Who Cares What Dad Thinks?

TOPICS: DECISION MAKING | OPERATIONS | LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Who Cares What Dad Thinks?

Children usually grow up in awe of their immediate authority figures. Parents, teachers, grandparents and coaches wield enormous influence over kids as they develop. It is pretty common for a child to be guided by the question, “What would my mom (or dad, teacher or coach) think?” As we all know, around the teenage years that question too often becomes, “What can I do to make mom or dad mad?” Teenage rebellion is a painful time of life, but it serves as an important part of the maturation process.

Small businesses bear an uncanny resemblance to families. Young leaders go through the same growing pains as adolescents and teenagers. But somewhere during the maturation process, usually in late high school or early college, young people begin to get the message. As they learn to accept responsibility for their actions, they can be given even more responsibility. Instead of thinking, “Dad would kill me if he knew how fast I was driving,” maturity takes hold and thoughts become, “Driving this fast is risky. I could get an expensive ticket, wreck my car or be severely injured.” When young people quit worrying about what mom and dad think and start evaluating the real consequences of their actions, maturity has started to kick in.

By the same token, young leaders become more effective managers once they quit worrying first about what their boss might think. As a long time boss, I can tell you what the boss thinks: “If you put together a logical plan and are prepared to make it a success, I’ll be your biggest supporter.” Just like parents, bosses love to see young managers take responsibility for their decisions and execute well-conceived plans. Even when things don’t go as planned, good bosses celebrate lessons learned and move forward.

Does that mean you should ignore the boss’s opinion and go rogue? Of course not! Any good boss has established a framework for decision making and you must respect that framework. You must also address how your plan fits into the overall company mission.

Changing things just for the sake of doing something different is a waste of time. But real change which advances the company toward a positive goal is always worth considering. Any boss worthy of his title welcomes the chance to hear innovative proposals. While his questions may be challenging, they are designed to make your proposal better. If your plan cannot withstand a few challenges, it probably isn’t much of a plan.

Organizations which do not innovate soon find themselves falling behind their competition. Innovation which comes from within an organization is far better than copying ideas from other organizations. Having said that, it is impossible to build an innovative culture without initiative and leadership from younger managers.

In order to become innovators, leaders must relentlessly pursue “intellectual curiosity.” If you aren’t actively pursuing knowledge, you are doing yourself, your organization and your employees a disservice. Ideas are everywhere and it is up to every individual leader to acquire knowledge that leads to improvement, both personal and organizational. The process of developing new ideas is fun, but challenging. I would guess that I discard 9 out of every 10 new ideas I consider, but the one idea that survives always makes the exercise worthwhile.



It's time to fire up your innovation engine. Dad will be proud!