Last night on our way home, we took an impromptu detour to one of our favourite restaurants. Normally it’s somewhere we’d go for a special occasion with the rest of the family but this time it was just me and my daughter.
We sat down and chatted about her week, her upcoming school trip and what we are doing at the weekend. She then asked me how my meetings had gone? What were my plans for IWD? How business was going? Before I knew it, she was giving me advice on not overcommitting myself, encouraging me to do the things I love, and not to take things too personally – all great advice, I needed to hear!!!
Normally I’m the one asking the questions and dishing out the advice. It wasn’t until we got home I realised she had been reverse mentoring me for most of the evening and how valuable her different perspective was.
Often as leaders we convince ourselves that because we are older, more senior or more experienced we ‘should’ have all the answers. But in reality we don’t, so by inviting perspectives from those all around us and showing a little vulnerability, we can gain much richer insights and make better decisions.
Here is the only picture I took (which tells a story in itself) of our empty plates after a delicious meal – as always.
David James Lister can you guess where we went? 😉😋
