Give a Little, Get a Lot

In my last post I talked about learning and the importance of a dedication to lifelong learning.  Today I find myself thinking about teaching and how important it is.  

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -Chinese Proverb

This is a very elegant way to say teaching someone and passing on knowledge is much more valuable than just doing it for them.  While doing some work or task for someone often fills a need, the greater gift is to show them how to do it for themselves.

I had an employee today who was late getting something to me which is a weekly requirement.  It was not really a big deal, but since we were talking I asked why it was late.  Not really wanting to admonish the person, but understand how it got missed.  I got the typical answer we all might give, it just slipped their mind and it would not happen again.  Since this person was new the company I asked if they had considered setting up a reminder in their calendar to prevent this from happening in the future. They said they had considered it, but since they had not figured out our email client completely they did not set any reminders up.  

This brings me to my "teaching moment".  We went to my computer and I shared the steps to create a weekly reminder with them right then.  This person was very thankful to learn this, it only took a few minutes of my time and I am fairly optimistic I will not get required item late ever again.  Best of all, that teaching moment gave me great satisfaction and helped me get the day off in the right direction.

My new boss often refers to these moments as "teaching moments" and in the just the short period we have worked together taken the time and effort to give me a "teaching moment" when it presents itself.  In one instance, a hallway conversation turned in to a forty plus minute discussion on leadership.  I am sure he had many other things to be doing at the time, but he basically dropped everything to take advantage of the "teaching moment".  I believe for him, just like I experienced today, these are very powerful and rewarding and he like myself would much rather teach someone to fish than just give them the fish.

Go out and teach when you can, even if you give just a little knowledge you will get a lot more back!

Aloha,
Chris