Will had his first singing lesson on Monday evening. He absolutely loved it and I have to admit I am surprised to say extremely tuneful! I sat in on it and found myself wanting to sing too! (Don’t worry, for all those that have heard me on karaoke, I’m not going to!)
On the way there, we were discussing the singing further, and I learned that one of the reasons that he wants to be able to sing, is so he can sing and play his ukulele (He got one for Christmas). Which led the to the obvious question, ‘Do you want ukulele lessons too?’ His very sensible reply was ‘Not just yet.’
It made me think about how Managers are encouraged to develop their team members, and how important noticing people’s strengths are and building on them. But also, how Managers sometimes get carried away and try and put too many responsibilities on people too fast once they see that they have potential.
Personal development planning is not an annual thing. It should be done all the time, not just at an annual appraisal. New Year’s resolutions should not be an annual thing. If you decide you want to do something to improve in February, do you really wait until the following January to do it?
Developing our children is something that we do without noticing, sometimes we are good at it, other times we might miss things and sometimes we try and push them too hard. If we are aware of this, we can manage things better.
Oh and don’t worry, about the karaoke? I’m going to stick to rapping only!
TIPS:
- It’s important to acknowledge and build on the things that your child shows interest in
- Strengths are something that people like, not necessarily what they are good at
- If they like it, they will work harder at it and therefore get better at it
- Find out the reason they are interested in something – it might lead onto something else
- Don’t throw too much at them at once – they are children, they should be enjoying everything they do
- Understand your own limitations too!
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