Today I would like to share a few thoughts on how parenthood and fatherhood have influenced my leadership style.
I’m the father of three children and, as you can imagine, it’s always lively and challenging. There’s shouting, there’s fighting and so on. Nothing out of the ordinary. But as a result, I see teamwork and collaboration in the office with completely different eyes.
This liveliness and unpredictability, which is always very high with children, is fortunately much lower at work. Since I live with children and bring them up or try to bring them up, I am very happy that nobody in the office shouts loudly, rolls around on the floor or gets into fights with others. Now you can say that’s normal at work, but it’s also nice that they don’t do that.
So I think the craziness of being a parent has made me calmer and more grateful for what I experience at work, and it has also made me more patient. There’s a saying: “The grass doesn’t grow faster if you pull on it”. And it’s a bit similar with children and with teams in organizations everywhere.
Approaching things benevolently, talking, being patient, but also spurring things on with moderation – these are all things that I take with me from family life into working life.