Our 26 Points - Leaps & Bounds Mission Statement

We refer to our Company’s value system as the Leaps & Bounds 26 points. The #1 responsibility of each employee in Our Company, from President to the most junior trainee, is ‘stewardship of the 26 Points.’ Many companies speak of their values. At Leaps & Bounds, we live them out every day. They guide our Company's direction, program design, hiring decisions, as well as our personal interactions. In addition to our mission, as stated below, the remaining 25 points are as follows:

Our Mission

Our ultimate goal, our guiding principle, the single thought that drives everything we do from programming to the way we interact with the children is…to help kids grow into happy, healthy, responsible adults.

We believe that protecting a young child from disappointments does nothing other than strip the child of the skills necessary to handle life’s inevitable bigger disappointments. Protecting a child from the consequences of their actions is one of the worst mistakes a parent, teacher or coach can make (unaffordable consequences such as physical harm or permanent emotional damage being exceptions.)

Many children’s sports facilities have great mission statement that are created around the sport. We want to have an impact that is longer than their sports career. We concluded that happiness is a worthy goal and ‘responsibility’ is the foundation of happiness. We further deﬁned responsibility as ‘the habit of making choices that bring joy and harmony into one’s life in the long run.’

Our conviction in our deﬁnition of responsibility was strengthened when some decades ago we learned about the Stanford Marshmallow Study. This experiment followed children from age 4 through adulthood and concluded that the primary determinant for satisfaction in life is not intelligence, educational attainment or job status. It is the ability to delay gratiﬁcation, to set aside the pleasures of the moment in favor of happiness and joy in the long run. You might enjoy this comical video of how these 4 year olds handled the situation…Kids Marshmallow Experiment – YouTube.

Since 1998, our mission has been to help kids grow into happy, healthy, responsible adults.

7 Unifying Principles

We attended the Small Business Boot Camp in the late 90’s, where Jeff Metzger shared the behavioral standards he applies to his own organization. These standards must be met all who choose to be part of the company: employees, students and parents alike. These standards are present in our company as well, in the form of these 7 unifying principles. We lead by them, live by them, and use them to make decisions both big and small.

Respect - To respect each individual unconditionally.
Trust - To be trustworthy, trust others & exemplify integrity.
Teamwork - To work together as a unit, solving problems through collaboration.
Forthrightness - To communicate in an open, objective, straightforward manner:
♦ In disagreements, go directly to and only to the person who can solve the problem.
♦ Think not of ‘tact’ but of equal parts respect and candor.
♦ Seek ﬁrst to understand the other party’s perspective before sharing your own.
Growth & Innovation - To pursue perpetual growth through constant innovation.
Respect for the Company - To respect the company's image, assets, and value system.
Balance - To seek balance in business and in life.

11 Teaching Principles

Unconditional Respect
Keep the Kids Safe
Clearly Communicate Expectations
Catch Kids Doing Things Right
Discipline with Natural Consequences
Be Enthusiastic
Daily Challenges
Daily Successes
Perpetual Motion
Creativity, Variety, Fun
Love, Empathy, Compassion

7 Hiring Mantras

The most difficult aspect of hiring is having the courage to say "no." These hiring mantras provide us the discipline we need to hire carefully.

When we say "hire the character, train the skill," we don't mean character in the traditional sense. To us, ‘character’ means alignment with our 26 points. Succinctly put, we don't believe that these 26 points can be taught. We only hire those who we believe were already aligned with our value system before walking in the door.

Hire the character, train the skill.
We shall go short staffed before we go poorly staffed.
Remain in hiring mode 24/7/365
Expect to be underwhelmed and hire only those who WOW you.
Hire and promote from within.
When in doubt, do not hire.
When faced with people problems, act swiftly, seeking to do the greatest good for the greatest number.