The Philosophy of We before Me in Teamwork
Have you ever heard the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?” I’m sure many could raise their hand and answer yes to that question. It’s a pretty famous quote, that has been around for quite some time. Though you know it, have you really taken the time to digest the true meaning? What is this simple quote trying to teach us in life, in leadership?
I think if you dig into the quote, it says a lot about leadership and teamwork, even at a high level. This quote teaches us how to have long standing success in your career….success as you work with others….and success in life.
“Teach a man to fish.”
It is far more worthwhile to teach people to do things for themselves and for others, then it is to do those things for them over and over again. In doing this, you also put “we before me.” Are you following?
Ok, let’s try this approach so you all know where my head is at, if you’re not a fisherman this analogy might work better. Let’s say I’m part of a sales team at work. This team consists of 8 individuals. None of which know how to do a v-lookup in excel. Simple stuff; I know right!?
Building “We” for Success
There are two options but only one will help you build the “WE before ME” philosophy for success.
1.Take all of the teams work and do it for them since they don’t know how. You get all of the glory for the successes but also the blame for the failures. Win or lose it’s all you! Maybe you thrive doing it all yourself??***Spoiler alert**** this is not the answer if you truly want to be following the WE before ME philosophy.
2. Schedule time to meet with one or two teammates to train them on excel. From there they can help train the others. Before you know it, the entire team are excel experts! **This could also be called a force multiplier if done correctly, but we will get into that another time :) WIN TOGETHER, LOSE TOGETHER.
So you picked answer 2. Nice work! By picking this option you are putting the team ahead of yourself and now they have the skills to go above and beyond what they have done in the past. This is for the betterment of the team. We before me!!
If you picked number 1. That’s okay too. We are all on this journey together. Keep following to learn more on how you can do better next time.
Whether it’s in work (with excel) or in life while fishing or whatever the task it’s always best when you have people to do it with you. We were not designed to go at anything in life alone. We were designed to be with others.
1 Peter 4:8-10
Sincerely,
The Lead with Hope Team
