A friend shared with me the struggles she is having with her pre-schooler’s behavior. Been there, done that. The good thing is, there always seems to be a leadership lesson in the raising of children. In fact, I’ve even written about the leadership lessons learned from our then two year old’s biting bent.
My friend said she is dealing with some pretty intense temper tantrums, talking back, lashing out, and yes, she even is throwing things.
After asking my friend about why the issues seem to be arising, and they seem to be happening at school more and more often, I came to the conclusion that the child may just be plain bored. She’s bright, very bright in fact, and I think ahead of her peers in her class. She’s getting into mischief because mischief isn’t boring. It gives her something to do, and in fact, sometimes mischief can be more of a stimulation and challenge than many other things, even if results in negative attention. She is still getting some attention at least.
As I was thinking through how we should and could mold our behavior to help our misbehaving kids, I read an excerpt from The Leadership Challenge that sparked my attention:
“Consider what people report when we ask them to think about the worst leader they have ever worked for and then to write down a number representing the percentage of their talents that this leader utilized. Our research results (displayed in Figure 12.1 ) show that people report that their worst leaders generally use only about a third of their available energy and talents. Those few who reported a higher percentage than the average, when referring to their worst leader, clearly noted and voiced their resentment about how they had to do so much more than was really necessary because of their boss’s ineptitude.
This percentage is in sharp contrast to what people report when they think about their most admired leader. For these folks, the bottom of the range is typically higher than the top of the range for the former group. Many people indicate over 100 percent, and the average is around 95 percent. Bottom line: the best leaders elicit nearly three times the amount of energy, drive, commitment, and productivity from their constituents compared to their counterparts at the other end of the spectrum.”
When we engage others- kids and adults- in something that excites them and occupies their time in a way that is meaningful and productive, we get better results. Challenge is a good thing.
Parenting is hard, and leadership is too. I in no way want to imply that the best way to lead adults is to treat them like children, but I am saying the best way to lead all people is through some basic principles of humans, regardless of the age.
Want to keep bad behavior from entering your workplace? You can start with making sure that challenge is present which will produce an environment where boredom has no place to enter. Engage people in challenging work and a lot will take care of itself.
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