One of the hardest things I’ve found as a parent is to balance my values with the culture in which we live and the resulting behavior of my sons.

Every generation says the same thing…”Kids these days! Why, when I was THEIR age, I NEVER…”

You’ve said it and you’ve heard it from your parents haven’t you?

Don’t lie, now…

Leaders do many things, but one of the most important is creating a vision/strategy.

Creating a strategy isn’t an overnight process; it takes time and energy.

In parenting, however, the clearer we are of the desired future state of our family the easier it will be to “chart a path” for our family.

There are certain things we want our kids to experience and qualities and characteristics we want in our children.

“Visioning” is a leadership competency which has helped me respond better to undesirable behavior my boys displayed.

Three important skills within the visioning competency that help resolve bad behavior are:

1) Getting at the key issues within the situation we are dealing with
2) Educating ourselves about the situation
3) Informing the family with a thorough understanding of the situation

No matter what issue you’re going through right now, I urge you to consider the points above before making your next move.

While you consider…do you you know what the experts say about the skills above?

1: generally carried out by a CEO

2: generally carried out by a DIRECTOR

3: generally carried out by a MANAGER

When I realized that, it really hit home that being a parent is a powerful role…AND…a very difficult one because we need to think at many levels.

So often we focus on the symptoms rather than get at the root of the issue. It’s always better to get to the root of the problem before tackling the symptoms.

Easier said than done sometimes, right?

As a parent leader, THE best way to get to the root is to ask yourself (…and your child…and “the experts”), “Why?”

“Why did they do that?”
“Why are they behaving that way?”
“Why are they reacting so poorly?”

Managers deal with the behavior.

Leaders deal with the problem.

Parents do both.

NOTE: These tips won’t prevent bad decisions…but they helped ME get through the fallout related to the bad decisions.