Leadership at work takes lots of effort; leadership at home seems to take even more! We have to be on constant guard of “lazy parenting” as a result.
I often hear parents say that their children are their best friends and that they can make all of their own decisions. I cringe when I here this, there is a reason children have parents. As a result there will usually be a lack of teaching, accountability and discipline in that home. Parents who take the “lazy parenting” approach don’t have their eyes on the long term good of the child. Could you imagine a manager not holding his or her employees accountable and avoiding any type of conflict for the sake of being “best friends?” Productivity would suffer and eventually neither the employee nor manager would feel fulfilled at work. Such an approach will do far more harm than good.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t have fun with children or employees, but somebody has to be the driver/leader or else the family or team will eventually crash. Someone has to hold the children or employees accountable for their actions, choices, performance etc… Someone has to stand up and take the lead.
David Cottrell, author of the best selling book “Monday Morning Leadership” speaks about the important differences between drivers and passengers in a vehicle in the workplace. Passengers can play while driving; drivers have to keep their eyes on the road.
Parenting requires the same focus as a driver. Some parents engage in unhealthy passenger behavior with their children that can include talking negative about teachers, coaches, neighbors, the child’s friends etc… Other negative passenger behavior includes not having rules or not holding children accountable to broken rules. There are many other examples of passenger behavior I could outline. The important thing is that parents who want to take a leadership role in the home realize that they are drivers in their homes and it requires focus, energy (much more than a passenger) and discipline.
Beware of passenger behavior in the home; it can easily lull you into falling asleep at the wheel.
MGR
