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Have 2 Year Old, Will Manage

This will probably not be a new thought for a lot of people. 
But if I knew that having a child would have prepared me to be an effective manager, I would have tried to have one a lot earlier. 
Of course, the whole, finding a wife thing, and the timing of that event matters, I'd like to think. 
What I've learned is that being an effective manager in corporate America is not a far cry from being a good parent of a toddler. Here are the things that I've experienced over the period known as the terrible 2's. (I'm still not quite sure if that means 2nd calendar year that your child enters, or if it means he or she turns 2. I feel like my son has been in the terrible 2's for over 2 years now and he's not even 3!) 
Here is my list:

  1. Be clear. Be specific. - Kids take you literally and there is zero room for ambiguity. With my client, you have to practice the very same method of communication. More importantly, you have to be even more specific with team members. Especially if you work within IT. 
  2. Repeat, repeat, repeat / follow-up, follow-up, follow-up - I have an email folder called "Waiting for a response." That thing filled up so fast, I had to stop using the folder. With kids, constantly repeating yourself becomes almost second nature. The same holds true for employees.
  3. Take patience to a whole new level - For those of you that have dealt with tantrums that seem to last forever, you know what I am talking about. Dealing with tantrums has to be done with a calm demeanor and with a voice of reason. The same holds true with emotional bosses and employees. If you get emotional, it just adds fuel to the fire. That can only make a situation worse than it is.
  4. Explain things that only a 2 year old can understand - As people move up in the organization, attention spans wane and details translate into a foreign language. Prepare summaries of issues and important points with the understanding that your boss and employee have a 15 second window of time where  he or she may actually focus on what you are saying. Get your point across fast and make sure you don't say any big words.
That's all I have for now. My son is an amazing kid. If anything, he's going to be a good business person some day. He's incredibly persistent. And he's smart enough to ask his mom and me the same question hoping that he's going to get what he wants out of one of us. Little does he know how much he's helped me adapt to the purgatory known as middle management. 

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