Kindergarten

When I speak to Executives about the importance of empathy in business, one of the ways I talk about that is to say that the same skills that we need to teach our children to stand up in the kindergarten playground with courage to bullying, are the skills that great leaders need to assure we run business with a mindset of inclusion and compassion to our people and the world in which we do business - it takes courage to have empathy and vulnerability. Great leaders have that courage and build great teams that embrace accountability.

My friend and mentor, Brian Black, reminded me of the truth in the book, All I really needed to know I learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum, and sent me that list:

These are the things I learned:
Share everything
Play fair
Don't hit people
Put things back where you found them
Clean up your own mess
Don't take things that aren't yours
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
Wash your hands before you eat
Flush
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
Liver a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day
Take a nap every afternoon
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and no one really knows how or why, but we are all like that
Gold fish and hamsters died and so do we.
Remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word we learned, the biggest word of all- LOOK