Since today is Mother’s Day, it might seem odd that I’m about to talk about both of my parents. But, we lost my father a few months ago. This year, Mother’s Day makes me think about what will be a tremendously difficult day, Father’s Day. Thus, I am dubbing today “Parent’s Day”.
No, this is not a personal blog post about grief. I do have a “business related” point to my musing today. It’s about our very first mentors in life – our parents.
We often talk about our mentors – a first boss, a colleague that showed us the way, someone we looked up to and took advice from – in the workplace. But, I think we often overlook our very first mentors. Our parents were our first role models and helped instill the habits we’ve developed and the lessons we’ve learned that have made us who we are in our careers – as well as in life.
It may have been in hindsight, but I came to realize that I owe so much of my professional success to my parents – their work ethic and encouragement first and foremost. They modeled loyalty, reliability, dependability, dedication and empathy. I could go on and on.
You sometimes hear “you just can’t teach that”, but in reality someone did teach me that – it was just long before I was in the workplace.
Happy Parent’s Day!
Submitted by Deborah M McCormick