The New Crop: Issue #40
preparing our kids for the world + "6 ways to get me to email you back"
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: Preparing our kids for the world
😆 Today’s Laugh
😂 🤦♀️
💭 Today’s Thought
“I’m preparing my daughters for the world, not to be my daughters.”
- Michelle Obama
About three years ago, I heard Michelle Obama say this and it has stuck with me ever since.
It hit me like a ton of bricks because when it comes to my children, I have a much harder time letting go of my own approach/what I think is best than I do at work.
When left unchecked at home, my struggles here lead me to:
Overly criticize
Set more rigid rules, and be less flexible when new circumstances arise
Insist on the same expectations I had growing up
Dismiss my kids’ interpretations or feelings towards a situation, if it seems like it clashes with my views or approach
In short, these behaviors end up teaching my kids how to successfully be my child, and not how to navigate the world. It stings to write that.
Michelle’s quote has helped me on my life-long journey to do better for my kids; it reminds me to consider the bigger questions we’re called to answer as parents:
How can we make sure our children are well equipped to face life without us?
How can we help them discover and amplify who they uniquely are, and inspire them to walk their own path?
And because I see so many parallels between parenting and leadership, I suppose we could ask the same of the team members that we lead…
How can we prepare them for their careers, and not just to be our direct report?
📚 Today’s Read
6 Ways to Get Me to Email You Back
Adam Grant shares tips to improve your communication when networking or asking for help from someone you don’t know well (or at all). Bonus: the pointers apply just as well to how you might make requests of your colleagues. 🙌 Check it out!
See you next week!
xo,
Anne