Organizational leadership lessons for the home

I have had multiple conversations recently regarding the concept of organizational leadership. I have had these conversations with my education coordinator, pastor, fellow patron in my church, and a good friend of mine from several years ago. As I have been developing my thoughts on this concept that is primarily associated with the business industry, I have most recently been flooded with thoughts about how the impression of organizational leadership can be made on the family system (You may be asking why doesn't this guy just go watch some television or something?).

Here are some of my thoughts...

I recently attended a leadership conference where the speakers were top-notch business executives, pastors, non-profit pioneers, economy experts, etc. One of the profound things that I remember from this summit was a comment by a business leader who said that the object of management in the corporate world is something from the 1850's. It was constructed to obtain maximum compliance for the most feasible reward. It is behavior reinforcement placed upon unperceptive employees. I began to assess whether this attitude has invaded the world of parenting. I could come to no other conclusion than, yes, undoubtedly so. I thought of the idea that so many Baby Boomers and earlier generations grew up in either a militant/authoritarian style environment, or dichotomously, very neglectful parents. As generations progress and information is no longer at a premium, more and more research is showing how the combination of attentive love and conscious discipline is the most effective style of parenting. Why was this such an enigma for so many generations? I believe the answer can be found in our cultural attitudes in many other areas in life, including the workplace.

I see the supportive attitude toward parenting drawing a significant connection to the way in which people become the most productive and satisfied with their job experiences. They want to have a purpose undergirding their work. And not just any purpose, but one that makes it worth coming to work every day. Also, the most productive employee is going to be one that feels somewhat of a connection to administration and higher-ups. They are going to share some type of bond, whether directly through empathetic conversation, or indirectly through a knowledge of administrators being positive role-models and advocates of a supportive work environment. This is indicative of what we see in homes where children have as many encouraging and positive people in their lives as possible. There is almost an invariable effect when kids are given opportunities to develop in purpose-driven, loving, and meaningful environments.

I believe it would do us all a lot of good to really delve deeply into the connection of how we were parented or are parenting, and how we approach our work environments. There will undoubtedly be some reciprocal benefit in both areas. The most effective/satisfied employees and (I believe) the most productive/satisfied children will be ones who are not managed through compliance, but rather are empowered through parenting that is based on harmonizing age-appropriate parenting strategies with notable amounts of love and encouragement.

The Holistic Child

No, not the "'Holy'stic" Child. If you were treading those waters, let your thoughts tarry now. What I mean by "holistic" is a fairly simple concept - it has to do with having a decent sense of balance with our perspectives on what is important when it comes to child-rearing. I know we have all encountered friends and family members or seen strangers who seem to put a somewhat unhealthy amount of pressure on their children to succeed in one particular area of life. This may be the child that is raised to be a sports machine, but has an insignificant amount of initiative in his/her studies. This could be the child that seems to relate well to other kids and is quite friendly, yet when asked to comply with parental requests, has little ability to control his/her emotions. You get the picture. What we fail to recognize so often as parents is that we all get out of balance when it comes to teaching and training our children in how to develop in a broad combination of domains.

In the education world, I seek to train children to be socially secure, emotionally regulated, physically adept, intellectually initiated, and spiritually acute. Because I focus so highly on the holistic education, I have learned to notice rather quickly when one of these areas is a major strength or if it is a major weakness. I stress the importance of the holistic education because for many years our school system has done a sufficient job teaching children the 35 different mathematical constructs (geometry, physics, algebra, trigonometry, etc.), but has insufficiently provided in depth training on building positive peer relationships, developing a solid sense of self-esteem/self-confidence, and has altogether compartmentalized spirituality into its own private sector. As parents, if we are desiring to do our best to guide children in the way they should go, it must include a serious look at the full spectrum of what God has created in our human nature. I believe this to be a great attribute to the parent who is seeking to engage their children in a lifelong process of learning and engagement with the world around us. I firmly believe that the holistic education is the most provocative and truth-revealing manner of teaching our children about life. It will open up their senses to initiate a lifestyle of curiosity, but maintain a healthy discernment about what is helpful and what is not. It will free their spirit to be untamed, but wise. And it will promote a bodily health that is invigorating, not debilitating.

