It is interesting what can be learned from children. They can be more insightful than Executives at times…..perhaps it’s a different viewpoint, similar to leveraging the transferability of best practices.

  1. Can you explain it so that your 5th grader can understand it? It sounds insane but effective and clear communication is a rare quality in today’s business environment. I’ve tried to explain a presentation to a 5th grader, and it was much harder than I expected yet it helped me improve upon my presentation’s clarity.
  2. Don’t give up: If your child wants a particular toy, does he/she give up after one, “no”? Most likely not. Instead, they continually come up with new and unique ways of asking for the toy. At times, they can be so creative that you end up purchasing the toy. Perhaps it is because they haven’t learned to be afraid of rejection. What can we learn from our children’s creative requests?
  3. Recess: My nephew was talking about recess, and I realized I forgot all about recess, as it was quite a long time ago. But, doesn’t it help rejuvenate the mind and spirit to have a short recess?
  4. Ask big picture questions? 6yr olds typically ask big picture questions such as, “Why does the sun set?”. Don’t get so bogged down in detail that you forget to ask the big picture questions.
  5. Don’t get overly upset about mistakes: What child doesn’t make countless mistakes while learning to walk? If we gave up after each failed attempt, we’d all still be crawling. Why do we get so upset about one-time mistakes that are essential to long-term success in the workplace? My philosophy is, “Mistakes are good; a trend of the same mistake is not.”