0-8 years old

• Build strong character
• Watch the examples of adults around you
• Opportunities to practice their own budding decision making.

9-11 years old

• Decide how you want to be and begin becoming that person
• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Develop your talents
• Create something
• Live according to your values or principles
• Participate in a service project with a trusted adult
• Participate in Cub Scouts or Brownies
• Learn the language used by leaders
• Learn how to solve problems and make decisions
• Learn to read body language
• Learn who you trust to do what they say
• Learn about consequences of choices people make

12-13 years old

• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Practice leadership opportunities
• Feedback and coaching
• Plan and carry out an activity with friends
• Set two personal goals and follow through on them for at least two months
• Participate in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, set goals and follow through for meeting the requirements for rank advancement
• Learn advanced problem-solving and decision-making skills
• Experience the consequences of forgetting important things
• Practice problem-solving and decision-making in a group of peers and individually
• Begin to build others trust in you that you will do what you say and follow through
• Develop your talents, get good at something
• Learn what good judgment is and begin to apply it
• Learn how to communicate effectively and apply it in leadership practices
• Follow wise counsel
• Set a good example

14-15 years old

• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Influence peers more than you are influenced by them
• Practice problem-solving and decision-making and talk over the results with an adult you trust
• Find opportunities to get things done with a group of people (ask an adult to help locate these opportunities)
• Talk confidently with adults
• Teach a group of peers a concept or skill for 10-20 minutes
• Learn how to delegate
• Effectively use body language to reinforce your messages
• Practice good judgment
• Practice positive, uplifting, and encouraging communication. Avoid trust-corroding sarcasm.
• Seek out and accept greater responsibilities in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts
• Watch over younger children and uplift them
• Ensure delegated tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished.

16-17 years old

• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Influence peers more than you are influenced by them
• Be aware of ethical and moral dilemmas and make right choices to strengthen your character
• Stand your ground and choose not to participate if those around you choose to reject or violate correct principles or your values
• Balance confidence and humility
• Participate in at least two service projects
• Lead, or aid in leading, a service project
• Practice independent problem-solving and decision-making
• Practice delegation
• Demonstrate good judgment
• Teach peers and younger children in some form of organized activity
• Demonstrate adaptability because things rarely go according to plan
• Exercise leadership in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts,
• Propose solutions to adult leaders in problem-solving
• Help those you lead learn to govern themselves
• Be willing to be presided over and accountable

18 - 21 years old

• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Actual leadership opportunities followed by reflection and coaching
• Volunteer roles in leadership
• Journal writing about experiences
• Give a persuasive speech or talk to a group of people about a subject
• Practice independent and interdependent problem-solving and decision-making
• Become effective at delegation
• Learn how to hold people accountable for their commitments and how to talk to them when they don't follow through
• Build competence in a professional vocation
• Anticipate when emotions may fray and encourage as needed
• Know human nature and how to leverage it and counter it where necessary
• Search for correct principles and align with them
• Influence events rather than let circumstances happen.
• Make sound and timely decisions, taking advantage of fleeting windows of opportunity
• Seek opportunities to lead under trying conditions
  • Learn to reason and anticipate in trying conditions
  • Learn how people tend to behave differently in trying conditions
  • Develop team spirit through shared hardship
  • Learn how to plan in unfamiliar situations
  • Counteract fear by building competence and confidence
• Give those you lead more challenges and responsibilities as you think they can handle them, give them more when they show they are ready
• Find ways to be in the presence of great people and learn from them

24-30 years old

• Study leadership from the example and writings of more effective practitioners and apply what you learn
• Learn what not to do from examples of ineffective leadership around you
• Practice listening
• Build trust with your team and with sponsors or organizational leaders - it goes both ways
• Demonstrate and continue to build strong character
• Formal refresher training and application opportunities
• Paid roles in leadership
• Volunteer roles in leadership
• Ask followers to commit, and follow up to help them grow
• Ask for more responsibility
• Identify talents in others, pick a project team of complementary skills
• Help others succeed
• Look for leadership mentors, understudy your current leader
• Ask
  • What is happening?
  • What is not happening?
  • How can I influence the action?
• Sincerely care about those you lead, commit the time and effort to know them, understand what makes them tick, and learn what is important to them
• Develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty
• Keep your team informed, and explain your decisions when conditions allow

30-35 years old

• Attend Graduate school
• Teach and coach others how to lead
• Create a possible future in your mind's eye that is clear, precise, vivid, then communicate that vision enthusiastically to other people
• Validate people one-on-one
• Know yourself and seek improvement from formal institutional learning, field experience, self-development, personal study, and professional reading
• Study leadership from the example and writings of more effective practitioners and apply what you learn
• Reflect often and write in a leadership journal your lessons learned as you grow in experience and capability
• Respect people's right to choose, avoid force or intimidation
• Develop those you lead to improve organizational bench strength
• Express adequate and specific appreciation

35+ years old

• Study leadership from the example and writings of more effective practitioners and apply what you learn
• Teach others how to develop leaders
• Teach and coach others how to lead other leaders and coach them for improvement
• Share what you have learned about leading people with another generation