Leadership or Parenting. Is there really a difference?

We are one person and I contend must be consistent and true to ourselves in all areas of our lives.

We all have all heard the mantra about leading with optimism. #HBR has published numerous articles as well as many organizational behaviorists and motivational speakers such as @JonGordon and some of the most admired leaders such as @BobIger the CEO of Disney who has been quoted saying “The most important characteristic of a leader is optimism” all enforce the same optimism characteristic as key to their and their organizations success. 

Their approach all stems from the work of @BFSkinner (#ScarySkinner) and his Operant Conditioning Model which showed how can teach, train and manage behavior with different results using the following four approaches: positive reinforcement; positive punishment; negative reinforcement and negative punishment. https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/b-f-skinner 

Positive Reinforcement can be defined as the introduction of a desirable or pleasant stimulus after a desired behavior. Consider how you treat your employees to motivate them. Do you treat your children the same way? Wouldn’t the same concepts hold true. Many of us punish our kids for their poor behavior, bad grades etc….   Why do we do this? Is it out of anger, frustration, or just the way we learned from our parents? This type of reinforcement desires to have the negative behavior curbed but does not reinforce result you really desire. We learned through leadership training to lead with optimism and positivity to get the desired results. Why do so many of us not do the same at home? Why do we do things differently and expect the same results?

We must be consistent. Our behavior and approach to leading and learning should be the same no matter who we are leading or teaching. Don’t treat your teams differently than your children. This will help you as a leader really become the one person you want to be.