Many programs that provide training for leadership don’t spend a lot of time on training for a future in business. Rather, they concentrate on young people, especially in the context of their own communities. They do this for several reasons. First of all, the future of the communities themselves depends on their members learning the principles of leadership and responsibility. And if a young adult community member does get into a business context and hasn’t had a stable youth, and hasn’t already learned those important principles, then whatever training for business leadership that they get then is less likely to be effective. They just don’t have the foundation.

While some programs that provide training for leadership center solely on business skills that will help a person succeed in the corporate world, many other programs concentrate on other needs. For them, the most effective leadership development programs start with young people, while they are still forming their beliefs and character. If these young people are guided at this stage into becoming productive and responsible, then these qualities will carry them through all their leadership positions later in life.

There are countless opportunities in the business world for corporate leadership training, and most companies probably think that this is all they have to provide in order for their managers to develop the skills they need to be good leaders. But sometimes this training is not enough, because those managers did not have the chance to lay the groundwork for this process when they were young. This is why many organizations exist that try to help lay that foundation, providing training for leadership to young people.

People in corporations may feel that they have no stake in providing training for leadership to young people. But this is short-sighted, because often the best leaders are those who have already developed their leadership skills when they were younger, building a good foundation for later positions of authority. There are some organizations, however, that believe in developing these skills in the young, and build entire leadership development programs around it.

This is why many organizations target their programs of leadership training toward young people; instilling leadership habits from a young age, trying to produce responsible, reliable adults who will be a positive influence in their community and the world. Many of these programs contain a religious element, like the Leadership Training Program, which is affiliated with the Catholic Church. This organization believes that leaders need not just good character, but virtue as well. It uses high school mentors to guide boys from the fifth to the eighth grade, and works on aspects of leadership such as public speaking, sports, teamwork and virtue formation.

An organization that provides training for leadership, albeit in a more secular context, is the 4-H program, ultimately overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture. Given its origins in that department, it began mainly as an agricultural program, but it has evolved beyond that original emphasis until it now also emphasizes science and technology, as well as living a healthy lifestyle and becoming a good citizen. It works on the basis of experiential learning, with the slogan “Learn by doing.” The organization believes that its four “H” emphases of head, heart, hands and health, provides opportunities for good leadership skills training.

Sometimes the training for leadership done by some of these youth organizations comes in a subtle form. For example, the Dreams for Kids organization concentrate first of all on providing opportunities for disabled young people and those living in poverty. These opportunities involve sports for kids of all ability levels, as well as the chance for kids in poverty to celebrate the holiday season. But the organization then takes its work much farther by providing opportunities for global service, which teach leadership skill training as well as cultural interconnection and understanding.

Leadership development training is also the specific aim of Rotary International’s youth programs. These are not aimed exclusively at teenagers, but extend from kids all the way up to people thirty years of age. The Interact Club allows teens from fourteen to eighteen to do community service projects and to foster international understanding, with developing leadership skills as part of the goal. But there are also international student exchange programs and community projects for older age groups as well. Obviously, for Rotary International, training for leadership involves going global.

It’s not surprising that so many organizations aim their training for leadership toward young people. These youngsters are, as the cliché goes, the leaders of tomorrow. But they are the foundation of the country in more ways than that. If they are not given leadership coaching and don’t find a purpose for their lives, they can be a factor in the disruption of their own communities, which strikes at the very foundation of society. So helping young people find a purpose in their own lives will inevitably strengthen the society itself, and provide good leaders for the nation in the future.

It’s true that communities are the foundation of society, and individual people are the foundation of the communities. So if these people receive training for leadership while they are still young, then this will both strengthen their communities and the society, and provide a foundation for future opportunities. These young people will be ready to hone their business leadership skills further by the time they reach adulthood and enter the working or political world, because they will already have prepared most of the groundwork during the hands-on experiences of their youth.

To give young people training for leadership is to invest in the future of the country on a great many different levels. If families and communities are the foundation of the entire society, then giving young people training programs that will help stabilize them and teach them leadership principles can only end up helping the country as a whole. The communities these young people come from will be strengthened, and the people themselves will grow up with the right vision and skills to lead the country when their time finally arrives.