Babies and Big People
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Banks Redman Carlson doesn't know that he's reminding me of important leadership lessons, after all, he was only born a week ago. Nevertheless, the lessons about babies and big people are there for the learning.
Babies and big people do things for their reasons, not your reasons. You can't get inside their heads and "make" them do what you want or "motivate" them. With babies, all you can do is react.
With big people, you've got more options. You can use what you say and do to influence the behavior of big people. You can arrange the consequences so they're more likely to do what you want. But they still make the choices for their own reasons.
Babies and big people are unique. My wife and I have had experience with five children and, now, three grandchildren. Every one of them is unique.
So are big people. Everyone you deal with and everyone who works for you is unique. That's why the things that work with one person may not work at all with a different person.
Babies and big people are both bundles of possibilities. That's easy to see with babies, who have their whole life spread out ahead of them.
But big people are bundles of possibilities, too. You can help the people you love and the people who work for you explore and develop those possibilities.
Boss's Bottom Line
Babies and big people really aren't that different in some important ways. Both do things for their own reasons. Both usually mean well. And both are bundles of possibilities.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Nice post, Wally. And congrats on the birth of your newest grandson.
These are great reminders. My favorite: babies and big people are full of possibilities. The birth of a baby brings so much hope to a family, but it is great to remember that people of any age have untapped potential and abilities also.
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Thanks, Becky. Yep, human beings in all ages and sizes are bundles of possibilities. And, in the workplace, bosses have the ability to unleash the potential.
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Congrats on the new grandson!
Babies are self-centered, as are our employees many times. We want them to be focused on themselves and their area, but we also have to see the big picture. This, of course, means moving them in a direction they don't necessarily want to go (at least at first) for the good of the organization.
Great analogy - thanks so much!
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Thanks, Kerry. It's actually very humbling to realize how simple and important things like this are, but how they drift out of awareness over time.
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Wally,
It *is* amazing how life's everyday moments bring clarity to other aspects of our lives. Your parallel between babies and adults is precious... *great*! I also like Kerry Palmer's addition, that they share the trait of being "self-centered". So true, sometimes adults are unknowingly and naturally “self-centered”.
The sentence that rang true for me is: "Both usually mean well." I like to assume that people act with good intention. When things go wrong, it is best to focus on solutions (future) rather than look at "what happened" (the past). This is easier to do with babies… with adults, posts like yours are great reminders!
Thank you for the reminder and for sharing your words of wisdom.
Sonia
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Thanks, Sonia. One of the things I love about blogging is that other people, Kerry in this case, add a nuance or a whole new point that I hadn't thought of.
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Big people often have shut themselves off to possibilities. They reject options because that isn't how things are done. That isn't a good reason to reject. They have learned often people will criticism them for dreaming and questioning. But those constraints are self imposed and all that is needed to change is to decide you won't limit your possibilities.
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Thanks for adding that, John. It's interesting how we turn curious babies into risk-averse big people.
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Actually both are having there own mind set and having really bundles of possibilities. Sometimes what big people never can think, babies can think them all and some times babies are more sharper and smarter then big people "may be you people also felt that".
But at the same time big people are also not predictable some times.
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