Many people are familiar with the saying, "Give a man a fish, feed him for the day.  Teach a man to fish, feed him for life."  There is truth in that saying for certainly much more than fishing.  The saying holds true with business also.  Whether it is an employee, a partner or a customer, empower the other person or organization to do for themselves can eventually save you alot of time and money.  Of course, the challenge is that it sometimes feels good to have others depend on you.  Plus, it takes much more time to teach someone to fish than it does to simply get that person a fish.

I have found that not everyone wants to learn to fish either.  There are some employees, partners, customers and just people in general that want to be given fish.  They like to buy fish at the market and don't want the messy aspects of fishing themselves.  Perhaps that's not so bad?  Perhaps there is a need for some people that just go to the fish market for fish.  Maybe not everyone was designed to be a fisherman.

In addition, I have found that there are some people and organizations that are better fishermen than me.  They are eagles when it comes to fishing.  Even if I am very good at fishing with a pole, I just can't compare to the skill and capability of an eagle when it comes to fishing.  If I tried to teach the eagle my way of fishing, I fear I would only do the eagle an injustice.  He/she would be much worse at fishing if my approach to fishing was used.

Enough of the fish stories...what's my point?  My point is that I need to be ever aware of the behavior and desires of the people and organizations with which I work.  If someone (an employee, a partner, a customer or someone/something else) is interested in just being given leads, direction, information, guidance or whatever, and has no desire to learn to do it on his/her own, that's their choice.  I then need to decide whether that behavior is going to meet my needs.  if it is, I need to be prepared to simply to "take that person to the fish market each day."  In other words, I should plan on giving the direction and resources that person needs time and time again.  I just need to give that person what he/she needs quickly so I can use my time to get other things done.

The person or organization that is interested in learning to fish needs coaching.  This is where I should spend the majority of my time.  I should be able invest time now to get rewards later.  Teaching and mentoring are time consuming, but should have a payback in the future.  I need to be vigilent in putting a strong investment into those willing to learn and expecting a better return.

Then there are the eagles.  These folks just need me to get out of their way.  I have a desire to spend my time with them because they produce results and I want to be a part of that.  But the reality is that they will produce results whether I help them or not.  I just need to make sure they have what they need and get out of the way.

The challenge is that the people that want to be given fish and the eagles can quickly consume all of my time if I am not careful and the ones that need to learn don't get any of my time.  Proactive business managers and channel account managers are deliberate about giving dedicating time to teaching the ones that have the capacity and interest to learn while minimizing time invested in the ones that succeed anyway and the ones that can suck up time trying to get more free gifts.

William Vanderbilt

+1 630 343 6261

WVanderbilt@InnovativeLearningChannels.com