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One of the big frustrations a leader or employer can face is to have team members or associates with little or no initiative.

This can be not only frustrating but time consuming for the leader who has to take time to show his member or associate every little common sense detail of a task.

Often the employee or team member is very willing to work, but you have to tell him exactly what to do or it won’t get down. He/she never or rarely takes the initiative to do things without being asked to.

Lack of initiative in a teenager or young adult is usually the result of their creativity not being allowed to fully develop during their childhood.

Some of the things which usually crush initiative are:

• Smothering a child. Don’t let your child think for himself ever and they will certainly lack initiative. He/she has learned to let someone else think for him.

  DO give them room to make some choices of their own, and DO leave them to make their own decisions where appropriate.

• Laughing at their ideas and ways of doing things. Your child will never do things exactly the same way as you do. Of course there is a wrong way to do things, but many duties can be accomplished in several different ways.

  If you jeer at your child, making fun of what he/she does, they will soon learn to live in fear of trying to anything without being told to. They will be too afraid to even try taking any initiative to do things on their own.

  Do encourage your child at all possible opportunities.

  Be tolerant of their mistakes and recognize that they are in development.

  If they are doing something completely wrong, gently show them the correct way.

  The key is patience.

• Asking a child to do something but never really showing them how.
  This can happen especially with the second or third child. You may assume they know how to carry out a task and so simply ask them to do it. Also many children (and adults actually) need to be shown more than once how to do something before they grasp it completely.

  Young children are always striving to please the adults around them and so many of them will not ask, but simply look at the task in front of them dumbfounded (I have seen this happen).

  Sometimes they may try to tackle it and then get scolded because the results were all wrong.

  Do take time to make sure your child knows how to complete a duty you ask to carry out. Again, do have patience with them.

• Doing everything for your children, instead of stepping back patiently and letting them do some things. I know, it is often easier to do it yourself, but if you don’t let your children try for themselves, they will NEVER really learn.

  When a child is just beginning to learn a new skill, he/she may be slow in achieving the task and they may not complete it correctly. This creates a temptation to take over and do it for them. Don’t do that!

  Do patiently show them again how to complete the task, and then step back and let them do it.

Did you notice how many times the issue of patience showed up in this article?

Patience is certainly a big key in allowing your child to develop his/her creative skills and initiative.

The development time may at times be demanding, but the rewards will be great. You will be the proud parent of a child who has learned to become a constructive, helpful and creative thinking citizen, an asset to the society around them.

May All Your Relationships be Successful!