I was at a leadership presentation (away from my family of course) yesterday and the presenter said that professional service providers (I happen to be a lawyer) spend an average of 9 “quality” minutes per day with their children. Pretty sad. I expect that might be even less for triathletes. Today’s public service announcement, I guess. I need to do better!
What is the definition of quality minutes? (for example: while one can argue watching TV with your kids does not count as quality minutes by definition, this could actually be viewed as quality minutes depending on what you are watching and what the outcome of it is)
are those 9 minutes per children?
Fred.
One of the many reasons I do not have, and do not want kids.
70% of stats are made up 
As a professional service provider - I’d love to see the definition. I don’t buy 9 minutes unless the definition is very very specific.
I was at a leadership presentation (away from my family of course) yesterday and the presenter said that professional service providers (I happen to be a lawyer) spend an average of 9 “quality” minutes per day with their children. Pretty sad. I expect that might be even less for triathletes. Today’s public service announcement, I guess. I need to do better!
Did you walk on coals after you’re done?
Pretty sure that’s a made-up stat. Pretty common recourse for motivational speakers to use fake data for credibility.
I’m a lawyer as well (in-house) and there are definitely days when that’s the case, especially with my 17 yr old. I leave for work most mornings before they get up. That allows me to meet my boys (12 and 9) at swim practice. While they swim I’m in the stands. The drive home is about 30 mins and we talk most of the time. Then it’s dinner together and we read. Thus, I think I’m doing pretty good with them. My daughter on the otherhand drives, works and has tennis later in the evening. There are many nights that we are passing each other coming into and out of the neighborhood. I’ve got to work on that.
I was at a leadership presentation (away from my family of course) yesterday and the presenter said that professional service providers (I happen to be a lawyer) spend an average of 9 “quality” minutes per day with their children. Pretty sad. I expect that might be even less for triathletes. Today’s public service announcement, I guess. I need to do better!
60% of the time, it works every time
I take everything those guys say with a grain of salt. With that said, there is some unfortunate truth to some of that. Especially as your kids get older. In essence, he said that quality time was actually engaging in conversation (making eye contact, actively listening, etc) and being in the moment (not distracted by TV, iPhone, etc).
+1
.
Oh c’mon Paulo. PT Barnum was right! Why not take advantage of it?
What children?
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”
-Mark Twain
And, another of his lines (I hadn’t heard this one before)
"statistics are like ladies of the evening, once you get them down, you do anything with them!”
Was this presentation a paradigm shift for you? Leading to a sea-change of new opportunities to right-size your life?
Who was the presenter?
Also, don’t you know how much time you spend with your kids? Do you really need a stranger to tell you?
I really think they need to break these by age of children. My daughter is 7000 miles away so our contact is e-mail, phone or skype. I had dinner with my 19 year old son and spent a few hours with him last night after not seeing him for about a week. How much time do we spend with our parents?
No paradigm shift. Sometimes it is good to have someone tell you that you suck at something. Fortunately, I get that a lot.
Another good Mark Twain quote: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
Anyway, here is the speaker’s information (see below). He was actually pretty engaging and entertaining (almost as good as Paul McCartney at the Olympics). I have 3 daughters (12, 15 and 20), plus two girl poodles. No wonder I need a 4-5 hour bike ride on the weekend. 9 minutes is about how much time they want to spend with me anyway!
Thomas J. DeLong is the Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice in the Organizational Behavior area at the Harvard Business School. Before joining the Harvard Faculty, DeLong was Chief Development Officer and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Group, Inc., where he was responsible for the firm’s human capital and focused on issues of organizational strategy and organizational change
I was at a leadership presentation (away from my family of course) yesterday and the presenter said that professional service providers (I happen to be a lawyer) spend an average of 9 “quality” minutes per day with their children. Pretty sad. I expect that might be even less for triathletes. Today’s public service announcement, I guess. I need to do better!
If you needed a “leadership” presentation to alert you to this fact, then chances are you’re already on the failing end of the spectrum. The good news is that you still have your prosperous career to look forward to.
Take a 30 minute bike road with your kids. Not only is it 3x the average “quality time” according to the speaker but you will instill a healthy lifestyle in your kids. Or you can take two days off from spending anytime with your kids and still meet the average.
+1
x2.
He also told me to floss regularly.