Leadership’s Future: Helicopter Parents
by Miki SaxonHovering parents, who strive to make everything right for their child, are the global bane of education.
But it doesn’t seem to end when their child graduates.
I receive at least a call a month from managers who have no idea of a polite way to deal with what can only be called workplace hovering.
In every case the parental call was either to
- tell the manager how stupid she was not to hire their kid;
- find out why their kid’s review wasn’t stuffed with glowing references; or
- ask who the hell the manager thought he was to promote someone else.
Managers say that in many cases the parent was screaming and the language used to describe the manager is best not quotable in a business blog.
What in the world is going on?
Many of the parents calling are managers in their own right; I wonder how they handle similar calls.
I could write another 500 words on the subject and not do nearly as good a job putting the point across as does the following (in spite of it being a hoax)—perhaps a modified version could be designed for companies.
Image credit: marshe5 on YouTube
May 14th, 2013 at 1:16 am
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