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Managing A Team of 5 Year Olds

For those of you raising children, ages 4-5 are when your child is establishing his or her independence. 

It's a period of reward because you are watching your little one become a person. 

It's a period of frustration because your pride and joy begins to test boundaries and push buttons because he's known you all of his life.

It gets worse when it's someone else's kid. 

As an example, I coach an Under 6 soccer team and one of the kids clearly wasn't listening to me. So I told him to go run a lap around the field. He proceeded to look at me with disgust and sit down on his butt making it a point to ignore my directions.

Fast forward a few decades and being a manager is not any better. 

Direct defiance is replaced by passive aggressiveness. 

Tantrums are replaced by "escalation" to an executive. 

In the world of middle management, you have absolutely no leverage-- just like my situation with someone else's kid. 

It's really up to a company or organization to provide the structure necessary to give managers a sense of control and autonomy. 

Not enough leaders focus on organizational health -- and that's a damn shame. 
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