A square peg in a round hole

Have you heard this saying?

My son is a bundle of excessive energy that can encroach on everyone’s personal space around him.

He can’t sit still, he talks to strangers like he’s known them forever, he can’t wait to be grown up and reminds me of how much information he accumulates every single day.

I stopped going to in-person gatherings because he would be talking more than the host of a meeting on things he wanted to discuss; never the matter at hand. He loves to share facts with you and he is on transmit.

He’s not my first child, but it feels like I’m going through the parenting process first time around.

I’ve compared him to his peer group and he stands out. It looks like his behaviour is wrong, but it isn’t, it is right for him.

We’ve tried to teach him to tone it down; he just can’t. It doesn’t help that people love him the way he is; but they only get that for five minutes and having to balance that alongside other children can be overwhelming for those other children too. But I can’t stop their interests just because he doesn’t naturally fit in like other children do, or that he doesn’t comply. I need to use his energy positively and balance those skills with others.

We’ve started exploring hobbies that can really allow him to turn up at his best; and he is loved in those settings by other children too. When we have that positive energetic experience, and he meets like minded friends, it makes the next few days so positive. It allows his siblings to see him positively too, rather than a little one that just gets in the way!

As a team leader, allowing our team to show up at their best, encouraging them to use that for the achievement of our objectives is letting them fit where they need to. That’s why it is important to get to know your team to build individual energy, encourage autonomy and enable success to be celebrated and owned.

Have you got any examples of this from your teams? Would you do anything differently?

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