If You'Ve Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything Leadership Begins at Home

If You've Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything Introduction When a two-year-old throws a tantrum in the grocery store, or a teenager yells ?I hate you!? parents often think, ?If I can get through this, I can handle anything.'Most mothers and fathers know in their bones that raising a child is the hardest job they've ever had. And, even if child-rearing is not that difficult for some, it is certainly comparable to dealing with adults, whether they are superiors, clients, coworkers, employees, or thin-skinned friends. Anyone who has learned how to comfort a troublesome toddler, soothe the feelings of a sullen teenager, or managed the complex challenges of a fractious household can just as readily smooth the boss's ruffled feathers, handle crises, juggle several urgent matters at once, motivate the team, and survive the most byzantine office intrigues. Leadership begins at home. Women have always known this on some level. For eons, they have understood that the skills, the organization, and the sheer character it takes to manage a family are relevant to coping with other challenges in life. ?It's obvious that the skills of parenting cross over into business,? says Jeanne Liedtka of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. ?People are people, and the same basic principles apply.' As long as mothers remained confined to a domestic ghetto this insight could be ignored, dismissed, or chuckled over. The subversive maternal insight that childish behavior often suspiciously resembles the behavior of grown men in groups could be treated as a joke. Now that women have risen in the professions, business, and politics, however, they can see for themselves that conscientious parenting is one of life's great credentials. They recognize that the considerable skills they practice at home are transferable to the workplace. At long last, that truth is coming out of the closet. Two recent surveys of successful female managers have confirmed, almost by accident, that parenting teaches transferable skills. A survey of sixty-one white, well-educated female managers by the Cen- ter for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina, looked at whether multiple life roles enhanced or detracted from effectiveness at work. The women reported that all private roles enhanced their professional performance, but mothering was by far the most frequently cited. Some of the women had even been told by coworkers that they were much better managers after they had children. ?Get a life!? in other words, may be sound career advice.1Another study by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women of sixty prominent female leaders, including CEOs, college presidents, lawyers, doctors, and writers, also found that virtually all those who had children thought that being a mother had made them better executives. The authors were surprised by this unexpected finding. Having children, the women reported, had been an excellent training ground for leadership. ?If you can manage a group of small children, you can manage a group of bureaucrats. It's almost the same process,? said one of the women.2Interestingly, the younger leaders were more apt to see child-rearing as a relevant credential than the older generation of female executives, who had often had to behave like a man in order to get ahead in a man's world. Nearly half those age forty-five or younger viewed the maternal role as a preparation for leadership, compared with only 10 percent of older women. ?It's a sign of their comfort with motherhood,? said Sumru Erkut, author of the study. ?In the past, women checked their womanhood at the door.'3Surveys like this don't prove a causal link between being a parent and being a better manager. They may simply reflect the supermom phenomenon: Highly energetic and talented women who become successful also tend to take on multiple life roles, including mCrittenden, Ann is the author of 'If You'Ve Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything Leadership Begins at Home', published 2004 under ISBN 9781592400737 and ISBN 1592400736.