At a time when many people in Spain are having a very difficult time finding employment, there is still plenty of work for everyone in the home. And as this video shows, with the perspective of time, one can easily recognize the positive impact of raising well our children: industriousness, constancy, responsibility, will power, and the ability to overcome failures are all possible thanks to the unconditional support of dedicated fathers and mothers.

In addition to instilling virtues in children, the parents themselves also develop skills that are transferable to the workplace. In 2001, we conducted a study on management skills most valued by businesses in more than 30 countries. The results showed how the overwhelming majority of these skills can be learned at home in the close sharing of family life (customer service, leadership, integrity, initiative, team work, communication, personal improvement, decision making, etc.) We knew already that the family was a school of virtues, but since then, we could also speak of the family as a school of essential skills for the professional world. In his lastest post Jaime Pereira writes on this subject under the title “Family Business School” (article in Spanish). It’s worth reading it!

Nuria Chinchilla is a professor of the Department of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School (University of Navarra, Spain). She is the Director of the International Center for Work and Family at IESE. She blogs in Spanish at http://blog.iese.edu/nuriachinchilla.