I recently took a period of time out of the business world to have my second child. During this time, my husband’s job location changed and we moved across the country. This initially made me feel really removed from the business world and, in all honesty, a bit isolated as a professional. I experienced the seismic shift of parenthood much more the second time around as so much had changed… but actually it brought some basic business principles into a sharper focus for me as well.

It seems strange to say that being away from business helped me to simplify some important business practices in my own mind. Perhaps it was because of the fact that I had taken a step back that I could see things in a sleep deprived haze simpler way? Perhaps it was because I realized that in the office I do things more automatically and expected to be able to do the same at home. Whatever the reason, I realized that we have a lot of theories about People Management, which can be simplified if we use children as an analogy.

So here is my purposefully-simplified view of some common people management tools:

1. Delegation and Resource Management

In business, we know we need to delegate. Most of us unthinkingly delegate tasks in order to clear to-do lists or free up time. I thought I was pretty good at delegating, and gave myself an additional pat on the back when I found a task needed delegating, which served a double purpose - allowing someone else to develop skills as well as clearing my own desk.

However, having two small people to deal with at home made me really think about whether I had been performing this basic people management tool effectively. You see, the real strength in delegation is not only clearing your lists, but making the most of the Talent in your team – considering their strengths and aspirations. This means you are less likely tonask them to do tasks which they will find boring, or irrelevant to their personal goals. Tasks which are perceived to be boring or irrelevant will generally bore the people completing them, and this may mean they do not put as much energy into it as you would like. Equally, you may have great Talent in a team which is simply being wasted if you don’t give them opportunities.

Let me draw an analogy of a time when we were packing for a week away in the Lake District. As project manager for this task, I felt a breezy confidence on the morning of our departure. I’ve packed bags lots of times. I’ve gone further than the Lake District. I’ve organized big events for work… I’ve underestimated the task.

Packing bags for two adults, two children, getting three people dressed (I left my husband to sort himself out); ensuring there is food for the journey, food for the week away, bike helmets, swimming costumes, nappies and walking boots – and making sure everything (including little people) all make their way into the car is akin to a military operation!

This military operation was somewhat hindered by the fact that my husband had to work the morning before we were leaving, so I was doing a lot of it myself. I did a quick assessment of the skills in my team:

Project Manager

Myself (adult)

Experienced member of the team. Tasked with heading up this project. In charge of resources, task allocation, success of project (bringing everything and everyone from A to B) and general safety and wellbeing of the team

2nd In Charge

Husband

(adult)

Experienced member of the team. Heading up another project (work) but diverting limited (much needed) time to our current project as well.

3rd Team Member

Daughter

(age 4)

Partially experienced team member. She can be trusted with some tasks but her limited experience means she needs close supervision and monitoring on others. She’s still in training and wants to take on more responsibility and autonomy.

4th Team Member

Son

(age 1)

The newest team member. Let’s imagine he’s the intern – he’s not yet qualified, but he’s eager to please. He’s never worked in a team before, he spends much of his time secretly napping.

As you can probably imagine, what ensued was chaos:

I asked my daughter (trainee) to do tasks which were well beyond her capabilities (darling, please could you butter this bread for Mummy while I finish putting the bags in the boot?). I did not regularly check in on progress (oh dear god, I’ve been at the boot for 25 minutes playing suitcase Tetris – there is butter on the child, on the table and on the floor… That’s an outfit change and a clean up mission I didn’t account for! And I still need to butter the bread!).
I took on too much for myself, trying to simultaneously pack the car, make the lunch, check the bags and get everyone dressed to go.
I didn’t ask my husband to do anything and got annoyed when he hadn’t read my mind and bought snacks on his way home or called the holiday site to confirm our check-in details.

I could have fixed this situation in a number of ways:

1) Remote Management Skills. If I had set my husband’s expectations in advance and asked him to do some of the administrative tasks and the last minute food purchases, I could have used his skills and knowledge to achieve those two tasks without stress, given that he is a completely competent member of the team who could have done those tasks without monitoring.

2) Effective Delegation and Follow Up. I should have ensured that, if I wanted my daughter to butter bread, that I took a little more time to show her what I meant, clarified her understanding and ability by watching her do it a couple of times, and checking back in more regularly, either by doing a task in the same room, or coming back in more often to check (just FYI she did have an appropriate child’s knife and was standing at her child sized table to do the task – health and safety first.)

3) Resource Management/Project Planning. OK I hold my hands up to the fact that I should have planned the whole packing thing in advance. I could have thought about resources required and the timescales involved. For instance: I could have had myself and my husband making sandwiches and snacks the night before, I could have used a check-list and I could have set tasks for the following day the night before so we each had clearly defined roles.

You live and learn – our next holiday will make better use of my business skills.

2. Investing in Training

My daughter got the concept with Velcro shoes pretty quickly. However, it took her what felt like an eternity to learn to zip her coat up. There were times at the front door when I was nearly hopping with frustration because we were going to be late for something while I waited for her to put the two ends of her coat together painstakingly slowly! But I’m so pleased we did it – because now she is able to zip her own coat up and if I give her a five- minute request to put on her coat and shoes I know that she will be ready at the door by the time I finish sorting out my son (most of the time)!

Investing in development is so important. Lets be honest, when a task seems simple to us, it can be slightly frustrating waiting for them to develop the skills – but remember it is complicated to them. The outcome is well worth the investment and here are some reasons why:

They take ownership – they want to do it well and they appreciate the opportunity to prove themselves.
They feel valued – rather than having a twenty minute tantrum as we leave the house because I denied her the opportunity to put on her own coat, I waited the requisite zipping up time and left the house with a happy team member. For an office comparison, you now have an engaged and motivated employee.
They become masters – which means you don’t have to do everything and you quickly find your team is more qualified and more competent.

3. Rewarding and Acknowledging Performance

My daughter was incredibly good in the early days when my son was born. She relished the times I asked her to fetch things for me. I started to take it for granted. Until the day when I (ambitiously) decided to give baby his first taste of jam – sticky, bright red, jam on toast. I quickly found that the baby, the table and the floor were all covered in red stickiness, which I turned to clean up with a wipe… only to realize the packet of wipes was empty!

I asked my little lady to please go upstairs and get a new packet of wipes from the wipe drawer - and she turned around and told me she was too busy. It was at this point, with a grumpy, sticky, bright red baby, who was fast losing patience with being pinned to his chair (hands dangerously close to the cream walls) that I realized I had no way of cleaning him without picking him up – stickiness and all.

I acknowledged to myself the many times I had asked favours of my daughter; and how I expected her good will to continue without properly rewarding her behaviour. Of course, it wasn’t her fault the food discovery experience for her baby brother required more wipes than I had available. It also wasn’t fair of me to expect her to abandon the task she was embedded in. It did make me see that if you don’t sufficiently reward positive behavior you will eventually, quite literally, end up with egg (or some other food) all over your face. I now ensure that I thank my daughter for each favour she does for me and when she asks me to do something, I set an example by doing it as often as I can so that she can see I value her.

In an office context, sufficient recognition, praise and reward all make for more productive employees. It also ensures employees are proud of their work and their organization, which encourages them to work to their best, and to speak positively of their organization. You don’t need a big budget to reward people – most of the time genuine words of appreciation go a long way.

If you would like some support in training your leaders in key people management skills, or if you would like to learn more for yourself, then contact BizPsych for more information: www.bizpsych.co.uk/contact/