Sometimes, the best way to teach kids good leadership and other skills is to put them in situations that require them – like electing them as Mom or Dad of the house.
When I got initial physical custody of my two young children, I condensed my best business and technical leadership values and sills into fun practices. Then we three shared parenting responsibilities.
I told them, “Kim, Lance, you don’t belong to me. You belong to God who loaned you to me for us to mutually-influence each other. I’m so excited God picked me to be your dad.”
- We traveled on over 60 routes from home to school in Silicon Valley traffic; it was a blast! Every other weekend, we travelled 260 miles – part of the custody arrangement.
- Practicing leadership skills earned for them “creativity dividends,” which were invested in teddy bears, construction toys, and books.
- They selected our produce, and I delegated to them (not to the teacher) the responsibility for their learning.
- I asked God’s help and the kids’ help to love the kids unconditionally and to treat them as well as I treated my very best grown-up friends.
By age 30, each had worked on 3 continents outside North America. Kim earned a BS in International Relations (math Minor) and Lance an MS in Civil Engineering and MBA from Penn Wharton as a Leadership Fellow.
I have worked with and managed high tech engineers, scientists, and business innovators in several “Fortune 500″ companies – GE, IBM, FMC, applied Materials, and Tandem Computers.
“And he (the Prophet Elijah) shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6).
Please enjoy are fun adventures.
Lance D. Shaw proposes a method along this creative line of thinking. Find out what he has in store for parents in Parenting Dad
