As a business leader, you face challenges requiring a specific skill set to overcome. The career journey from your days as an individual contributor to an executive or senior leadership role is never a linear path; there are messy twists and turns. The most significant skill set is less about your hard skills and more about soft skills. This can be crucial to differentiate you as a good leader.
One of the primary challenges of leadership in business, of course, is managing a team of people with diverse backgrounds, skills and personalities. Just like making difficult decisions as a parent, leaders must make choices that align with the company’s values and goals, even if those choices aren’t always popular or easy. By establishing a trust, respect and transparency culture, great leaders can foster better collaboration to inspire creativity and drive innovation.
While the parallels to parenting may not be obvious, they’re more striking than you think. By observing similarities with good parenting, leaders can draw inspiration to become better at both roles. So let’s look at our everyday experiences as a parent and consider how these seven parenting skills helped me become a better leader.
1. Patience
As a parent, patience is a critical skill that you must master. Children are unpredictable and can test your patience to the limit. The same is true for the business world. Things sometimes go differently than planned, and you will encounter obstacles and setbacks in your professional life. As a parent, I’ve learned to develop patience and remain calm and focused in stressful situations. Patience leads to better outcomes, fewer tears and a happier family. The same is true as an executive, a role in which I must routinely navigate complex problems in high-pressure situations. Keeping a level head (and my emotions in check) has been invaluable.
2. Communication
As a parent, communication is critical to building a solid relationship with your children. Effective communication involves active listening, clarity and empathy. As executives, many of us must regularly communicate with internal and external stakeholders. When doing so, we must listen actively. Take the time to understand different perspectives. And most importantly, convey your messages clearly and concisely when you speak (or act, as the case may be).
3. Flexibility
As a parent, you quickly learn that children are unpredictable, and you need to be flexible and adapt to their changing needs. As children grow up, they are constantly changing as their bodies grow, their hormones start flowing and their minds evolve; in other words, what may have worked when parenting a toddler isn’t going to work with a teenager.
More often than not, flexibility can help ease tension in any situation and drive better outcomes. The same is true in business. Market conditions, customer preferences and technology change rapidly. Having headed up the growth function of several startups, I learned very quickly to be agile and nimble in my approach to problem-solving. Being more flexible has helped me navigate changing business environments and stay ahead of the curve.
4. Resilience
Parenting is an excellent way to develop resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficult situations and adapt to change. It is essential for success in any area of life. We all face unexpected obstacles. Kids get sick or may develop behavioral issues.
By staying committed to your children’s well-being and growth, you develop the strength to overcome challenges and keep moving forward. This resilience is critical to the business world, where inevitable setbacks and failures occur. Being resilient allows a leader to bounce back from setbacks more quickly, persevere through challenging stretches and never give up. I love working at early-stage startups because every day brings different challenges to scale growth with limited time, resources and money.
5. Empathy
Empathy is essential to build strong, trusting relationships with your children. You can connect with them more profoundly by putting yourself in their shoes and understanding their perspective. This is critical in the business world. By understanding the needs and motivations of your employees, customers and other stakeholders, you can build stronger relationships and create a more productive work environment. As a marketing executive, I have always found that empathy is critical to better understanding the needs and wants of customers. The same applies to understanding your children and fellow teammates.
6. Leadership
Leadership isn’t necessarily a skill we associate with parenting, but it’s part of being a good parent. As a parent, you are responsible for shaping your child’s growth and development, which requires strong leadership skills. Good leaders, like good parents, set clear expectations, provide guidance and support and set a good example. These same skills are also essential in the business world. As an executive, I’m responsible for setting the direction and vision for my company, creating a positive and productive work environment and guiding my team to success. You must be selfless, putting the needs of others before your own, to become a great parent and business leader.
7. Lifelong Learning
We all continuously learn, unlearn and relearn skills throughout life’s different stages and phases. What worked in the past may not work in the future, so adopting a growth mindset to stay curious, keep experimenting and adapt to new ways of doing things is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. As a parent and professional, I have always been an avid reader, taking courses and seeking out mentors and coaches to help keep my skills and knowledge up to date. Being a lifelong learner is the best path to revealing your best version, whether in parenting or business.
The parenting skills you hone and develop daily can translate directly into the business world.
Successful business leaders require empathy, patience, effective communication, flexibility, resilience, leadership and a growth mindset. So be a great parent—and know that all the love and hard work you’re investing into raising healthy, amazing kids will pay dividends in your work life.
This article first appeared on FORBES
