The Leadership Connection Between Work, Family and Poop Songs
Written by Pete Bowen on January 5, 2020
The WSJ has a must-read article by Jonathan Eig called The Family Delights of Silly Poop Songs with some fantastic applications for your success as a leader at work, as a parent-leader at home, and as a person in life.
Eig tells the story of giving his 10 year old daughter control of the music in the car.
Eig generally listens to jazz.
His daughter chose a series of songs like “Poop in my Fingernails” and “Fecal Matter on My Toothbrush.”
Eig grits his teeth and tries to be the cool dad…
And then Eig realizes that its not about the cultural sensibilities of jazz music vs poop songs.
It’s about a great opportunity to build his relationship with his daughter.
And Eig fully engages it–the poop songs–with a wonderful, unexpected twist at the end.
So, what are the deep connections between leadership, family, work and poop songs?
Memorable Moments & Family Leadership
A primary role for us as parents is to create memorable moments for our kids. That crazy road-trip. The daddy-daughter dates. Holidays. Singing silly songs together.
These memorable moments become anchor points in our children’s understanding of life.
They are foundation for our children’s understanding of human nature and relationships–the most important leadership lessons our children can carry into their families and work.
Memorable moments are your legacy. They are a primary way we gift our children, grandchildren and future generations with stories about life and relationships.
Memorable moments are why we have cameras.
The memorable moments are the stories your children will tell when they give your eulogy.
Memorable Moments and Leadership at Work
And so we come to the wisdom and leadership lessons of Eig’s Family Delights of Silly Poop Songs.
Leadership is the same, whether its family or work. It’s about human nature and relationships.
Leadership is about building high-trust, high-performance relationships with people–clients and co-workers at work, and spouse and kids at home–that help your people and team achieve success and Happiness/fulfillment.
One of the best ways to create high-trust, high-performance teams at work is to celebrate team success and make those achievements memorable moments.
These memorable moments become the anchor points that unite and align your team. They are the foundation for a high-performance culture that inspires productivity and great client relationships.
Memorable moments are the anchor points for your team-story. They help explain where you came from. Where you are today. Where you are headed in the future. And why.
The memorable moments are the stories your co-workers will tell about how you made a difference in their lives. Not because you taught them a better way to analyze data, but because you took the time to care about them.
And many of the most memorable moments at work come not from specific achievements, but from the silly things we did together.
Let’s Create Memorable Moments
Leadership is about relationships–in work and family.
Let’s create memorable moments to anchor our relationships and lives, and establish the foundation for success and fulfillment at work and in our families.
So here’s to songs about poop and armpit farts….
