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Regular work+family updates for
HR and diversity professionals.
Childhood heroes: I had quite a few.
Right at the top of the list would be Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg. I reckon when it comes to tennis stats I'm probably in the top 0.5%. Did you know that Fred Perry was my great uncle - a couple of times removed and through a second marriage, but who's counting?
Future champions?
My 8 year old twins are starting to get quite good. They play a lot, and I'm a pretty hard task master - I took lessons from Uncle Toni's beatings of a young Rafa Nadal.
My daughter has a confidence problem. I mean, she's well drilled and hits a good ball, but after a few silly errors the confidence disappears as quickly as a Roscoe Tanner first serve... She just needs to believe in herself a bit more.
If I'm honest, my son is pretty annoying. He's quite good for an eight year old, but Roger Federer he isn't. The problem is that he's convinced he's a million times better than he actually is. Is that a male thing?
Trying to smash the ball as hard as you can becomes pretty draining for the coach / father / hitting partner.
Acing the balance
Isn't there a happy middle ground? You read all the literature on female leadership and it's full of the same two unhelpful extremes.
Not all working mothers are self-limiting, confidence-drained, career failures. Similarly, being told to lean in too far and smash those pesky men out of the way en route to the top is annoying as well.
And... relax
The most famous female leadership commentators are Slaughter and Sandberg, but I actually think Spar is the best. Debora Spar, that is. Her book Wonder Women; Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection is brilliant.
The message is basically "lean in and chill out". It's a good line for working mothers that is unfortunately lost on 8 year old tennis players.
Ben Black
