Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will
understand.~Chinese proverb
Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand.
~Confucius
While you may be a seasoned veteran that’s now in the manager’s position because you know a lot about your job, there was a time you didn’t. There was a time that the very thought of a new project gave you a chill up the spine.
You’ll almost scream, “Please not another one!” What you didn’t think of is that your boss handed you a very good opportunity to demonstrate your skills. Your boss wants you to soak up more knowledge via experience. And as the saying goes, “Experience is the best teacher”.
Admit it. Sometimes, we are control freaks. We want to handle every bit of detail of our team’s projects. We go ape over mistakes done by our staff and team members. That has to end now.
Observe and Clean Up
If you are a manager and you’d be giving a project to an inexperienced employee you will most likely expect these:
- They are going to mess up
- You’ll have to rectify those mistakes
As the manager, you’d be monitoring your staff’s progress on his project. Your staff won’t always make mistakes but it’s vital for you to understand that letting them slip in order for them to progress. You’d be there to steer them back to the right course as soon as he makes the first slip.
Praise them for their mistakes for they have learned something new.
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[...] Last time, we discussed how letting your staff make mistakes would result in better performance. The same goes for you. Experience is the best teacher and making mistakes gives you a big, “No, I did this last time. I made a mistake. I won’t do it again” sign. [...]