Two disparate facets of life, separated distinctively as Personal and Career, cross over more than I realized. I’ve been a manager for roughly seven years, and, learned to be a better one in the last couple.
As I’ve watched our 2 year old, Zian, learn gravity, discover opposable thumbs, channel incoherent noise to parroting words, there were subtle teachings alongs the way. Here are 2 that I’m often reminded :
Fail to grow
As manager, leader, dad the presumption is to “show the way” and to “correct when wrong” to show what “Good” looks like. Benign and helpful as it may seem, actually gets in the way of growth. Intention is to help but the effect isn’t the same.
Maybe a hot take - Humans are naturally wired to have a growth mindset. Early growth is accompanied with more failures, but the learning compounds. Early optimizations for conformity and consistency breed fear of failure.
Z does many things wrong and I’ve learned to let him fail until he finds his way. When he does, victory is sweet and you see it in his gleaming eyes - He knows he leveled up.
Reminder of Resilience
Z trips and falls roughly every 20 steps - because he no longer walks, only runs. Gets up, brushes and runs once again.
And I look at it wondering how he recalibrates and moves on so quickly. Well, that’s the thing, he doesn’t wait for anyone to tell him that he fell badly or run in to check in. Probably does pain, but he makes a decision to move forward. Most games are won in the mind first.
Leaders are often lonely, and falls are more often bad. Resilience is typically the only tool at disposal to prevail.