Consider this avenue as we seek to learn the best and most effective ways to raise our children!

The forecast shows: People's personalities hardly depart from the 5-year old appraisal

Sorry for the lingering title, but I was trying to generate a creative headline from a heavily scientific idea. Science and witty composition can rarely be married to one another.

If you have a moment read this article regarding the predictability of personalities. The concept from this article will be the premise of this blog: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100806/sc_livescience/personalitysetforlifeby1stgradestudysuggests

I heard a few years back that contemporary science is showing more and more that our primary brain capacity is nearing completion by the age of 5. This is prior to entering school! If this is true, then the responsibility that parents have to educate their children and to expose them to as much learning material as possible before they even enter a classroom is momentous!?

Some may disagree that this could even be possible, but the more we learn about the brain through neurochemistry, the more we are realizing that this is undoubtedly true. Our brains are growing at exponentially higher rates and creating more neurological connections during the first 5 years of life than at any other time. While it is extremely difficult to go into much detail about how the processing of information and experience happens on the infant and toddler brain, there is much to be said about how parents can go about initiating the growth of a child's brain chemistry in more than just intellectual ways. The manner in which we process events, trauma, relationships, and information is hugely effected by the chemical memory bank we gleaned from our earliest experiences dating back to conception. I am absolutely opposed to the idea that we are strictly scientific in regards to human behavior, but if there is little or nothing to impose itself into the neurochemical patterns that have formed, our propensity will be to handle things at the extent our brain has been able to signal it.

This is why we (not me of course!) result to very primitive behaviors when we don't get our way or when we have relationship struggles, etc. Personally, I place the greatest of emphasis on my faith in Jesus Christ to have altered my chemical tendencies toward, in my opinion, immature or even sinful reactions to life experiences. It is undoubtedly a process, but I would not doubt that there would have to be not only spiritual changes but also biological (or chemical) ones being made along with that.

I would be highly curious to hear thoughts, especially from those who may not believe in the chemical nature of humanity, or are maybe just having difficulty accepting it to be true.

What is the meaning of this?

I have determined in my mind that the best way for me to communicate what I feel so passionate about is to begin a blog that says it. Profound huh?

I have dubbed this blog site, "The Interpretors." The Interpretors are parents (my intended audience is focused on fathers, but mothers and future parents are openly welcome), who have maybe struggled to sort through their role in a child's life. A number of issues can cause this. We can be inundated with a specific theory about parenting that has us entirely vacuumed into one ideal of father/motherhood. We can carry with us a number of presuppositions from our own experiences growing up. This either engages us to the "T" or we may determine to do the exact opposite of what our parents did with us. Each can be equally ineffective or effective depending on the quality. Another quandary when it comes to the role of parents, most specifically fathers, is that we have heard so much information about how to raise kids, but it rarely works out like we thought it would with our own children. Many more factors contribute to the confusion we all experience in our roles as parents, but we can be hopeful that help is on the way!

The Interpretors are therefore fathers who realize that we have an immense task ahead of us and need all the help we can get. We are dads who want to be the best we can be at what we are now responsible to do as fathers. We are intrigued by our mission, which is to convey purpose to our children and to teach them truth. We want to grasp every opportunity to give our children's lives meaningful opportunities to grow and to take every moment as a chance to teach them something new. We are fascinated with the concept of being a hero to our kids and desire to take chances to build a positive relationship with them that we may not have had with those who raised us. We are maybe uncertain about how to do all this, but are noble enough to admit that it can be done with some guidance, wisdom, and solid resources. Interpreting our children's experiences is how we help them learn what every event in their lives means, and how it can be effected from one context to another.

This site is devoted to conveying whatever information, resources, and insight I have into the fathering role. I am open to communicating other's advice as well!