Yesterday I was reading again my favorite book, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, by Nathaniel Branden. In his chapter about self-esteem building during childhood, he talked about the role of teachers and schools. I found it extremely interesting because it said something that actually reminded me of the future of work and managers:
"What a great teacher, a great parent, a great psychotherapist, and a great coach have in common is a deep belief in the potential of the person with whom they are concerned- a conviction about what that person is capable of being and doing- plus the ability to transmit the conviction during their interactions. " And also: "Children watch teachers in part to learn appropriate adult behavior. If they see ridicule and sarcasm, often they learn to use it themselves. If they see benevolence and an emphasis on the positive, they may learn to integrate that into their own response".
Then the author continues saying that teachers with high self-esteem do not base their classroom control on fear and abuse, but they actually base it on understanding, joint cooperation and involvement. Like this, mutual respect is learned.
Doesn't this remind us of how a manager might wanna behave with his/her team? What if the employees are like children who are looking up to learn from their bosses, just as they would do with their teachers in classrooms? Isn't mutual respect the best answer for this? It has been seen that managers exercise a lot of control and micromanage, and this reduces the efficacy of many employees, who feel like they are not given the trust they deserve.
Furthermore, if children do not see fairness in a classroom, they might think that fairness is not applicable in life. Again, adult employees are aware of the difference between fairness and unfairness, and yet, if confronted with a hostile work environment which only rewards people unfairly, they might grow absolutely careless and silently abandon their mission with the company....
