WHAT TOP EXECUTIVES CAN LEARN FROM KIDS

Reading time: 3 minutes

If you have read my September blog, you know I believe that Executive Coaching is not about working to perfection. It is all about reaching maximum performance based on your very own typical qualities and personality. If not, chances are that in your search for perfection you start losing yourself and end up wondering who you really are. Even more, you can lose a talent you were once given and with that all spontaneity in connecting with others as well as yourself.

That is what I like the most about working with kids. They are who they are, developing their own personality although behaving based on the input they get from the outside.

Besides my executive Coaching, where I focus at the top layer of multinationals, I wanted to give something back by pro deo Coaching teens. BigFish4.kids. Not so long ago I was calling everybody I love to tell them my first multinational decided to hire me as an executive Coach. But needless to say those beautiful moments where a parent is thanking me from the heart, or a young adult tells me he now enjoys life again, are at least as rewarding. And running those kids trajectories, I now understand it is so much more than giving back. The insights I get from Coaching those teens are priceless. They are happy, sad, scared or angry. No hiding behind language nuances. Nor taking into account organizational politics and hidden agendas. And if their environment is not listening well, they find other ways to communicate. Even if they have to scream out loud, destroy stuff or stop eating for all that matters.

How many times did you as an executive wanted to figuratively speaking shake up your boss and scream that it is not OK? That you are not happy with how things are going? Or that you are scared to death about the responsibility you were given? On the other hand, how many times did you just want to hug a colleague and thank him (or her) for saving your skin? I am sure this has happened to you before.

But did you? That I am not sure of.

I am not saying we should all act as children in our business environment. But I believe it would be great if we could from time to time simplify our complexity of interpersonal behaviour. Thank someone. Argue. Or simply say that it is not OK. Being happy, sad, scared or angry. Without thinking of organizational politics.

After all, we are all equal. Aren’t we?
Sofie

Questions or remarks? Feel free to comment!

Sofie Varrewaere is the founder of BigFish4.me. After studying a Master in Psychological and Pedagogical Sciences, she ogled into the magical world of Recruitment, Selection and HR Services. Working for the world leader in HR, she has always been in an advisory role in relation to the larger goals of several multinational organizations. In 2013 she started her own company in International executive Coaching. Doing what she is good at, challenging others as well as herself.