Buenos líderes (Follow this link for a rough translation in Spanish. Thanks!)
Last night I watched a couple of TED Talks by Simon Sinek. One of them is entitled “Why good leaders make you feel safe” and I cannot recommend it more.( Check it here: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe).
He talks about the circle of safety and trust, how trust makes us feel safe, on his own words, “you can sleep at night because you trust that someone in this circle of safety will be looking out for danger”.
He then goes on talking about leadership and how the leader sets the tone. And how the leader makes the people in the organisation feel safe, the leader generates this circle of safety. He spoke about how fear can destroy an organisation form the inside, fear based on the lack of trust; and how when there is trust, all forces and resources are bundled together to generate and achieve.
The part that interested me the most is when he talks about parenting, and how as parents we become the “leader: a person who holds a position of power and how those who lead inspire us; how do we follow them, not because we have to but because we want to – because they inspire us, because they give us a sense of safety, because they trust us and in return we trust them”.
Simon Sinek is a motivational speaker and a business consultant (check him out here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sinek) and you may wonder how on earth I am talking about him and relating his concepts and ideas to parenthood and childhood.
Simple: because if I strip down parenthood of all the subjectivity, it all comes down to be a good leader. Yes, a good parent is a good leader! A child does entrust implicitly and without questioning a parent with his life for several years of his life; a child believes with blind faith in his leader. A parent is the one who makes the child feel safe, who inspires, who educates, who trust on this child, who gives the child opportunities to grow, to make mistakes. A parent is the one who goes around with an iron fist in a silk glove.
The parent is the one who will build this circle of safety and who will watch out for any dangers so the child can sleep well at night (paraphrasing Simon Sinek) and it will be the parent’s job to generate it. And as a giant plus, when there is trust there is abundance of will power to achieve, to grow, to generate and to contribute.
To great parenting, to great leadership; to epic fails and astounding recoveries.
Thank you Simon.
Motherhood. And... 