The Incredible Parallel Between Education and Micromanagement

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Hey fellow humanitarian leader,

I’ll tell you one thing about me, but I promise it will be useful for the rest of the email. Stick to it, please.

I have a child.

As a humanitarian, you know that a child is not always a given. But I am not here to celebrate myself—not today, at least!

I am mentioning my child because I am trying to be a good father and am reading stuff about parenting—accountability in humanitarian terms.

I read an article that made me think of a parallel between parenting and being a humanitarian leader, specifically about micromanagement. I laughed as soon as I thought about it. I felt it would not be appropriate to write about it here, where more than 100 well-experienced humanitarian leaders can read it. But then I was like, “Who cares?” And here we go.

The article, for other parents or simply curious colleagues, is “Why kids need to take more risks: science reveals the benefits of wild, free play”.

Before I explain to you why this article is helpful for humanitarian leaders, please check my favourite news source below:

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Ok, back to micromanagement and children.

Here are five quotes from the nature.com article.

1. Children need these opportunities to develop spatial awareness, coordination, tolerance of uncertainty and confidence.

“These opportunities” are risky activities where they must take the initiative to solve a problem. Don’t you think that confidence and tolerance of uncertainty are skills that your team should develop, too?

2. The goal of promoting risky play isn’t to turn cautious children into thrill-seekers, it’s simply to allow them to take incremental risks at whatever pace they choose, say proponents. “What risky play looks like for one child will be totally different to what it looks like for another,”

Your team should take incremental responsibilities at whatever pace they can afford.

Help the team members develop their skills. Find a suitable development plan for each member, give them more responsibilities, and watch them evolve.

3. Risky play is associated with greater resilience, self-confidence, problem-solving and social skills such as cooperation, negotiation and empathy.

Above are all skills that I want in my team. I am sure you do, too.

There is no better way to obtain them than by making more decisions and initiatives at work. See below #4 on how this starts a cycle that nurtures itself:

4. Outdoor risky play might have extra benefits. It is linked to having low levels of stress and anxiety. Dodd hypothesizes that risky play lowers children’s risk of anxiety by teaching them about physiological arousal, the adrenaline and racing heartbeat that accompanies anxiety and excitement. Over time, her theory posits, when children have a chance to repeatedly experience the cycle of challenge, arousal and coping, this helps them learn to manage anxiety and understand that physiological stress isn’t a disaster and doesn’t last forever.

The more you assign your team responsibilities, the better they cope psychologically. By reducing their anxiety, they will work better and take on more responsibilities.

Et voilà!

5. Play should always be led by the child and what the child wants to do,” she says. The adults’ role is to provide a conducive environment and then get out of the way — or at the most, to cheerlead gently

Maybe you should not cheer your colleagues as if they were your child. However, encouragement is necessary if you want to be a good leader and develop your team’s skills. Find proper ways to acknowledge results. You will see results faster than you expect.

Now that you have the theory, it is time to practice it.

What are you planning to do to give more responsibilities to your team?

Reply to me with your answer if you like; I will gladly discuss it further.

Thanks for reading,
Luca

P.S. Do you have a colleague who could benefit from these tips?
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