Building Consensus and the Importance of Specificity

While I was working, I was very often called upon to coopt ideas from higher leadership and implement them with the folks I happened to be supervising at the time. These were not always good ideas. Sometimes they were silly or time wasting tasks.

The hardest part of this role was building consensus that <insert silliness here> was a good idea, and something to be done cheerfully. Isn't that what 99% of leadership is? Not coming up with ideas, but implementing them. The classic example is Tom Sawyer selling whitewashing the fence. I thought it was a hard task with adults, but building consensus in toddlers is a whole new challenge.

I have to convince the Gavinator that, not only does he WANT to <insert getting to a destination within a given time>, but it's going to be fun! Right now, he's not quite to the age where we can weigh the benefits of any given task. What works most effectively is outlining what he has to gain from a venture. If we go on a walk with Mom in the stroller, we can play at the lake, or get out the sprinkler when we return. Snack is a tangible, relatively long term goal that we work toward often :) I am blessed that from a really early age, Gavin understood causual relationships (first, X, then, Y). I also am learning when to let go, to let his developmental readiness dictate. Is it worth fighting over? Can we approach this again later?

It seems strange to equate leadership in the workplace with leading your children, but aren't they similar callings? I have to admit, though, that the stakes seem slightly higher with children :) This is actually something that irritates me about many childrearing viewpoints. The way we sometimes treat children seems to so denegrate their basic humanity and right to respect. The punitive model of childrearing that puts parents in such a dominant position over their children is passe in the workplace. Leadership is needed, certainly. Few are the tech companies whose loose organizational structure has produced anything but implosions. However, we generally try to get our subodinates on board, even with the understanding that someone has the final say. I want my children to grow up knowing that what they have to say matters. It might not change the outcome all the time, but they are worth being listened to, their voices are worth being heard.

The next important thing I learned is that once you have people on board, especially with an initially unpopular idea, specificity is critical to task completion. More on this later, as I now have a wiggling infant in my lap...