Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
Teaching Kids to be Financially Savvy in a COVID World and the Digital Future
Excerpts from article by Alberto Macciani published in Finextra
The COVID-19 pandemic upended economies and communities worldwide, and unfortunately, the financial implications stemming from the outbreak are expected to last for years as unemployment numbers rise and markets continuously fluctuate.
On a personal level, the coronavirus has made it difficult for many parents to maintain a sense of financial normalcy in the home.
While moms and dads have worked hard to make ends meet and disguise any financial turbulence over the past several months, their childrens’ brains are like sponges, and they are picking up on money management habits intuitively.
According to behavioural research produced by experts at Cambridge University, kids start grasping basic money concepts by age 3, and by age 7, many of their money habits are already set. Then, as they grow into young adults, children continue to learn through their parents’ examples as well as outside influences, such as media and friends.
While it’s always important to teach children about making good economic choices, it’s especially critical during economic recessions like today’s, as such an impressionable time in their lives will shape how they spend and save money for years to come.
Doing so in today’s digital world, however, means parents must go beyond piggy banks and coins to teach their kids about money management. Instead, they should encourage today’s digitally native youth to manage everything from their allowances to their first paychecks where they already spend 30% of their day — i.e. screens.
Making Digital Dollars & Sense
Digital money has rapidly overtaken cash in recent years to become the main way that people hold, spend and send their money on a global scale.
Unlike their parents and grandparents, learning to manage money digitally should come naturally to youth, as they’ve grown up in a world filled with websites, gadgets and apps. Digital tools, like mobile apps and educational games, can help instill financial literacy and build a solid foundation in money management concepts before reaching adulthood.
Below are ways that parents can introduce technology in order to teach kids – from toddlers to teenagers – positive (digital) spending habits.
- The Early Years: Introducing Essential Money Concepts
It’s a good idea to start introducing kids to basic concepts around money as soon as they start counting. This will help them both to understand that numbers have important applications in everyday life, as well as making them comfortable with the concept of money at a young age.
- Adding Up to Success for Adolescents
A major part of the learning process for children – particularly from a young age – is making education fun. This is best done by creating games-based scenarios, which will bring an extra layer of interest, engagement and competition to the learning environment, and help distinguish the exercise from schoolwork. Similar to how previous generations learned from classic board games like Monopoly, digital games gamify the money management learning process via smartphone apps and computer games.
- Teaching Teenagers Money Management with Tech
By the time children reach their teenage years, they often crave independence. Many of today’s banking apps and digital money wallets give teenagers the power to make their own decisions, which is crucial for their financial development, while also allowing parents to keep a watchful eye over their financial activities.
Career
Good Leadership is an Act of Kindness
Excerpts from article by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson published in The Forbes
“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” —Henry James
A number of students are keen to know how to lead in a time of great uncertainty and unprecedented employee stress.
From bolstering remote collaboration to scheduling meetings upon meetings, the business press and bloggers are buzzing with guidance about ways to sustain employee engagement and productivity in the chaos of a pandemic. Unfortunately, most Management 101 advice does not recognise that in times like these, the manager’s toolkit must expand in ways we haven’t seen before.
I believe that a powerful, fundamental leadership strategy is being largely overlooked. It is, in fact, the most innately human one: Be kind.
According to a recent Gallup survey, less than half of employees (45 percent) feel strongly that their employer cares about their well-being. Many realise that this needs to change. Practising active, habitual kindness can transform the remote workplace and it can start today. A little reassurance, compassionate listening, a conscious effort to validate people’s fear and confusion all go a long way.
Unfortunately, the notion of kindness in the form of the simplest words and gestures often gets lost when CEOs and managers are in perpetual crisis management mode, struggling with layoffs, remote work technology, market woes, and a range of other frustrating disruptions.
While confronting these challenges requires time and unique skill sets, kindness does not.
Kindness is teachable
Kindness is teachable. Ritchie Davidson of the University of Wisconsin has compared practising kindness and compassion to weight training: “People can actually build up their compassion ‘muscle’ and respond to others’ suffering with care and a desire to help,” he said.
We’ve seen how stress can alter behaviour. It’s jarring for managers to see normally calm, high-functioning employees show signs of confusion and burnout. Teams are failing to meet deadlines and executives tell me they see an increase in petty conflicts and a parallel pandemic of short tempers, exposed nerves, and increased sensitivity to perceived slights.
It’s important to remember that kindness is contagious as well as calming. And it is healing.
Acts of kindness activate the part of our brains that makes us feel pleasure and releases a hormone called oxytocin that helps modulate social interactions and emotion. Being kind is good for our own and our employees’ mental health. And that translates to improved morale and performance.
Here’s what Psychology Today had to say about kind bosses: “They have been shown to increase morale, decrease absenteeism and retain employees longer. Kind bosses may even prolong the lives of their employees by decreasing their stress levels which improves cardiovascular health.”
What can we do?
- “I hear you.” Really listen. Be fully present and don’t judge. Encourage employees’ questions and concerns. Listen actively—no side glances at the phone.
- “Are you okay?” Show a willingness to provide comfort and monitor for signs of distress such as social withdrawal and poor performance. Know when to refer an employee to professionals.
- “What can we do to help?” It may be as simple as validating an employee’s personal challenges during the pandemic. But being kind might also involve taking an active role in offering mental health resources or creating a virtual support group or sounding board.
- “How are you managing these days?” Some companies are creating deeper insights into the specific situations their workforces face by surveying home workers. According to the MIT Sloan Management Review, what they’ve found is that being single and working under quarantine alone carries a very different set of stresses than being a member of a working family with young children.
- “I’m here for you.” Let your employees know routinely that you are there for them when they need to share concerns or simply require a sympathetic, nonjudgmental ear.
- “I know you’re doing the best you can.” This statement is, with few exceptions, true. In scores of first-person accounts and on social media, people are reporting they are working harder than they did pre-COVID. This makes perfect sense; as layoffs and furloughs skyrocket, employees live in fear of losing their jobs. In times of crisis, bosses must alter their expectations.
- “Thank you.” Say it with sincerity and say it often.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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Awesome article! Kindness goes a long way in keeping ones employees loyal, and motivated.