What is Birth Order?
What is Birth Order & Double Birth Order Theory? And Why Does It Matter?
Simply put, birth order is your order of birth in your family. In other words, are you the first-born, second-born, and so on?
Each child has a different role to play in their family, and your interaction with your siblings and parents (if you are an only child) shapes who you become.
When there is a space of 4 or more years between siblings, the child gains an additional birth order we refer to as “Double Birth Order”. Large spacing between groups of children creates multiple families within a family.
Combined Families
The reality for many families is that because of the divorce rate, many families are commonly referred to as “blended” families, or what I prefer to call Combined Families.
Combined families have additional intricacies when it comes to determining birth order and family roles as children often experience promotions or demotions in their birth order as a result.
I’ve often heard this referred to as Mine, Yours, and Ours.
Birth Order at Work
Businesses have additional motivation to understand birth order as our work environments often have similar dynamics to family environments. In other words, there are natural leaders, team players and different styles of interacting depending on the role.
Understanding birth order will help you understand
- Why each birth order has its own management and leadership style
- Which employees may make better leaders or team players
- Who prefers to work alone
- How addressing birth order can help ease workplace tension