Gone fishing

Avete atque salvete, amici

And for those of you who believe that Cicero might make up these Latin flourishes, how can you even think that, the above means ‘hail and welcome, my friends’. Check Cicero’s use of his native tongue and leave a note if you find Cicero to be wrong.

Before spreading this week’s words of wit and wisdom, Cicero has been asked for an update on the lifts in his Top Secret State Bunker where each and every day Cicero stands on the wall twixt freedom and anarchy, holding back the tides threatening to overwhelm democracy and civilisation as we know it. Well, despite the importance of my mission, we have singularly failed to maintain a full quota of functioning lifts for past few weeks. Last week two out of our three lifts failed to, well, lift or elevate. And a lift which does not elevate is just a box. It is not good. Still if it helps reduce or limit the budget deficit who is Cicero to complain.

Last week Cicero was in conversation with one of his incredibly talented team and I say and highlight this should some of my incredibly talented and experienced team be reading these fine words, who told me that she felt that her team thought she was letting them down and that they were not getting the answers from her they thought they were entitled to.

On hearing this Cicero set to work to help the incredibly talented (same reason as above applies when this is said) manager seeking help and support and guidance from the Wise One.

To cut an incredibly long, complex and detailed story short, Cicero’s advice was pithy and precise and was to encourage said manager to respond to requests for help from team members by asking them what they would do if she wasn’t around.

This is an incredibly powerful trick.

It is amazing how many of us know exactly what to do, know the right answer, know the correct course of action to take, if we are encouraged or obliged to take responsibility. Believe me our people don’t need as much help, guidance and support as they seem to think they might or, and this is equally important, we as leaders think they might need.

Now this might come as a shock but as leaders we are not indispensable. Nor do we have a monopoly of wisdom. And more times than not we think we have to add value, to dispense wisdom, to provide the right answer. Too often our suggestions are interpreted as instructions for others to follow. And instead of adding value we destroy it. Our people don’t grow and develop. We undermine confidence. We disempower. Not good for our people or our business.

Someone wiser than me, if you can believe that, once said ‘feed a man a fish and you feed for him a day but teach a man to fish and you feed for him life’. Helping and supporting and encouraging people to find answers for themselves works in same way.

And one other point to consider before I let this topic drop. How many of the decisions your people might make will cause a major problem if they get it wrong? Damn few I would posit. Surely there is more value in encouraging them to learn and grow and develop.

And so next time someone asks you for help, instead of giving them what they want, give them what they need and encourage them to find the right answers, challenge them to tell you what they would do if you weren’t around. More often than not they will be right. And know what, you have just taught them to fish. I leave these thoughts with you.

Is it only me?

This week I want to talk garages and cars. And I would like for us to ponder two points.

My first point comes from a very special subscriber who asks why it is that we can drive our cars onto the garage forecourt to fill our vehicles with fuel, a really dangerous substance, I’m sure we would agree, and yet the health and safety gualeiters, in their desire and drive to look after the welfare of incredibly stupid people, believe us to be so incompetent that we are unable to drive our cars into the workshop without incident even though we might have driven hundreds of miles to get to said garage.

Clearly filling cars up with a highly dangerous, explosive and inflammable substance is a competence that incredibly stupid people are deemed to possess and yet driving a few extra yards is considered beyond their and all our capacities. Go figure.

But is it only me who considers the way we buy our fuel a wee bit weird. Not only am I expected to have a point.99 pence coin in my possession should I only want to buy a litre but why do we buy petrol in litres yet fuel efficiency is measured in miles per gallon?

Now I was brought up with gills, pints, quarts, and gallons but to today’s yoof such measures must be as quaint as The Black Death, the spinning jenny and profitable banks. How do we expect them to work out what mpg means? It might only be me but I do think it strange that for most of the time our lords and masters go out of their way to protect and defend the incredibly stupid and yet there are other times when their policies can confound even those with some intelligence. Seems strange to me. Surely instead of mpg it should be mpl. Even Cicero might be able work out how the fuel efficiency of his internal combustion engine on this basis.

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.