My Shortlist of Senior Leadership Lessons Learned from Parenting.

1.     You can’t parent every child the same; they all have unique gifts and talents that need to be fostered to reach their potential.

2.     Positional power has little influence toward transformational growth.

3.     Relational trust is a foundation that needs to be monitored and fostered throughout every stage of development.

4.     You must love them all the same even if you don’t like some of their idiosyncrasies.

5.     Modelling your promoted values and behaviours is critical for them to capture how they are to go about doing what is needed.

6.     Creating one-on-one time is vital to their overall development, sense of importance and leadership growth.

7.     Make sure the environment that you construct supports the outcomes you promote, or you will frustrate their efforts.

8.     Listening is critical to getting to the heart of any issue that mysteriously surfaces from seemingly nowhere.

9.     Creating psychological safety is paramount if I want them to know they can vulnerably share of themselves in order to share their ideas confidently and collaboratively.

10. Ultimately my leadership interactions are not all about me.

11. I need to help them comprehend their needed contribution in the family for the mutual benefit of everyone.

12. Being vulnerable when I’ve made a mistake, and saying “Sorry,” creates deeper connection.

13. Using my words to show genuine appreciation causes a greater intrinsic desire to serve.

14. Delegating areas of responsibility, must not exceed current levels of competency where failure is likely, while at the same time being a stretch for effective growth and engagement.

15. Harsh reactions to mistakes shut down productivity faster than anything I know.

16. Creating reflective space by asking questions is more powerful in motivating action and developing character than blurting out commands.