At TomorrowToday, we’re focused on helping mainly corporate clients to understand the new world of work. We’re particularly passionate about showing people the importance of inter-personal skills, and helping people change their mindsets about the world, other people and their situations. That’s not a marketing proposition – but it is a passion that drives most of us on the team.
It’s no surprise then that every now and again we get an opportunity to step away from the work we do with leaders, strategy, teams and customer-focused staff, and have an opportunity to give input at a more personal level. In particular, we enjoy working with parents.
This is partly because many of the corporate leaders we work with experience significant levels of stress related to their own families and children. But it’s also because we believe there are wonderful things to learn from the roles, functions and skills necessary to be a good parent.
Over the years, we’ve developed a number of resources and partnered with a few experts in this space. Here is a brief, and incomplete list of the books and people I’d recommend in this space (with only a slight apology that two of them are my own):
- “Future-Proof Your Child: Parenting the Wired Generation”, by Graeme Codrington and Nikki Bush (buy it at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net) – aimed at parents of pre-primary and primary school children.
- Nikki Bush is a creative parenting expert, and has a growing reputation as a keynote presenter, workshop facilitator (especially “Parenting on the Run”) and all-round creative genius (she has won numerous awards for game design, for example). See her details at http://www.brightideasoutfit.com/. She is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, but travels extensively through the country, and will travel internationally too.
- “The Adolescent Storm”, by Meg Fargher and Helen Dooley (buy now from Kalahari.net) – aimed at the parents of teenagers.
- Meg and Helen also do workshops for parents of teenagers, for schools and for corporates who want to give some parenting training to their staff. They are superb – see their details and workshop options at http://www.adolescentstorm.co.za/. They are based in Johannesburg, South Africa, but will travel.
- “Mind the Gap”, by Graeme Codrington and Sue Grant-Marshall (buy at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net)
- “Everything I Know About Leadership I Learnt from the Kids”, by Keith Coats (it’s officially out of print, but you can still buy new copies from Amazon.co.uk and Kalahari.net).
- “Like Dew Your Youth”, by Christian philosopher and teacher, Eugene Peterson – an absolutely brilliant discussion/study guide for parents of teenagers. Written from a faith perspective, but broadly applicable. (Buy it at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net).