Business is Child's Play

Bite Me

Last week I received an email from my son’s daycare.  He was having behavior problems and was hitting his teachers, and sometimes, even biting them.  The daycare assured me that this is normal behavior for a 2-year old and not to be concerned.

Not be concerned?

My child is morphing into an aggressive vampire and I should accept that as normal behavior?  I was certain they were going to kick my stubbornly violent baby out of daycare.  Would he be the first toddler ever expelled from circle time?  A future behind bars was all I could think about.  Much to my surprise the daycare suggested transitioning him to the Preschool classroom.  They find that when children become bored ,and aren’t challenged, they tend to act out.

Their solution made so much sense.  Heck, as an adult if I become bored in my work I act out in my own way.  I become irritable, cranky, negative, and even imagine slapping people.  Are there people on your team that always cause problems?  Do you have co-workers that sabotage projects and participate in destructive gossip?   When we’re not challenged we become complacent.  We meddle in other people’s business, ultimately picking fights.  If our projects seem unimportant to the overall value of the company we don’t put effort into them.

When these issues arise it may be beneficial to evaluate the stimulus level of the problem individual.  What was the person hired to do, and how does this equate to the work they’ve been assigned?  What objectives has the resource set for themselves and what can you do to help them meet those goals?  Do they like their job, and do they like the company they work for?  As a manager or team lead you can influence project assignment but corporate culture is typically beyond your power.

Perhaps the outcome of this assessment is that a vertical, not lateral, move is necessary to stimulate employee development.  Just like my son, we can’t hold someone back when their expectation is to grow and learn.  If we don’t offer the opportunity to move up then we could end up with some serious bite marks.  How do you stimulate restless employees?

Post By Marilyn Cox (75 Posts)

Marilyn Cox is the Director of Marketing Communications at Cincom Systems. She is responsible for the marketing communication and content strategy as well as sales enablement. She manages technical writing, education development, translation services, copywriting, and graphic design resources. She also manages large scale marketing campaigns, website initiatives, and the Eloqua strategy. Marilyn is a PMP certified project manager responsible for the development of project management processes, integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management. Marilyn received her degree in Political Science from The Ohio State University and is the author of BusinessisChildsPlay.com. She classifies herself as a left brain mind living in a right brain world. Her focus is content development to enable and align marketing and sales strategies. While not geeking out over marketing analytics she enjoys Ironman training in solitude and Ironmom conditioning with her two children.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 7th, 2011 at 8:30 pm. It is filed under Employee Development, Featured, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.