Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #592

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4 Great Reasons To Take Your Kid To Work
1. Visiting children will enhance their problem-solving skills.
Children learn to solve problems by doing and watching. For that reason, serial entrepreneur and author Jim Marggraff frequently brought his kids to work with him. In his new book, “How to Raise a Founder With Heart,” Marggraff writes, “Unless the meetings are extremely confidential, I’ve found most people are happy to accom- modate your children, so long as they’re old enough to know not to disrupt meetings and discus- sions.”
Allow your kids into meetings or business trips so they can observe. Have your kids on hand as you negotiate and amicably work through challenges with peers. Through observational learning, your kids will pick up tips for working through differences and conflicts. Of course, it’s imperative to keep your cool while problem-solving. That way, they’ll see what type of demeanor is appropriate for stressful situa- tions, and those observations will help them learn to communicate and collaborate effectively
2. They'll learn about a plethora of roles and “best practice” behaviors.
Kids don’t always realize all of the job possibilities available to them. When they come to your work-
place, they won’t just see what you do, but what everyone around you does, too. Perhaps your career path doesn’t line up with your son’s or daughter’s talents and interests, but a co-worker’s might.
At the same time, your child will observe the way that business professionals talk to each other and to clients. When your kids grow up and join companies or open their own businesses, they'll emulate the way they observed you acting in professional set- tings. For instance, if you are cus- tomer-facing and have a specific way of welcoming clients to your office, your son will notice. Later in life, he may use what he wit- nessed when working with clients himself.
3. They will uncover the secrets of time management.
Some kids are better time man- agers than others. Most could use a primer. Help your child draw connections between what she needs to achieve and the time allotted for the task by explaining your own time management sys- tem.
Share your handwritten planner or online calendar with your daugh- ter when she comes to your work- place. If she's older, talk about higher-level planning techniques, such as blocking out sections of
time to avoid distractions. All kids can use helpful hints to better manage their own growing to-do lists as they advance in school.
4. They will learn the importance of balancing work and life.
Robert E. Kelly, an associate pro- fessor at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea, gave us all a humorous reminder of how challenging work-life bal- ance can be when his 4-year-old walked into his home office while the BBC was interviewing him via Skype. Every working parent gets off-balance from time to time, especially when big deadlines are on the horizon or urgent matters require immediate responses. And as Kelly’s interview vividly demon- strated, parents who work remotely have unique challenges maintaining that balance.
Kids don’t always understand why work sometimes takes priority. When your children see your office and learn what you do all day, they begin to have a better sense of why you have to work late some nights or go in early. By talking with your kids about the way you try to achieve work-life balance, you can give them a head start on creating boundaries themselves when they go off to college or start their career.
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