5 Steps to developing a child's work ethic!

The modern-day work ethic is a strange conundrum. People are busier than ever, working longer hours than ever, and producing more output than ever, but seem to have a poorer work ethic than ever!

Work is mostly seen as a means to an end, even as a necessary evil. Outside of overpriced HR conferences, terms like calling and vocation are meaningless to the masses whose roles have become completely commoditised. What’s going on?

Many would simply sneer at the classic saying that “a job well done is reward in itself” – huh?! Taking pride in the quality of your work has become an unexpected side-effect rather than a driving
motivation.

How do we reverse the trend? More realistically, how can we ensure that our children develop a positive work ethic? Is it possible for our children to be motivated by something other than money?

Francis Xavier said “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man”. If you evenly remotely accept that statement to be true, then you should be interested in Kseed’s five steps to developing your kid’s work ethic:

STEP 1: VISION

Start by giving your kids a VISION – the answer to “why should I do it?”. “Because I said so”, may get the work done (for a while), but it won’t develop a positive work ethic! Everyone needs to clearly understand the link between the effort they need to make and the positive benefits that effort will produce. Why should your kids work around the home? What skills will they get? Why do they need those skills? What benefits will they get for doing the work? How will this help them now and in the future?

Everyone wants to know “what’s in it for me” – and kids are no exception. And it’s crucial to make sure the vision includes a mix of short and long term benefits .. with a heavy emphasis on short term. If your kids are anything like mine, they won’t have developed a full appreciation for delayed gratification just yet!

STEP 2: AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY

Rather than dishing out random tasks, it can be much more powerful to assign an AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY. For example, rather than nagging my son Timmy to “take out the trash”, I put him in charge of the trash. Anything to do with the trash process became part of his area of responsibility. With a little oversight, I let him decide the best spot to store the trash cans, what time of day he would empty the trash, and even what trash bags he’d like to use.

The idea is that instead of establishing a command-response approach to work, Timmy began to develop a healthy sense of responsibility. He experienced the benefits of regularly attending to his area, and the lows of using paper bags that left the trash cans filthy and full of ants.

A key aspect of using the area of responsibility approach is the introduction of Initiative and Authority. Very quickly, Timmy began to think of new initiatives to benefit his area (multiple trash boxes for easy separation for recycling), and Timmy gets to call the
shots when it comes to the bins – look out any siblings who move the bins without permission.

Mini-jurisdictions of authority are powerful developmental tools for any young child, and give the parent a real-life opportunity to prepare your kids for the real world.

STEP 3: FEEDBACK

Honest feedback is crucial. Encouragement is great, but it’s equally important that kids develop their understanding of what it means to do a “good job”. One of my kids is responsible for the playroom, and at the end of each week I conduct an inspection. I congratulate her for things like cleanliness, and for new initiatives (like adding new paintings to decorate the walls), but I also look behind the couch for any hidden mess. I
want the kids to learn that hiding the mess doesn’t count, and that only cleaning half of the window isn’t as good as it gets. Honest feedback, sandwiched in with positive encouragement, will go a long way to developing a spirit of excellence with your children.

STEP 4: CONSISTENCY

One-shot wonders don’t count. How many times do parents introduce a new initiative, only to let it slip later (sometimes sooner rather than later). One brilliant aspect of the area of responsibility is that it requires ongoing attention. Kids learn that actions of today (don’t bother closing the outside door) lead to consequences later (sweeping out the leaves that blew in overnight). And some aspects of a positive work ethic, like perseverance, can only be learned through the passage of time.

STEP 5: REWARD (tied back to VISION)

Work should be fun! The first reward for work should be the results of the work itself, and that’s why a focus on initiatives and authority are important. When I put my daughter Tori in charge of the playroom, she was excited for a minute, and then groaned at the thought of keeping it clean. When I told her that she could determine the decoration of the room and the music that was played in there, she started to see some exciting opportunities. And when I gave her the authority to make (limited) decisions about what her siblings did or didn’t do in the room, well that was reward in itself!

I also believe in monetary reward for work completed – after all, I’m aiming to prepare my kids for success in a secular world. But ultimately, any and all performance-based rewards should be tied back to the original vision. If you’ve set the right visionary goals at the outset, that will go a long way to giving your kids the right perspective on why and how they work today.