Parenting-manager | Managing-parent | Managent | Parenger ??

Many of you would have heard of designations like a Managing Director or a Managing Partner.

Well then...

Early last month I was facilitating a session on feedback as a tool for team member performance development conversation.

There came a point when some of the participants felt a little overwhelmed learning the amount of work that goes into making a great people manager.

Instead of telling them to go seek a change to an individual contributor role again, I asked for the number of parents in the session.

Most hands went up. I also joined in.

Everybody agreed that parenting wasn't easy and yet none of them were keen to give up on it and put their children up for adoption.

It's the same with managing also, I said. There are similarities in both the roles.

Because at the end of the day, the challenge, the struggle, the highs and lows, the heart-breaks, the triumphs, the unpredictable non-linearity, the surprises, shocks, the turnarounds, breakthroughs, disappointments, brakes, tears, acceleration, deceleration, pride, exhaustion and the drama of it all is worth it.

 

We expect things to be predictable in a life that is almost always non-linear.

Sometimes you have to manage as a parent and sometimes you have to parent as a manager to get the best out of people including oneself and get the best our of the situation.

As I sat down to write this, I came across the following links on parenting and managing.

I haven't read them with a fine toothcomb yet but thought of sharing them with everyone who comes this far.

• 5 similarities between being a manager and a parent by Lauren Volpi - https://medium.com/@laurenvolpi/similarities-between-being-a-manager-and-parent-104c9ed8bcfc

• Taking a parenting class made me a better manager (and parent) by Adam Fishman - https://medium.com/@fish/taking-a-parenting-class-made-me-a-better-manager-and-parent-3103adaed215

(Image source: http://www.familylead.org/parentmanagervsleader/)