Think about an average family of two parents and two or more children. Think about a family you know not your own one, of course. The parents are responsible for the growth and well being of the kids. They have the children under custodian. And in such a situation, the parents are like managers; they decide what the daily menu will be; from nutrition and education to play, sport and rest. Parents have no degree in raising kids and yet they are by nature capable of doing so. The culture they form part of, defines a lot of the way in which they will raise there children. Between these natural capabilities and cultural background, parents will have to find they own specific way in raising kids. Managing kids is like managing a team in a company, with one difference; emotion and feelings. For a business manager these are the last issues on the agenda (unless there are some real important exceptions) for the parent, emotion is where raising kids is all about. Managing emotion is what makes parenting a difficult task, but besides this (emotion management) raising children and managing a team is much the same. You might want to suggest that a parent should be more of a leader, setting the right example, but that is a nuance out of the scope of this article. What both parties (managers and parents) share is the fact that they both need a set of guidelines. Besides similarities, there are some more differences. The manager is doing the job autonomously, whereas most parents are a couple; complementing each other or in the fact where the partners are look-alikes they amplify the effect they have on their children. Parents can have different roles in parenting; think about the good-cop-bad-cop analogy, but most important for the welfare of the team (family) is that both parents use the same kind of "directives." If these directives between the parents (management team) differ, the children will respond to either of them, what best suits the situation. The kids will find (move) their way to their personal goals, and those will probably not be the ones you (parent) had in mind. Motivating is literally moving into a certain direction (a goal). And therefore the directives should give such a direction, or at least they should not be contradictive; one moment left, the next morning right...And, make sure that they guidelines give enough space for the kids to move... 2006 Hans Bool |
