SHIFU: But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung!
OOGWAY: Maybe it can. If you are willing to guide it, to nurture it. To believe in it.
SHIFU: But how? How? I need your help, Master.
No, you just need to believe. Promise me, Shifu. Promise me you will believe.
SHIFU: I… I will try.
Kung Fu Panda
Your subordinates are constantly selling you their inability to do something they have never done before, and you are constantly buying into it. Moreover, most managers categorically do not trust their subordinates to do anything new that goes beyond their duties and skills. They even hire people “with experience.” At the same time, everyone repeats the mantra that “people need to be given the opportunity to grow.” But how to do that? Few people think about it, and they assume that growth consists of further honing existing skills.
We constantly hear phrases like “I can’t do that,” “How do you do this?” and “I’ve never done that before” from both our subordinates and our relatives. Since school and university, we’ve noticed that most people “never know how” and therefore copy from the top students or paste from the internet. But, come on, someone has to be moving ahead, right? Some people are making it work!
Why does this happen? Because neither people believe in themselves nor do their leaders believe in them. It’s a matter of faith, not skills. Any skill can only be developed when you engage in the activity for which that skill is needed. To ride a bike, you first need to get on the bike. To swim, you need to get into deeper water. To learn to read, you need to read, and to learn to write, you need to write. We all believe that we can learn to read and write, but for some reason, we refuse to believe that, for example, we can start holding meetings with clients and succeed in negotiations, even if we’ve never done it before. However, the ability to read, write, or swim is more complex than simply listening and asking questions. And the recipe for success is the same in any case—if you want to be able to do something, you have to start doing it.
Once again. We need to believe in people and have faith in them. That’s all that’s needed in this case. If you believe that your subordinate can handle it, they will. If they try to sell you their helplessness, make them stop and simply guide their thoughts so they can figure out where to start. You’ll reap a huge harvest of motivation when this person, to their own surprise, accomplishes what seemed like an impossible task. And if they don’t succeed, they will approach your lessons and advice with a newfound level of interest.
And in general, think about it, maybe you will be…firstWho is the person in your subordinate’s life that believed in them? Therefore, if you want to have a team that enjoys their work and takes pride in their achievements, assign people tasks they haven’t done before, things they think they can’t do, and even things you doubt they can accomplish. Give them these tasks precisely because they haven’t done them yet. Trust me, they will rise to the occasion. They won’t want to let you down.
It is your task to show your people that they are heroes and worthy of admiration, that they can achieve more than they expect from themselves. Of course, one can dream of leading a team of perfect people. Moreover, anyone can manage a perfect team. It’s not difficult, and it’s not an achievement. But perfect people… doesn’t happen There’s no point in striving for perfection. The real meaning lies in finding your role and your purpose as a leader for your people.
P.S. The epigraph features a dialogue from the animated movie “Kung Fu Panda.” It’s the moment when Oogway tells Shifu that he must believe in the panda. Shifu, on the other hand, asks Oogway for help, as it seems like an impossible task to teach a fat panda Kung Fu. Oogway, as a true teacher, can only respond with personal example and refuses to help Shifu, trusting him to train the panda on his own. He demonstrates his faith in his student rather than taking on the difficult task himself. The panda couldn’t become the Dragon Warrior if Oogway didn’t believe that faith is the key issue. And if faith is the key issue, then Oogway must believe in his student just as he urges his student to believe in his own student, rather than stepping in to help. It’s the same closed loop. To swim, you have to swim.