photo credit: carvalho
When people think about children, they tend to think that their minds work in a way that is much simpler than that of adults. However, they are just miniature adults. Their minds work in much the same manner as that of a 30 or 40 year old.
Take, for example, when your child does something of great value or importance, you reward them accordingly by either giving them a larger allowance, a new toy, extra special attention that day and so on. Adults work the same way at work. When they do a great job, they expect to be rewarded accordingly for that job well done. If an employee or child does not get rewarded, the joy of doing a good job or doing the right thing quickly wears off, as Guy Kawasaki stated recently.
The same goes for when your child makes small mistakes or missteps. You step back, let them learn from the situation, and figure out the correct way to go in order to get the right result they are looking for. The same goes for your employees, they will fall from time to time as well as make a few minor mistakes here and there. Rather than get all excited and fretful, stand back and let them figure the situation out for themselves.