After more than a decade of training adults and then focusing solely on preteens, leadership development specialist Dr. Alan E. Nelson has compiled a virtual field guide in his new book, ”KidLead: Growing Great Leaders” for parents, teachers and coaches interested in developing the leadership potential in their children.

“The bottom line is that we’re giving these kids a 10-20 year head start from when most leadership training begins,” says Nelson, founder of KidLead, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing effective, ethical leaders while they’re young. “Imagine what any of us would do with that kind of jump on the competition.”

The problem is society generally perceives leading as an adult quality, failing to identify and develop leadership while individuals are still moldable, says Nelson. He notes that moral psychologists establish 14 as the age when our character is pretty much set. “In fact, most world cultures perform their rights of passage into adulthood between the ages of 12-14, so why shouldn’t leaders be identified by or before this age?”

Nelson includes interviews with leaders and leadership experts such as Steven Covey, Ken Blanchard, Mike Huckabee, John Maxwell and George Foreman. The book addresses the societal problem of finding effective, ethical leaders and shares best practices from what trainers have learned during the prototype years of working with preteen leaders in his LeadNow training program.

The book also provides the indicators of leadership aptitude, exposes ways that adults inadvertently shut down young leaders, and ways that teachers and parents can create leader-friendly conditions for developing their budding CEO’s, presidents, and community activists.

With a master’s degree in psychology-communication and doctorate in leadership from the University of San Diego, Nelson has extensively published articles and books in the field of leadership. He is also certified by the American Society of Trainers & Development and the Center for Creative Leadership.

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