I had the wonderful privilege of watching our three adorable kids…
so my beautiful wife could explore the most beautiful country on this planet (at least according to this one person). I started with adorable so I don’t feel bad about also calling them CRAZY!
To be fair, they are 1, 3, and 5 years old. They’re simply normal (crazy) kids.
While she was gone, I was juggling my work schedule, nap schedules, babysitter schedules, and my dog’s bathroom schedule. All that on top of trying to be a loving, caring, good dad.
If I had to give myself a grade, it would range down to the hour from A+ to being expelled from school. Some moments were full of laughter and joy… other moments didn’t quite make it onto my Instagram feed.
Despite how the week turned out and how I felt about it, I took note along the way about how my leadership (or lack thereof) had an impact on my children and my team at work. Here are my three takeaways…
Celebrate Creativity & Individuality
Every human is made to be uniquely them, and no one else. My 3-year-old daughter Jubilee is impressively independent and determined. At one point during the week, she was hanging from the upstairs railing, about 12 feet above the stairwell below. It wasn’t disobedience, it was exploration. That’s one of a hundred stories that capture her essence.
Another thing I love about my daughter is her insatiable creative appetite. When she isn’t drawing on the walls, she wants to paint, color with markers, or simply draw on the back of envelopes we get in the mail. At low points during the week, I noticed how much of an inconvenience it was, and I would squash her desires, simply because I didn’t want to deal with the mess.
It’s selfish.
It’s short-sided.
It’s nowhere close to instilling creativity, hard work, self-confidence, and self-expression; which are some of our deepest family values. As I lead my family and my professional team, I never want to sacrifice creativity for convenience.
I never want to sacrifice creativity for convenience.
Trust Your Team
I was in and out of the office all week with half-days off, work from home days, and breaks in the middle for my son’s pre-school graduation. It was a logistical mess. The best part of it was that no one could have known, because my team is so freaking fantastic!
I’m reminded every time I take days off that my team is even better than I thought. If they need me… they reach out. But mostly, they already know exactly what to do.
More importantly, they know HOW to do it. They represent me very well. They represent the entire department well.
The question I’m left with is,… “What else can I do to be the wind at their backs?”
How much more are they ready for that I hold them back from today?
Keep Casting Vision
If I said “Mom will be back in X number of days!” once, I said it 1,000 times.
It’s a simple trick to keep your kids from melting down, but there is a principle hidden in that simple statement. In Proverbs 29:18, it says…
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”
I have/am still missing the boat on vision casting. I need to do a better job of painting a future for my children. I’m not doing enough to convey what the future looks like for my marriage. I certainly am not helping my team see the bright future that could lie ahead.
All three of these lessons are hard pills to swallow. They highlight my shortcomings and mock my past.
Thankfully, this isn’t the end of the story.
Felix and I at his Pre-School Graduation
