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Saving fish from drowning

Avantika Sinha
Sep 04, 2012

Buddhist fishermen in Myanmar are caught between a rock and a hard place. They need to fish to live but killing is forbidden in their religion. They find a way around this dilemma by telling themselves that they are saving fish from drowning.

We may chuckle, but as managers we often end up doing the same thing when we impose our belief systems and work styles on our team members. According to a Gallup poll only 20% of employees feel that they use their strengths every day at work leading to lack of engagement, frustration and suboptimal productivity. The principal reason for this is likely to be because their bosses are telling them how they would have done it.

It is easy to imagine that if Boris Becker coached Rafael Nadal and told him that he had to be a serve and volleyer it might turn out to be a complete disaster. It’s less easy to see how we impose our own prejudices on our subordinates because, like water is to a fish, our own beliefs are transparent to us.

The answer maybe to start telling our team members what we expect them to achieve instead of mandating how they should achieve it. And giving them a chance to swim in the medium they are most comfortable in.