Friend: Ajay, Im leaving a little early today.
Ajay: All okay?
Friend: Not in the best of my spirits. Frequent fights with my teenager.
Ajay: Want to talk?
Friend: What to say I was raised as an entitled male. But Im no longer one. And Im trying to be different from my parents so that my son would be a responsible, conscious, and sensitive adult someday, fit for a world thats progressing fast. But he just resists all my efforts. The more I try to tell him, the more he becomes irresponsible at home.
Ajay: He thinks you are trying to control him over unnecessary silly things?
Friend: Exactly.
Ajay: Welcome to parenthood! But also, how effective do you think your communication to him has been?
Friend: As in?
Ajay: For example, the way he sees it, you criticise him for not picking up his socks or leaving his plates unwashed. But does he understand that the issue here is not a smelly sock or a dirty plate? Have you conveyed to him that your end goal is to make him part of a progressive value system and to ensure that he isnt left out in the future?
Friend: Ummm…
Ajay: Try doing that. We are living in the age of business transformations, arent we? Some of them succeed, some of them fail. If you examine the successful ones, you can see how effectively they communicated the vision and the larger goal to the employees. Without your staff you cant succeed. And what motivates them is the knowledge that their efforts would bring about a larger, long term and useful change.
Friend: I get it now. It never occurred to me to do the same in my family.
Ajay: Theres still time. Under-communicating could cause immense damage in family as well as business. So make sure you not only make your life your message, but also effectively pass on that message to those around you.