How to Raise Your Child to be A Success In Business

It’s very exciting to really find your niche.  You know the idea that we shouldn’t be generalists, but should niche down into a specialty area that represents our passion.  Only, you’d think that would be easy – well I did.  So how come it’s taken me decades to finally feel – YES! THIS IS IT!  Someone smack me for taking so long.  And yet, in a way, I couldn’t have found it sooner, because I was still stepping on the stones that were leading the way.

What am I going on about?  Well, for years my number one priority between my coaching, training, writing and public speaking work has been…none of the above.  Not that it wasn’t dear to me.  But being a mother topped it all.  Quite right too.  But then I found that my interest in finding the tools to communicate well with my er, challenging and spirited children, tied completely into my NLP work and all my other interests.  Thus, I started running Parenting Strategy Groups and produced my first E book:  Parenting By Stealth (with the subtitle: because ‘do as I say because I say so’ doesn’t work any more!) Aint that the truth!

And then I was asked to be involved in a project with local authorities, wanting to bridge the large gap that employers complained about – that the school leavers were often ‘not fit for purpose’.  Yikes.  This was to do with the youngsters’ general inability in the area of interpersonal skills, ie communicating with confidence, showing initiative, being able to be a team member, taking criticism, presenting information clearly etc etc.    Ah, but then I had a son leave University and became aware of the problems facing graduates too.  300 graduates after one job?  Almost none in my son’s year getting work in their chosen field (he was one of the ‘lucky’ ones but went abroad to find this work)..and so on.

There’s a crisis!  It’s not going to ease up either.  Jobs are scarcer and even if you’ve cadjoled your child into the hardest of work and a first class degree – there’s still no guaranteed work at the end of the line.  We just can’t keep spinning that lie.  The old ‘guaranteed’ route to a great working life has evaporated.  The reality is that neither university nor school are positioned to act as grooming for the employment agencies.

So that’s where we parents had better step in and change what we’re doing in our part of the equation!  We need to nurture the skills that will enable our kids to become superstar employees or awesome entrepreneurs.

We’re going to have to foster the soft skills and all the traits that employers want.  We have to take the time to truly listen to our children and let them set out their thoughts and arguments to prove their points.  We’ll need to fill up their confidence and self-esteem troughs without it turning into arrogance.  And we need to stop solving their problems but instead, supporting their own endeavours to solve them for themselves.  We also have to make it safe for our younger children to fail and for us not to finish all their homework and coursework for them.   Our pride was at stake, our intentions were good – but our children never learned their own deadlines or consequences when we did that.  Blast.  Guilty as charged.

So the book is being crafted and it’s beginning to write itself as I tap into my passion.  But if you have thoughts for my new book as an entrepreneur, employer, educator, youth or parent – let me have them.  I don’t think this book is a minute too soon in the current economic climate – so excuse me, I’ve got an imminent deadline to meet!

I love my work as a trainer (particularly in communication skills, public speaking and network presentations) but right now I’m very excited about my forthcoming e-book:

PARENTING BY STEALTH (because DO AS I SAY BECAUSE I SAY SO doesn’t work any more!)

Click here too, for more info about PARENTING BY STEALTH plus  Launch Details re the forthcoming e-book: Parenting by Stealth – packed with creative tools for the parenting tool box.

However, in the first place, perhaps I should point out the obvious:

I am not a perfect parent.    Sigh!

My children (two creative, spirited lads currently aged 25 and 20) think it’s hilarious that I ‘dare’ to tell other parents how to parent, when they clearly think I’ve made loads of massive errors in that department! And they’re probably right. So I’m not going to tell anyone how to do anything but instead, present to you some creative strategies that may well prove to be most interesting and useful tools for your parenting tool box. And we can never have too many of them!

I’ve called it Parenting by Stealth because, if you have sassy, quick-witted, eloquent, technologically-able children – who may well be cleverer than you (our oldest can certainly out-argue us any day of the week!)…then traditional ‘Do As I Say Because I Say So’ methods, won’t cut it any more. This generation do not respect their elders just because they ‘ought’ to (even the tiny children!)…they know their own mind and aren’t afraid to express it – and that’s how one of our boys ended up with 26 detentions given to him in just one week at school!!

Apparently Stealth Parenting is also a modern term for performing childcare duties whilst pretending to be at a business meeting or other work-related function.  Ah – if you’re looking for info or a book on that…this isn’t it! This is about finding creative ways to provide guidance, support and sometimes boundaries…without it being a win-lose situation and maybe without the kids even noticing that that is what you’re doing.

So, if you’ve tried all the ‘old methods’, the ways that maybe worked (or maybe didn’t) on you as a youngster….then read on for some new tools for your tool box to help guide our amazing youngsters through the minefield of growing up.

For excerpts from the forthcoming e-book: Parenting By Stealth, click here and scroll down.    I’m running a course on Parenting Strategies in November too which might be of interest.   However, in the interim – I do hope you like the radio show!   I haven’t heard it myself yet (except when it came out of my mouth!) so I’ll be interested to listen in too!