Are you paying enough Attention to your Attention? While Leadership and Parenting seem almost synonymous in intentionality and access, in the business world this space for Managers is called Occupational Intimacy. It accounts for the person who has closest access for influence, role modelling, connecting and impacting both capabilities and performance of team members.
The challenge of having authority figures demonstrate the- Do as I Say not as I Do phenomenon, is the devastating confusions this can create for many who cannot connect the spoken words to actions… and may treat that as tacit permission to pay lip service to things they don’t really mean or plan to do, and that they can have the power to damage the world view of yet another generation of children or professionals, through poor role modelling themselves..
People watching us closely – whether our Teams or our children know what really matters to us and what we are paying attention to the most-
-Not caring for timeliness or deadlines/ blaming the system
– Wasting resources
-Getting ahead by playing the bureaucracy
-Managing key Stakeholders rather than working through Contribution
-Being Self-serving vs Sharing credit
-Not investing in resolving conflicts or building teams – the list could be endless
Similarly as a Parent
– not showing Compassion to Senior Family members while asking children to respect elders
– Wasting resources while reprimanding children for doing the same
– answering calls while eating while asking children to not bring phones to the table
– demanding consideration for other children at school while not giving any consideration to neighbours
The list could be endless…not that we don’t get called out by children at times, but we are unintentionally Rolemodelling how we can be authority figures who are unaware of our Focus…
It’s not the Audio as much as where we are Focussing that matters. Our focus needs more focus – and we need to pay more Attention to our Attention to become credible Role models- do you agree? What are your experiences with Bosses or Parents role modelling?
