Monday 6 February 2012

The Parenting Pyramid - some insights to leading & managing?

This interesting article looks at the fact that most parents are looking to correct behaviour and attitude rather than considering how they can support things going right.  Isn't this also true of leaders and managers? 
The article suggests that effective parenting reverses the order in expenditure of time and energy by having the primary question in our minds at all times - "How do we help things go right?"  With parallels to Maslow, the pyramid follows a hierarchy of concerns with the first being the most fundamental and deepest foundation - our personal way of being.  (This dovetails into the enthios coaching approach around authenticity and accessing who you are as a person.)

Translating this model into a business context only requires a tweak to the 5 points in the summary
  1. Although correction is part of leading and managing it is the smallest part
  2. The key to effective correction is effective teaching
  3. The key to effective teaching is an effective relationship with your employee
  4. The key to a good employee relationship is a good peer to peer and line manager relationships
  5. The key to a good peer to peer and line manager relationship is our personal way of being

Kate Peacock

Thursday 2 February 2012

The top five regrets of the dying

A really interesting  article today in The Guardian on a nurse's experience of the dying and the regrets they express.  It all seems so simple, yet how do manage to distance ourselves from these desires?  A very moving read, and for the living, a chance to put things right before it's too late.