NCET Biz Tips: Cultivating the next generation of leaders

As head of Sage Ridge School, I have the privilege to prepare our third through 12th grade students to become curious and confident citizens. While the education foundation is laid in a student's primary years, the work to prepare future leaders extends well beyond academic studies and continues throughout our careers.

Each of us has the opportunity and challenge to help shape and empower the success of the next generation. Here are four steps one could take, whether at home, in our organizations or within the broader community, to ensure our students, teams and workforce are ready to rise to the toughest of challenges.

Have high expectations and provide the space to try and to fail

Believing the people around us can rise to the occasion is motivating, and creating the opportunity to explore and even fail in a safe environment is how we learn and grow. The Sage Ridge Innovation Lab, for example, offers students aged 8-18 the opportunity to apply the principles of physics and engineering to design, build and test their ideas constructing furniture out of cardboard. And through internships, seniors have opportunities that lead to networking connections, summer jobs, or even the realization that a perceived area of interest is actually not what was anticipated. Incorporate time to explore and discuss expectations to allow the people around you to grow, becoming stronger leaders and higher performers.

Teach how to think, not what to think

At Sage Ridge, we believe the diversity of thought amongst the entirety of our student, family, faculty, and staff population enriches our community. Middle school students learn how to engage in Socratic dialogue, ninth graders learn how to disagree and learn from each other in freshman seminar, and 12th graders put into practice all that they have learned as scholars, thinkers, and community members in senior seminar. Create an environment that respects, values, and fosters diversity of thought and critical thinking by encouraging thorough information gathering, active listening, thoughtful question-asking, and imaginative problem solving. Doing so will improve every outcome and fuel our future leaders.

Offer challenges

While some may believe it is unrealistic to ask 8- to 11-year-old students to build a business plan, secure financing, produce inventory, develop a go-to-market strategy, and launch the new business, this is exactly the challenge we offer our students every spring, through the Biz World Sage Session. Find and create opportunities to expand thinking and identify passions, like we do through the Biz World Sage Session and other programs including the senior thesis project, to help reinvigorate interest in everyday work, bring teams together and build star leaders.

Model behavior and character

Through service to others, including more than 2,600 hours during the 2022-23 school year, Sage Ridge students become aware of their own gifts and the gifts of others. The hope is that such awareness will foster a continued commitment to volunteerism that lasts a lifetime. Model community engagement within your spheres of influence and create opportunities for the people around you to get involved and become more responsible and engaged members of our local community.

Implemented in accordance with the Sage Ridge pillars of scholarship, respect, integrity, courage and community, we are proud to have leveraged these principles to prepare and graduate more than 388 students. Our school’s continuity of focus and commitment to preparing future leaders with superior intellect and character is what differentiates Sage Ridge.

NCET is a member-supported nonprofit organization that produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. More info at NCET.org. 

Dr. Ginger Hovenic is head of school at Sage Ridge School, Reno's only non-sectarian, independent and college preparatory day school since 1997.