Geniuses
“I treat
them like geniuses” - the response to how my son interacts with his
friends. As much as I would have loved
to say that he got the insight from his mother, alas, I cannot…
After an
intense time of trying to fit in, dealing with bullies and finding his own
group of friends, he finally came home with the news: “We are like a team,
mom!” When enquiring a bit more, he gave me the secret to his success - treat
them like geniuses.
During a
catch-up conversation with an old client/friend, she reveals why she is
ecstatically happy in her new job. “It is amazing, this guy manages me as if I
have been there for years.” The team made it so easy for her to fit in, and to
simply get on with it.
Early on in
my career I realised that my individualism and entrepreneurial spirit would not
make me the perfect employee, hence my specialised field of consulting. That
does not mean that I do not enjoy working in teams though (as I now so often
do!).
Teamwork is
a skill – it takes effort to fit in, participate, tolerate and contribute in
the team. My four year old is deeply struggling with this. I am sure he loves
us, and maybe even likes us a bit. ‘Us’ being the rest of the family. But oh
boy, oh boy, he is not showing it. He uses every family activity to upset, or
to disrupt, or generally just to make anything not flow. Granted, he is freshly four.
I am patient
with him, because I know grown-ups that still need to master teamwork - that
has not yet moved on from this disruptive stage, that has yet to learn to work
with a group of people, sometimes in spite of themselves, their own ego’s and own
agenda’s. Simply, as Aesop puts it: “United we stand, divided we fall.”
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