5 Similarities Between Leadership And Parenting.

Leadership is not about power and control; it's about inspiring people.

"I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered to be a great training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't." — Dee Dee Myers

If you've raised kids, you understand how difficult parenting can be. I've often wondered which is more complicated; leading a large organization or raising 4 girls?

Granted, children need more attention and supervision than adults (well, maybe not). Still, the similarities between leading and parenting are fascinating and too many to mention.

Leadership isn't for everyone, just like being a parent doesn't suit us all. Leading and parenting can be as rewarding as it is challenging. Some of my greatest joys in life have been seeing both my children and people on my team go on to do great things.

To parent and lead is to have the courage to identify your values and vision and then work purposefully and intentionally to become those values while achieving your vision.

Secondly, it's about taking care of the people, spouse, children, colleagues, subordinates, friends, and extended family that have been placed in your care.

The goal is to make it easy for them to share with you what they want and need and then help them achieve it. It's about making life better for your team and family as you move them towards their goals.

It's not about power and control; it's about inspiring people, family, and children to move together to reach their dreams and?goals.

Parenting and leading is knowing what matters to you, your family, and your team and making decisions based on those values and goals. It's working hard to help the people you care about achieve their goals.

I love how Zig Ziglar said, "You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

ALL of the research shows that when parents and leaders think and act like this, they feel and perform better in ALL areas of their?lives.

And just a side note, you should be as successful at leading at home as you are at your workplace. If not, stop and ask yourself why not. You must get this right because your legacy will always be the lives you change, not the money you make.

The Top 5 Similarities.

1. Praise

Employees and children need positive feedback, and positive reinforcement gives them the confidence to keep trying and believe in themselves and their abilities.

Self-confidence doesn't just happen; it comes from repeated support and positive guidance. Making children feel good about who they are and what they're capable of carries them into adulthood.

The love of the process, a positive attitude, and the desire to improve turn children into 'can-do' kids. When sharing praise, focus on the process and the effort rather than the result.

It's no secret that being praised makes people feel good. Pride, pleasure, and increased feelings of self-esteem are all common reactions to being paid a compliment or receiving positive feedback.

• When thanking employees (or children,) use their names. We love to hear our name used positively.
• Be genuine with your praise. Base it on observed behaviors, values, accomplishments, successes, qualities, attributes, etc.
• Provide and share with them specific examples.
• Explain how this quality will help you, the team (family), the organization, the customer, and ultimately them.

You play a significant role in helping your employees feel empowered, confident, and self-reliant through the positive feedback you provide.

When you have your employee's backs and support their decisions, they feel good about their abilities and what they bring to the company.

2. Respect

Respect is an essential piece of any relationship. Parent to a child or team member to the leader, mutual respect fosters collaboration and cooperation, encouraging productivity, top performance, and quality work.

Respect motivates and inspires positive actions and creates clear communication at home and work. Employees that respect their managers will want to learn from their expertise and knowledge, leading to more collaboration, training opportunities, and a positive work environment.

Often, people use words like "tolerance and acceptance" when they talk about respect. These are important, but respect means more than just tolerating or accepting a person.

Respecting someone means you value them for their contributions to society, the community, the company, or the family.

Respect means you care enough to think about how you impact?others.

Respect has two parts:

• Having respect for someone because of how their actions impact others.
• Showing respect by changing your actions to ensure you don't hurt others.

Teach your children that respect is the ability to recognize and appreciate other people's rights, beliefs, practices, and differences.

Children who respect their parents listen and respond appropriately and understand that their parents have to make certain decisions for their benefit, whether they like them or not.

3. Restraint

There are going to be times when people don't get along. Children with siblings and co-workers with their peers. But I find the skill of restraint in a leader (or parent) to be the most successful way of dealing with internal issues.

It works so much better than yelling when you can sit people down and explain how to resolve problems in a calm and confident tone. No one, not even you, responds well to being verbally attacked.

Displaying aggressive behavior to resolve conflicts between two human beings never works and never?has.

Sit them down, genuinely listen to both sides, let them state their views on what they see going on, and then help them work out a mutually beneficial solution. After listening to them, there will be times when a mutually beneficial decision is hard to create as they see it.

As the leader, explain that they are both necessary to you, and you decide that you need them to do "XYZ" for their benefit and the rest of the team. Sometimes you have to tell them as the leader, "here's what we're going to do."

The power of not letting your emotions get the best of you and practicing restraint will allow for better results and create an atmosphere where people thrive and enjoy being a part of something great.

4. Discipline

Whether in the workplace or at home with your family, you must have expectations and rules as a parent. Inevitably, one of your children is going to talk back or misbehave.

The same thing goes for the workplace. Just as children like to push the boundaries to see what they can get away with, some employees will demonstrate the same behavior.

This is why setting great expectations about the rules, regulations, and procedures is critical.

Once you've clearly explained the rules and set great expectations on how to follow them, your employees should now have a clear understanding of:

• Their role on the team (or in the family)
• Their responsibilities
• The expectations they have to meet

When you set clear expectations, enforce the rules, and hold people accountable, you give people the freedom to accomplish their goals independently.

With a bit of coaching (parenting) and a healthy amount of trust, you'll quickly boost your team's accountability and ownership of what you want them to accomplish.

5. Accountability

Showing up on time, taking responsibility for your actions, and feeling obligated to uphold your word by doing what you say you will are all qualities parents want to instill in their children. And this is a "lead by example" kind of quality.

If you're like most leaders, you hire people with the expectation that those qualities are already ingrained in their thinking.

Unfortunately it isn’t easy to teach an adult to have integrity if it was never something they learned as a?child.

Children learn this by being held accountable at a young age. If they don't clean their room, they don't get to use their cell phone, if you show up late for curfew, you don't get to drive the car for a week, and if you lie, something a little more serious is called for.

As the leader or parent, you must make sure people understand the rules, know the importance of following them, and are fully aware of the consequences of refusing to comply.

Everyone will experience the consequences of their actions. If your actions are right, you'll get good consequences; if your actions are wrong, you'll create negative consequences. — Harry Brown