In a recently published article, Silvia Guarnieri, Master Coach and associate founder of EEC, establishes an analogy between leading at home and leading at work.

According to Guarnieri, many of her clients try to split the working environment from the family environment, thinking that it is a good strategy to be more efficient in both places. However, lots of people develop “labour” attitudes with their families and vice versa, and they are not really aware of what is happening when they do not get the results they wish.

Guarnieri states that family and companies are organizations that exist for different reasons. The main goal of families is to preserve the specie, while the main goal of companies is achieving results. Therefore, roles and behaviours expected at one place and the other are different.

Nevertheless, the skills we develop in each of these places may be useful for the other. The coach says that we can train every skill and keep aware of the role we play at work and at home. The problem is when we do not have a clear idea of the role we play. There are certain behaviours that have the same consequences whether you are at home or at work. For example, there are people who have difficulties delegating tasks or find it unbearable to see their kids become frustrated or fail at something. These sort of behaviours tends to be replicated at work and in both cases it discourages this person’s kids or employees from learning and developing.

Guarnieri states that other issues that emerge with her clients are quality time and setting limits, as few people know how to deal with these situations at work and with their families. She suggests people ask themselves the following questions: “If we are not able to understand that it would be suitable to go for a coffee with one of our kids to show them they have our full attention, how can we do it with our workers? …. When is a boss more caring?  When he/she sets rules and boundaries or when he /she says nothing and a worker is finally left out of the company?”

To read the full article in Spanish click here.