A Failed Vision
I have heard the refrain time and again from parents, "I just want my kid to be happy." Of course, who would not want any child to be happy, regardless of which child belongs to which parent? But a flaw exists in the logic that many parents use to define happiness. For them, parents often define "happiness" as a vague sense of success predicated on where that child attends college, high school, and if you believe Ruth Marcus in yesterday's Washington Post, summer camp. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801375.html)
These parents, bent on some social formula that equates success to college attendance and, therefore, "happiness", drive their children in the exact opposite direction. As they fill the schedule of their child's life, they isolate him or her from people, environment, and the joys of childhood. Because parents are leaders of their children, these parents suffer from failed vision.
I wonder if business organizations suffer from failed vision from this same phenomenon. Do leaders create a vague goal? Do leaders create a goal that contradicts a stated aim? The parent proudly proclaims, "I want my child to be happy," yet that parent acts and demands in such a way that only misery occurs. Do leaders believe their vision?
These parents, bent on some social formula that equates success to college attendance and, therefore, "happiness", drive their children in the exact opposite direction. As they fill the schedule of their child's life, they isolate him or her from people, environment, and the joys of childhood. Because parents are leaders of their children, these parents suffer from failed vision.
I wonder if business organizations suffer from failed vision from this same phenomenon. Do leaders create a vague goal? Do leaders create a goal that contradicts a stated aim? The parent proudly proclaims, "I want my child to be happy," yet that parent acts and demands in such a way that only misery occurs. Do leaders believe their vision?
posted by Henry Plantagenet at 10:11 AM
1 Comments:
Your reference to a child's happiness is interesting. When I think of "happiness" I immediately think of my childhood. Children today do not have "childhoods". My childhood was spent playing all day with neighbors and siblings. Children today spend it being shuttled between extracurriculars in a world micro managed by doting parents. When do they have an opportunity to just be carefree kids?
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