I originally wanted to write a post for Father’s Day earlier this year but missed my opportunity. But being on an engagement in Northern Spain, I have had some time to reflect upon being a dad and being a businessperson. And recent crossings in cyberspace with an old PRTM friend have given me pause to reflect upon life because of his tremendous integrity in both life and business.
I personally think there are a lot of things that one can work on in both being a dad and being a businessperson.
Being supportive plays an important role in business. In the past I wrote about how I think having a supportive manager swamps all other factors in terms of career advancement. Apparently I’m not alone in this view, at least when it comes to management positions. When 363 finance executives were asked by CFO magazine what were the top three factors that helped them to achieve their position, having a supportive boss was either #1 or #2 depending on whether the executive was male or female (see bar chart about a third down the page).
Being supportive as a parent is also key. Paying attention to what type of environment one’s kids thrive in is very important to helping them advance in life. Although "politics" may play less of a role in the family environment compared to a business environment, kids enter into environments where they may be subjected to greater numbers of groups, cliques, social settings, etc. in their personal lives than many adults even face in a normal workday. One needs to help kids to develop social skills, tools, confidence, etc. much like one needs in business.
For me, being supportive takes focus. It takes the kind of focus that one needs when trying to bench press heavy weights on a weight machine – no other distractions allowed. Sometimes it’s hard to be focused during a busy workday. Sometimes it’s hard to do that after a busy workday. But being supportive may be one of the most important things one can do as a parent and as a manager.
Communication also plays an important role. Think about how often and how you communicate with your boss or subordinates? How does the quality of communications compare with your personal life? Is the balance right? Do you need to develop better skills in one environment or the other? At one point this year, I found myself asking my boss more about how things were going than I asked my kids or wife. That was one indicator that things had gotten somewhat out of whack, and so I have started to refocus things.
There are lots of things that can be adopted between being a business person and being a dad. I’ve only cited two that come to top of mind. I used to have a few books on my bookshelf that influenced my thinking in these areas including, "The Road Less Travelled", "Venture Capital Dad", and the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families". While there are clearly differences and pitfalls in directly applying methods from the business world to the personal environment (e.g., stemming from the fact that a boss-worker relationship is different from parent-child), the fact that people learn so much in one environment or the other … well the power of leveraging those learnings more consciously has helped me.
Nice post. Thanks.