My son was born on July 31, 2008. To prepare for the trials and travails of fatherhood, I spent my Sunday mornings working in our church’s preschool ministry. It was really, really fun, and I look forward to getting back to it over the next couple of weeks (I’ve taken a hiatus because of travel and fatherhood). In the process, I learned a lot about productivity, management, and life. Here are a few lessons from working with kids:
There’s a leadership and management lesson here, too. In the short run, it would be easy to pacify the child and let the wound go without proper treatment. Dealing with a screaming kid who is irate about the fact that you’ve put peroxide on a scraped knee or elbow can be heart-wrenching. In the long run, though, this creates problems in the form of potential infections and also signals that you aren’t doing your job. You end up passing the buck to someone else and showing that you’re irresponsible. In a child-care setting, I wouldn’t trust someone who is afraid to clean up scrapes and bruises. In a management setting, the ability to grit your teeth and do what you know needs doing even over the protests of your subordinates will pay off in the long run.
