pre-operaational period, according to Piage, and in the initiative vs guilt or play stage for Erikson. At this stage, it is still difficult for children to comprehend abstract concepts.They are still grasping concrete ones and leadership is an abstract concept. I believe that "leadership" to a five year old is about being the leader in a game, playing a lead role, or winning. It also is perceived as being the one who makes the decisions on who plays what role, who plays with what toy or game, and who makes the rules. it is when a child takes the initiative, and only feels guilt if that "leadership" role is rejected by his or her friends or peers. When I was 5, I saw leadership in a competitive way, as me being the lead role in a game or situation, and the organiser. I have always been the organiser with friends since the age 5 and I still am at the age of 55, just not as competitive. I hope this helps.

Dr Réagan

I agree very much with Drréagan's comments as a five year old, based on my experience with myself, my own children and grand-children. I work primarily with adult leaders but the process of development can be the same for children and teenagers - with slight modifications. It should be based on behaviours (emotional  intelligence - EI) and values (spiritual intelligence). Leadership starts with leading oneself. I believe that these intelligences should be taught at school with the same level of importance as maths, reading and writing. The science and application is available - unfortunately it rarely happens. This would accelerate leadership development for everyone and help eliminate the work I currently do with adults.

I am guessing it will be vary 

thank you Dr John for your kind feedback

Dr Réagan (they didnt space title from name and system will not let me correct iy)

@Natasha. I'm currently completing my PhD in Systemic Leadership. It took a very interesting turn a quarter of the way through when I realised that Leadership studies and literature is based on the Observer, not the Experience of the Leader. Also - if we bring in developmental studies, a lot child behaviour are a combination of learnt and innate physiological behaviours (hence the nature/nurture argument). I agree with @John Knight's comments "adult leaders but the process of development can be the same for children and teenagers - with slight modifications. It should be based on behaviours (emotional  intelligence - EI) and values (spiritual intelligence). Leadership starts with leading oneself. I believe that these intelligences should be taught at school with the same level of importance as maths, reading and writing. However this may not be 'how a 5 year old will see leadership.'

A five year old is just developing his or her emotional and spiritual intelligence but still views leadership concretely instead of abstractly . He or she views it as who us the boss or who makes the rules when playing with friends in a game or on imaginary play with friends. For example a 5 year old sees him or herself as a leader if he or she plays the role of teacher if playing school or in the role of parent if playing house or in the boss role if playing business.

Dr Réagan

We humans (whether children of adults) have an innate inbuilt default that is based on the requirements of life in the Stone-age. Our default way to lead is "to know everything and to tell people what to do" (we all do it especially when stressed and we get hijacked by our emotions). As adults we learn to vary and overcome these innate drivers based on experience and maybe training. As a young child we have not had the experience and time to help rewire our neural pathways. The other key driver on how we lead is our ego, even more so with children and unreformed adults. See my next book "Leading Beyond the Ego" to be published by Routledge on 9th March 2018. http://bit.ly/2z4DAbi

Natasha Koustova asked about a comprehensive list of leadership behaviours. My suggestion would be to start with Emotional Intelligence behaviours which using an appropriate algorithm all build into 6 leadership styles. If you are interested in these, I suggest you download an App we have developed called "LeaderShaper" which is available FREE on Apple or Android. These 72 questions might act as a starting point for you. We have developed similar questions / statements for spiritual intelligence but these are not available digitally as yet.

@John Knights - thanks for the app recommendation! I will check it out.

Just for context, I work for a children's/youth organization and they are looking to evaluate whether their updated program promotes leadership development. It's complicated because the age range of children and youth served is wide ( 5yo - 17yo) and because developmentally not everyone hits the same milestones at the same time, many outside factors can affect these outcomes, and there is no definitive indicators of leadership for adults, let alone children.

So far I'm looking at including emotional regulation, leadership identity, and features of the environment that the program provides, including opportunities for skill building, supportive environment, opportunities for goal setting and reflection, etc. If anyone has any feedback on this approach, recommendations for articles or measures, or any other relevant resources would be greatly appreciated!

It seems we have evolved a lot as we grow old. There are multiple characteristics in which leadership can be judged. In the present leadership styles we, the researcher community are looking through lenses of each other on the articles written. We have narrowed down our styles as transformational, authentic, disruptive, principal, distributed, .... I had studied till 19 styles and then took a stop. However, leadership is believed with two primary axes. One with organization and the second with no organization. In the first instance, we take it as organizational behavior and in the second instance, we take it as individual psychology. However, individual psychology is the mother of the organizational behavior. Leadership behaviors in this form can be in multiple forms such as emotive intelligence, dynamism, boldness, social adaptability, team coordination, planning, individual's intelligence, cognitive abilities, relationship development, ... there are 20 variables that I know. At the youth level, the studies can be done in these parameters. In fact, most of the researchers have focused on leadership behaviors in an organizational context, a little attention has been paid to school-level activities. It is a good topic. The studies on this can bring better citizens. Best of luck.

Thanks Prashant Borde if you have any theory papers of studies you can recommend please let me know

You may please search with keywords as "cognitive development", "emotional quotient", "intelligence", "social adaptability", & "affect" in Scopus indexed journals for the initial part of the study. Then please focus on your specific subject chosen.